Representatives from a local primary school attended Wilmslow Town Council's meeting last night as a "last resort", having spent nearly a year asking Cheshire East Council for help to resolve their safety concerns.
Governor Marie Griffiths and Headteacher Darren Morgan of Lindow Primary School addressed the meeting to formally draw the councillors attention to a serious road safety issue that is effecting their school, in the hope that they might at last get some action which they have been asking for for nearly a year.
Marie Griffiths said "We want to make two main points. Firstly, there is a very serious potential risk of an accident on a daily basis to children and parentswho walk up and down Upcast Lane. Secondly, how shocked we have been at the level of apathy from those in authority and with responsibility for this issue."
Lindow Primary School is located down the end of a small country road which is a dead end. Traffic has to drive down the lane and return the same way and, despite it being the main way to reach the school, it does not have a pavement - instead there is a white line that separates children and vehicles.
The school has expanded over the last 5 years and now has over 200 pupils. It also has Wilmslow's only Hearing Impaired Resource Centre and is able to cater for children with very complex needs.
Marie continued "Our expansion has led to increasing issues of safety due to an increase in traffic and pedestrians down Upcast Lane in the mornings and evenings which leads to an unsafe environment for children to get to school every day.
"Concerns are regularly expressed by parents that the chance of an accident occurring is increasing.
"We have put into place a number of initiatives to reduce the amount of traffic down Upcast Lane. Many parents support these initiatives and park elsewhere and walk, but we can only do so much as a school, and now need support and action from Cheshire East Council to make further changes."
The main priorities for Lindow Primary School are appropriate gritting and hedge trimming as well as a speed limit and signage review. In the longer term the school would like to see a pavement extension and pedestrian crossing on Knutsford Road.
Marie added "We have asked Cheshire East Highways Team to help and advise us on what is appropriate. Our requests have been ignored and at worst rudely refused, blaming a lack of money."
Marie Griffiths first emailed councillors Gary Barton and Wesley Fitzgerald on this issue on 9th December 2013. She said "Although Councillor Barton was initially helpful, there has been no meaningful intervention since February. For nearly a year we have been going round in circles emailing and being ignored by everyone involved and having doors firmly shut when we asked for advice from CE Highways."
Marie finished by saying ""In conclusion, we are here because we do not know what else to do. We feel terribly let down by our councillors and the Highways Department.
"Are we going to have to wait for a serious accident involving a child before anyone will engage with us. We have had many near misses, the next one will not be so fortunate, and then it will be far too late. Please help us get action on this serious safety issues for our children."
Cllr Martin Watkins, Chairman of Wilmslow Town Council, responded "I have some good news for you and some bad news. I will start with the bad news. All the items you are talking about are within the province of Cheshire East Council they are not within the responsibility of this council.That's the bad news.
"The good news is that I'm quite happy to take your concerns because we have in the past had a road safety Local Area Partnership, particularly when we were looking at Morley Green Road and the speed limit which was down there. It took a long time to get improvements but we did get some improvements.
"The Local Area Partnership has lapsed but it is being being replaced and I'm very happy to take your comments and bring it to that committee in the future."
He added "We will take it on board. My experience says it will not be solved over night but we will try and progress it properly."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The lamppost is cracked and broken at the top, although the light seems to remain on all the time.
Time to fix the damage before someone is seriously hurt.
Idiots stop their cars on the bypass roundabout because there's a queue of cars already waiting at the school. Sometimes people stay in the middle, and cars coming along the bypass at 70mph have to thread between them.
Why aren't police there every day ticketing these motorists ? If there's a queue into the school, then you Must NOT stop on the roundabout - instead go round and find somehere else to wait...
Wilmslow Park North onto Adlington Road is challenging at the best of times, but again CEC won't do anything and our Cllr lives far away, like the CEC planning committee.
WTC have some good people, but their ability to even change a light bulb is severely limited. I really feel sorry for them. There must be more powers and necessary money that can be devolved, rather than left in the hands of strangers.
So, better safety for Lindow? Most unlikely from past experience. May 2015 elections should help Wilmslow, if we vote in leaders and not followers.
Upcast Lane is a particular challenge as it is an unusually narrow access road for a school. This makes installing a 'proper' pavement difficult without making the road too narrow for cars to pass each other. I have seen the school at dropping off time in the mornings and at picking up times in the evenings. A creative solution is required.
There is, perhaps, a case for some primary children to be driven close to school but the amount of traffic at the High School at tipping out time (just after lunch) is dangerous. As asked above where are our boys in blue who are so concerned with road safety?
For those working in Wilmslow centre check out Grove Avenue morning or afternoon. Road rules are suspended!
I echo others that the relevant bodies should take more positive steps and as a priority experience the situation first hand.
On a related note plans are currently being considered to increase traffic flow on Upcast Lane via a significant development on the adjacent green belt that will utilise Upcast Lane as access – frighteningly the proposal currently suggests that the lane has significant spare capacity for traffic.
As a lot of the parents and Upcast Lane residents have already commented, something needs to be done now by the Council before someone is seriously hurt or even killed. The safety provision made down this road is simply unacceptable, totally disgusting and needs resolving immediately.
With regards to the Knutsford Road death crossing by the local corner shop, that a large majority of Lindow School Kids and residents have to undertake everyday, it is beyond belief that a simple Lollipop Lady, Pelican or Zebra Crossing hasn't been installed over these modern Health and Safety conscious times. There is one further up Knutsford Road for Ashdeane Kids and residents but not for Lindow, why is that ? This road is so dangerous for anyone to cross, due to the speed drivers hurtle down it on a daily basis and an accident is just waiting to happen.
On both these issues URGENT ACTION is required before someone is tragically hurt.
Well done Marie for campaigning tirelessly on both these issues and lets hope someone from the Council finally listens !
Cllr Phil Enstone RoW, is making excellent progress in Dean Row ward on behalf of the community that he represents. So, seems to me that an RoW Cllr for this ward may have a far better chance with CEC Highways than Cllr Barton.
Finally what is our MP doing about it?
@Paul Wilson - I agree that there should be a crossing on Knutsford Road - both in Wilmslow and in Chorley near both ends of Upcast Lane.
Upcast Lane is a very narrow road which makes for a dangerous environment when cars are driving in both directions at the same time as families walking to/from school - cars often have to mount the 'pavement' or breach the white pedestrian line forcing parents and children into the hedges/resident's driveways to allow cars to pass. There is even less room on the road when the hedges have not been trimmed back. Increased traffic also poses a great risk to those children who enjoy cycling/scootering to school.
l feel that while a suitable solution is found some urgent traffic calming measures need to be introduced before the hazardous winter weather hits us. I would suggest some or all of the following ideas should be considered; a speed limit of 5mph at peak times, a built up kerb, speed humps, a barrier to replace the white pedestrian line, allowing access to the school car park from both sides of Knutsford Road. Perhaps a 'Park & Walk' scheme could be promoted to families that are not close enough to walk all the way to school.
Something needs to be done urgently to avoid the accident waiting to happen.
Yes, there should be a pavement to the school, but at these widths, you will just get cars mounting the pavement to pass each other - or squeezing past each other with wingmirrors overhanging the pavement - the average car is now about 1.85m (over 6 ft) wide. I doubt the situation would be that much safer.
The council could offer to replace Lindow Cricket Club's boundary hedge with a much slimmer fence, which might give an extra few cm, but wouldn't change things fundamentally. So I would suspect that an engineering solution is required here. Most engineering solutions are not going to be quick - as somewhere it may require compulsory puchase orders etc. E.g. if you were going to widen Upcast Lane, you'd need to either purchase land of the cricket club, or people's front gardens.
What you could do is potentially try and make the traffic one-way along the narrowest part. That would give you room for a pavement, and at over 3.5m wide the remaining traffic lane would be about as wide as a standard lane on a motorway - plenty of room for cars to be well separated from pedestrians and there would be no conflicting two-way traffic movements.
There'a couple of ways the council / school could achieve this:
* Open up the gap between the two halves of Upcast Lane and make the whole road one-way only - perhaps with a legal "no motor vehicles" order except for access - to prohibit through traffic. The gap is still legally an adopted highway - so the council are already responsible for maintaining that bit.
If that's not acceptable then what about the following:
* A pavement gets built along one side of Upcast Lane
* A passing place gets built in the gap in the houses on the north side of Upcast Lane opposite the cricket club pavilion - roughly at the point where the current pavement stops and where the road currently narrows.
* 2 school representatives control school traffic coming in each direction at the start and end of the day - so that traffic is one way only on the narrower bit next to the cricket club - and
traffic to pass.
* East of the drop-off zone it's still narrow, but wide enough for 2 cars to pass - and there's a pavement.
His constituency office contact details can be found at
http://bit.ly/1wqsDow
I have found that emailing him via the contact form is the most efficient way of getting a response.
Surely he is already aware of the issue as he only visited the school back in May of this year.
http://bit.ly/1rksaB4
However, I do feel the need to point out that virtually all this traffic is parents going to/from the school. Surely the school needs to start by educating parents?
This is not a dig at Lindow parents, it seems to be the same at virtually every school - thoughtless, selfish driving and parking largely because everyone is in a hurry and it will end in a tragedy, whether at Lindow or another school in the local area.
Clerk:
Chairman:
Copied from CEC website.
I can't see an easy answer to the Upcast Lane problem, though continued and regular emphasis on careful driving to Lindow parents by the school can only help. However, perhaps it's time to install a light-controlled pedestrian crossing where the Knutsford road refuge is, similar to the one enjoyed by Ashdene pupils and parents further down Knutsford road.
I spoke to Gary Barton and he was confused over which junction I met (he thought it was the Mobberley Road/A538 junction which is being adjusted as part of the path / Crossing for Waters Corporation - So he knows of nothing being looked at around the Mobberley Road / Morley Green Road junction.
So no action - other than another near miss on the junction this morning.