Cheshire East Council has unveiled initial proposals for a park and ride facility in Handforth.
Draft plans have been presented for a car park including 105 standard parking bays, 10 disabled parking bays, 8 motor bike bays and 36 bicycle lockers in a field adjacent to Handforth Youth Centre.
The bus turning circle would, in part, use the existing entrance to Old Road and a new pedestrian crossing would allow pedestrian access from the car park to the pavement on the south side of Station Road.
Roger Small, Chair of Handforth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (HNPSG), said "Provision of a station car park in the small field to the east of Handforth Youth Centre forms an integral part of Policy H17 of the Handforth Neighbourhood Plan – a plan adopted by Cheshire East Council in July 2018. It also forms an integral part of an application to Access for All for the provision of a pair of lifts at the station – an application announced as successful in April 2019.
In order to achieve adequate footpath width on the south side of Station Road it might become necessary to narrow the carriageway over the railway bridge, a process that would involve the installation of traffic light control.
A significant fraction of the costs of developing the proposed station car park would be met by monies accruing from the development of the Garden Village at Handforth and with the intent of meeting the anticipated parking needs of the new village.
Representatives of Cheshire East Council held a drop-in session for neighbouring residents in Handforth Youth centre on Monday, 10th February, which was intended as a prelude to the submission of a planning application.
It was attended by several parish councillors along with nearby residents.
Speaking about the event, Roger Small said "Residents from Hereford Drive, expressed concerns about loss of privacy, light pollution from the car park, possible antisocial behaviour in the car park, and noise. However, the council representatives suggested that privacy in the rear gardens of Hereford Drive would be preserved by suitable landscaping and tree planting. Light pollution could be minimised by the use of directional, low level lighting. The likelihood of antisocial behaviour could be minimised by the use of CCTV. It was also suggested that noise could be minimised by concentrating the parking of electric vehicles and their charging points in the north east corner of the proposed car park."
There was also some discussion that, separate from the planning application and following the construction of the park and ride facility, it might prove possible to extend the double yellow line system to prevent parking at the southern end of Hall Road outside St Benedict's church. Possible systems for charging for car park use were discussed.
Photo: The site proposed for the Park and Ride facility. The building top left is the Handforth Youth Centre.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Were would you go to from Handforth ?.
How about another one in Wilmslow on the site reserved for the unwanted and not needed Wilmslow Business Park and a 3rd in Alderley Edge. Create a 5-10minute shuttle bus service along this corridor and make Wilmslow a car free town centre except for through traffic.
Carbon neutral by 2025 in Cheshire East is a pipedream without some radical solutions.
A word of caution. Traffic light controls on a hump backed bridge will need to be pretty smart to prevent congestion on Station Rd and into Wilmslow road from the other direction. At busy times the existing lights at that junction cause congestion, queuing and increased pollution. I think more traffic lights are unnecessary here and counter productive into the bargain.
My only concern is the mention of another set of traffic lights. With the station road junction, another set at Meriton road to accommodate the new estate going up there and at least 3 pedestrian crossings including the one for the school on Station road, the centre of Handforth will be gridlocked
(It used to be four buses an hour, then one, then none...)
The only way to commute to Manchester is to go by train. All good if you live near a train station, but if you are over a mile away, what do you do? Especially if it is raining or snowing?
All three stations need to have a decent train commuters car park.
To park for the day in Wilmslow, costs £7 and if you arrive after 7.30am, all the spaces are gone.
Why are we spending billions on a high speed railway, when the basic commute to Manchester and back, is more and more impossible, UNLESS you drive in. Not everyone wants to do that, due to the increasing danger on over crowded roads.
P Davenport but not Wilmslow, or have I missed something?
If not, and the cost of all day parking is high, then it would not be used enough and commuters would still park on private roads and walk to the station. If this is the case then forget this idea!
Judging by the remarkable 'upgrade' to the Wilmslow Road/Station Road junction last year (or was it 2018....time flies when our local congestion is deliberately exacerbated) I guess CEC must be using the same bunch of planning professional visionaries for this new scheme who thought that one up.
Century plus old hump-back bridge over the main line - within 30M of which on the south side (each side of the station) are two recent residential developments, both with vehicular access points either side of the bridge and now, on the north side, the proposed bus turning circle/parking and pedestrian crossing (and there is another, existing crossing at Hall Road about 50M further along Station Road...) plus inevitable additional traffic feeding from The Sanctury (as yet barely started) residential development/using Hall Road. There will also be significant traffic contribution from the Dean Row Road (another barely started) residential expansion - and it's all coming through a deliberate throttle point over the bridge, where, 100M further on we have the above mentioned junction masterpiece outside the Freemasons Arms!! Yup, that's all going to work just fine.
Locally (over the next 24 months) Wilmslow Road (B5358) will have to handle at least 1000/day additional vehicle movements (much at peak periods) brought about by the residential developments off Sagars Road and there is a recent planning application for a park and ride development at The Hallmark Hotel...
The A555 has already grown traffic density for the B5358 through Handforth - at peak times traffic is bogged down from The Waggon and Horses to the Freemason Arms and I'm sure worse is to come - planning, the asylum's been handed over to the lunatics.
In a similar vein, HS2 is not doing anything for the greater need for decent rail travel. For instance - why are all station platforms about 10 inches LOWER than ALL the trains that stop beside them? In the name of disabled access how on earth has this situation been allowed to exist for so long? When Manchester Piccadilly station was renovated years ago how come the platforms were not raised? There is to be a new platform at Leeds station and I wonder if it will be at a height to allow level access into the trains?
I said 20-odd years ago that Tony Blair's idea for a Millennium 'dome' was waste of money and the £1,000,000 million that it cost would have been better spent on decent public lavatories in our town centres or building a large car park at all stations so that travellers can just drive from home to their nearest and go on from there by train. The bigger the demand, the larger the car park and if required a large high-rise multi-storey - parking fee to be included in any rail fare.
In a similar vein, HS2 is not doing anything for the greater need for decent rail travel. For instance - why are all station platforms about 10 inches LOWER than ALL the trains that stop beside them? In the name of disabled access how on earth has this situation been allowed to exist for so long? When Manchester Piccadilly station was renovated years ago how come the platforms were not raised? There is to be a new platform at Leeds station and I wonder if it will be at a height to allow level access into the trains?
PS: the dome was eventually sold - sorry, given away - for a mere £600m.
I'm not sure how we got there from the Handforth car park but there you go! ;-)
Perhaps the green brigade, referrred to elsewhere on this site, will now take a good look at commuting. Surely the believers will now work walking distance from home and not need carparks or trains.
Richard Armstead. Make Wilmslow a car free town apart from through traffic. My thoughts are the opposite. Ban through traffic especially goods vehicles now we are surrounded by bypasses etc.
Either battle through the roundabouts and two sets of traffic lights from Dean Row; or spend an age dribbling through the centre of Handforth from the Lakeland roundabout (that assumes the road is open and not closed due to flooding!)
The park&ride car park at Handforth is being referred to as "The Station Car Park" which I presume is very near the railway station. I'm not familiar with the local layout of all the references but since it must be near the station lead me on to my thoughts of providing car parking at all stations, so that those going by train can travel the shortest distance from home to their nearest station. This would spread traffic on our roads and ease congestion - I would suggest. I was not a fan of the millennium dome whoever conceived the idea but remember Tony Blair singing the praises and I believe expanded the original concept. I stand corrected that it was set in motion by a Conservative government and in any case was just short of £1bn that could have been spent in better ways - like station car parks. Apologies for the double entry - I type my postings in WORD to spellcheck them and then copy and paste, which must have double pasted for some reason on this occasion.