Return to village life

chorley

Now that the Alderley Edge shiny new bypass is almost complete and ready for action I wonder how much thought and planning has been given to improving the lot of the pedestrian, able and disabled, in and around the village.  

My wife and I regularly visit Alderley Edge as Grandparents and as experienced pram pushers. We have long since realised that this is a place where cars, vans and lorries come first. The volume and speed of traffic through the village and surrounding roads is at times frightening.

The bypass should ease the volume but I doubt if the speeding will reduce. The 30mph limit in built up areas is consistently ignored. 40mph and well over is the norm on London Road, Ryleys Lane, Macclesfield Road and elsewhere - and never a police officer in sight. I can't see this changing much because fewer vans and lorries will leave more room for cars to accelerate. The footways should be the pedestrians safe refuge.

However, many of the footpaths in the area are substandard with worn neglected surfaces. Hardly any dropped curbs for prams and wheelchairs at proper crossing points. No tactile paving crossings. Overgrown hedges which further reduce the already narrow footways.

A pedestrian crossing is urgently needed at the Ryleys Lane/London Road junction to access the railway station. The footway from Chorley Hall Lane to the park by the allotments is a scruffy muddy passage spattered with dog poo. Everywhere on foot in Alderley Edge there is a hazard to overcome.

Perhaps the worst example of sod the pedestrian is in Chorley Hall Lane where the railway bridge has a convenient two lane carriageway for cars but the narrowest of footways. Pushing a pram or wheelchair along this mean strip is a nightmare and a public disgrace. You are forced onto the road and if you dare to obstruct a car you are in trouble. It cries out for a single priority access carriageway and a proper two metre wide safe footway.

The opportunity to improve the pedestrian experience in the village must now be seized without further delay or excuses. The cost would be miniscule compared to the bypass and would make the village a safer place for the pedestrian and might just help restore some of the slower pace and gentler rhythm of village life that could be Alderley Edge once more.

This a member post from Christopher Clair.

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Graeme Simister
Sunday 31st October 2010 at 11:23 am
I agree with Christopher regarding the bridge footpath on Chorley Hall Lane, which is extremely dangerous for pedestrians, and particularly the disabled whether physically or visually.

Equally unsatisfactory is the footpath at the top of Ryleys Lane. The overgrown hedges and narroow walkway between the hedge and the barrier on the park side of the road barely allows one pedestrian through.

Pushchairs, wheelchairs etc. find it very difficult to negotiate, and of course pedestrians have no room to pass should they be going in opposite directions.

I cannot agree however with the need for an extra crossing by the station. Surely it is not too far to walk to the crossing on London Road by the Total garage.
Jeffrey Dennis
Tuesday 2nd November 2010 at 9:30 pm
I hope that the "powers that be" are actively exploring the possibilities associated with restricting the carriageway width through the village and using the released portions of carriageway to increase the pavement widths. Anyone who has driven through the middle of Fleetwood will have seen the way in which the now block paved road has been artificially reduced in width by the introduction of projecting "teeth" accompanied by a much reduced speed limit.

Pedestrians and shoppers, whether living locally or just visiting, should be provided with an enhanced, more spacious village environment. This does not just mean less road traffic but road traffic which is actively discouraged from transitting the village by every possible traffic slowing measure within the viilage.

Does anyone know what traffic management measures, if any, are being examined for London Road, South of the junction with Rileys Lane?
June Mcgregor
Tuesday 16th November 2010 at 7:12 am
I should like to endorse the previous comments regarding the dangers of Chorley Hall Lane for pedestrians and, in addition, would urgently request that serious consideration be given to speed restrictions being imposed down its entire length. At the moment this road is being used by thoughtless motorists as something of a race track and anyone attempting to cross the road is in danger of putting their life at risk. This particularly applies to the elderly, children and animals. Are we going to wait for a human fatality before anyone acts?

If Prestbury can impose a 20 mph restriction throughout its main street why is Alderley lagging so far behind?