Following a second assessment, plans to build a new roundabout in Alderley Edge are progressing and draft plans have been drawn up.
As previously reported on alderleyedge.com, Alderley Edge Parish Council agreed to spend up to £1000 so the viability of introducing a mini roundabout - to improve traffic flow at busy times and act as a traffic calming measure at less busy times - at the top of Brook Lane can be assessed.
A stage 1 assessment was carried out in May 2016, following a request by the local ward member Councillor Craig Browne, for a mini-roundabout at the junction of Wilmslow Road and Brook Lane.
The initial assessment, which considered the feasibility of a mini-roundabout and included an analysis of the location, existing conditions, and collision data summary, backed up the justification for a stage 2 assessment to be undertaken.
The second stage assessment report, funded by the Parish Council, has now been published and supports the case for a roundabout at the junction of Brook Lane and Wilmslow Road.
Councillor Craig Browne said "I am pleased that the report supports the case for a roundabout at this busy junction. For as long as I can remember, traffic entering the village from Wilmslow has backed up, waiting for vehicles to turn right into Brook Lane. At certain busy periods, it has also been very difficult for drivers seeking to turn right out of Brook Lane across two-way traffic. Hopefully a roundabout will help to address both these issues.
"As the plans show, there will be some narrowing of both Wilmslow Road and Brook Lane. The Highways Officers are supportive of this, because they believe it will help with speed reduction, as well as making it easier and safer for children at the nearby school to cross the road. The latest estimate for the scheme is £120,000 which I am keeping my fingers crossed will be included in the 2017/18 capital budget."
Councillor Browne added "On a related topic, I have received confirmation that there will be some resurfacing of the junction (which is long overdue), hopefully before the end of January."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I can confirm that a hard copy of the 2nd Stage Assessment Report is now available for reference at Alderley Edge library.
Kind regards,
Craig
is the gold plating strictly needed?
Is the work contracted out or in house? If in house; if it were 'out' to a commercial firm, would the price be as high ?
Any costing figures available in that case please ?
I agree that at first glance, the price does seem high; however, I suspect that something approaching half of the cost will relate to the legal order necessary to close the road whilst any work is undertaken.
Assuming funding is approved (and as yet, nothing is guaranteed) the project will go out to public consultation sometime in the New Year and at that time I will ask for detailed costings to be made available.
Kind regards,
Craig
Serious question - Do CE have their own in-house Legal Dept. or are they contracting out this type of work and to whom?
I agree with Duncan that the cost quoted above is astonishingly high for the work proposed. If (as you suggest) half of it is for production of a statutory order then the operational costs sound more reasonable but the "legals" are to be queried.
Yes, CEC do indeed have their own legal team, based at Sandbach.
As with other highways schemes, the costs of marking out the road are relatively small; it is the legal order that makes the job expensive, the more so in this case, because a road closure and diversion will be necessary.
As a case in point, the extra parking bays due to be introduced in South St, Stevens St and on London Rd were going to cost £4,000 each as separate projects. By combining all three together under a single legal order, I have managed to get them all done for £4,000 in total.
I hope this helps to make a little more sense of the situation.
Kind regards,
Craig
I'm concerned; you and I seem to have been in agreement on 3 matters now.
Have I swerved to the left or are you tending to the dark side?
Craig,
thank you for both the above and for your getting Horseshoe lane included in the road sweeping list.
Will the mini roundabout work ?? Like Bob said .... A good number of drivers don't know how to use them , or drive straight over .
Working in a shop on London Road I have witnessed the speed at which many vehicles drive through the village . It's a wonder there has not been serious injury or God forbid worse . Long term would it be possible to have traffic calming such as that in Prestbury ?
Thanks for your answer above and please don't think that by asking questions I'm (in some way) criticising the excellent work you are doing at CE on behalf of AEPC. On the contrary, I believe that you provide a transparency that has not been there in recent years and you help to shine a light on some pretty gloomy areas of CE activity.
I am genuinely astonished at some of the costs that I see trotted-out by CE for what look like pretty routine functions - costs that many hard-pressed private businesses would challenge most robustly.
There appear to be two parallel currencies in operation - "Tax Payers Money" and "Real Money" and we seem to have lost control of any sort of exchange rate mechanism.