As many local residents will have noticed the village was gridlocked on Friday October 2nd with traffic backed up from the Polar Ford roundabout at Wilmslow right through to Nether Alderley. The jam was caused by a traffic census which had resulted in the right hand lane of the A34 being closed.
Councillor Marc Asquith, 51, from Carlisle Street in Alderley Edge, was caught in the queue whilst travelling to work on Friday morning. Having sat in the traffic jam for 40 minutes Mr Asquith confronted a highways worker at the Polar Ford roundabout and was then arrested for calling a police officer a "f****** idiot". He was taken to a cell in Middlewich where he was released after six hours and served with an £80 fixed penalty fine.
Lawyer Marc Asquith accepts that he shouldn't have sworn at the policeman but told us he became frustrated when it became clear that the policeman wasn't going to do anything to improve the situation.
Mr Asquith told us "I was trying to stand up for the local motorists. We were all stuck in the left hand lane, which is always slow moving anyway with traffic waiting to turn in to Wilmslow. I suggested that the census be moved 200 yards up the A34 so there could be two lanes approaching the roundabout."
According to Mr Asquith "The police officer told me they had now stopped the census having realised it was causing a queue but couldn't remove the cones. I was particularly annoyed when the officer claimed to be keeping an eye on the traffic which he said was only backed up round the corner, when in fact it was stacked up all the way to Nether Alderley. When I asked who had organised this disaster I was also told it was Cheshire East Council which it wasn't".
The census is continuing today on the A34 with traffic heading towards the village being stopped. According to one local resident they had been queuing for an hour this morning on the A34 between Tesco and the Polar Ford roundabout.
The census is apparently part of SEMMMS (South East Manchester Multi Modal Strategy) which is looking in to a New Relief Road Scheme that will incorporate the South and Poynton bypasses in Stockport North and the Manchester Airport Link Road West. Further information is available on the SEMMMS web site.
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As a tax payer, I would however feel I was getting some value for money if the bright spark that came up with the idea of the traffic survey was locked up for a period of time to reflect on whether the information gained from such a survey was worth disrupting so many peoples lives. Especially as the survey responses they gained will probably not be representative of the roads real usage given many people will have taken longer alternative routes to avoid the gridlock.
You can only take on the people who "claim" to be in charge.
That said - not my finest hour.