Cllr Frank Keegan provided an update at this week's Parish Council meeting regarding the initiatives being taken to improve the parking situation in the village.
Speaking about what he described as dangerous on-street parking, he told fellow councillors that Congleton Road, Macclesfield Road, Lynton Lane and Trafford Road are being sorted because they are potentially dangerous areas.
Double yellow lines are going to be installed on both sides of the road, up to the top of the hill, on Congleton Road as well as on Macclesfield Road, at the points where it narrows, whilst there will be double white lines at the top of that road.
At Lynton Lane, where H bars were recently installed, they are going to put double yellows around the entrances and opposite the entrances to enable the bin lorry to get in and out. On Trafford Road, between Chapel Road and Macclesfield Road, they are going to come up with a scheme which includes double yellow lines up one side and bays on the other side with two or three hours parking to stop people parking all day.
Additionally the residential parking scheme on Clifton Street is going to be looked at, so it becomes a mixed use scheme for residents and retail.
Cllr Keegan said "The priority is getting Clifton Street re-done because it is having a detrimental effect on the retail in the village and we need that sorted."
Speaking about on-street parking he added "In order to address the on-street parking we need to create some parking off-street because the off-street parking at the precinct and South Street is virtually full all the time. Given the medical centre will need more than is available here we need the Heyes Lane car park to come forward so the people we dislodge from all the other places we can put in there on an all day parking basis.
"That gives us the ability then to start looking around the village and put in bays where people can park two hours no return, or maybe a bit longer depending on where they are. But until you get those things in and done you can't go and properly enforce them."
He added "We need to look at a special scheme down Ryleys Lane going into Eaton Drive and the other side, looking at whether we need double yellows on the corners. But certainly we can't do any of that until we have somewhere to dislodge the all day parking."
He continued "Once we get Heyes Lane we can start to address issues like the parking in the park. The LAP (Local Area Partnership) are quite amenable to re-tarmacing that, lining and putting some proper marking in. I said I favoured the early morning drop off and afternoon pick up being free and in the middle some parking for visitors, taking away the all day parking."
Speaking about the cost of these schemes, Cllr Keegan said "Traffic orders cost a fortune, £3000 or £4000 to execute because of the publicity and consultation, so we're making a recommendation that where towns and villages have 106 money we should have the right to say we have a community need for something we'll spend the 106 money. There's millions sitting there and our share is something like £145,000."
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However, the main issue is that there are no give way lines or signs at the end of South Street and no one gives way when turning right onto West Street from South Street as they assume everyone will be turning left. For the many people who have spaces in either of the 10 West street car parks and those going round the back of Waitrose this often nearly results in a crash. Due to the parked cars on the other side, at the very least it blocks the road as they pull out and block the road.
I'd like to invite Cllr Keegan to stand at that junction for an hour on a weekday just to witness the carnage.