An 85-year-old lady has been left very upset when she was told that Arriva bus drivers were no longer allowed to drop passengers off or pick them up from her nearest stop on Congleton Road.
Mrs Mary Fletcher has been walking down to the village from her home at Hazelcroft Gardens for years and usually catches the bus from the village centre back up the hill.
However, on Monday 22nd February when she got on the bus and told the driver she was only going to the first stop, between Beechfield Road and Hazelcroft Gardens, she was informed that the bus drivers have been instructed not to stop there anymore because the sign is missing.
Mrs Fletcher has lived at Hazelcroft Gardens for 17 years and said she chose her bungalow because it was on a convenient bus service.
She said "I suffer badly from arthritis but I can manage to walk to the village occasionally, but there's no way I can tackle that hill on the way back.
"I have a taxi once every fortnight to do my main shopping, but that's all. I can't afford any more. So now I feel trapped."
Apparently there has not been a sign on that side of the road for some time, instead the sign was on the opposite side of the road - outside Woodlands Court - indicating that there were bus stops either side of the road. However, this had recently fallen off the post and as a result Arriva decided that the bus stop could not be used until a replacement sign has been erected.
Cllr Craig Browne said "This first came to my attention over the weekend. I have now spoken with Neil Roberts (Transport Service Solutions) who has confirmed that Arriva are not prepared to allow their vehicles to pick up or set down, in the absence of correct signage.
"He is therefore in the process of acquiring a two-directional sign, which will be located on the next available lamppost (probably the one at the bottom of Beechfield Road) over the course of the next few days. Additionally, I will be speaking to CE Highways over the next few days, asking for the road to be marked out, to prevent this situation arising in future."
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North Western in happier days used to stop at the top of the hill at Whitebarn Road. This was moved for safety reasons nearer to Alderley around 1960.
We also used to have a ten minutes service to Manchester and an hourly one from the Circuit as well as five or six journeys a day to Great Warford and Macclefield via Mottram and Prestbury. Who needed a car then?