Following an increasing number of complaints from local residents regarding the driving of high performance vehicles through the village, the council and police have been working tougether to consider the scale of the problem and agree what they feel is an appropriate solution.
A survey was conducted, between from August 13th and September 1st, in order to obtain information from local businesses and residents regarding the nature of incidents, the times the behaviour was likely to occur, and also to collect views on how this had affected the local community.
Councillor Craig Browne explained "During mid to late August, we visited all businesses and the vast majority of residents on London Road and surrounding streets to ascertain the extent to which residents and businesses in the area feel that their lives and livelihoods are being impacted by the behaviour exhibited by some drivers of high performance vehicles (or so called supercars) through the village".
The survey had the highest ever level of response to a comparative consultation carried out by Cheshire East Council.
A total of 1342 responses of which 97% were residents of the village or a wider area
- 87% identified loud revving of vehicles and excessive engine noise as being anti-social
- 78% identified fast acceleration (not necessarily speeding) as being anti-social
- 68% identified speeding as one of their main concerns about these vehicles
- 59% identified gathering of spectators at the kerbside as a public nuisance
In response to the results, a series of actions have been endorsed that have been drawn up in consultation with Cheshire East Highways, including:
- Establishment of a 20mph zone - which comes with supporting physical infrastructure (ie traffic calming) whereas a 20mph limit applies to a single road and does not include any traffic calming
- Introduction of a mini roundabout at the junction of Wilmslow Road and Brook Lane
- Introduction of raised tables at the four existing pedestrian crossing points
- Introduction of other traffic calming infrastructure in the village centre
- Serving of Community Protection Notices by police and civil enforcement officers
These draft proposals are open to consultation in November and then (subject to any changes being necessary) there will be a further consultation on the final proposals in January/February 2021.
Comments
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Firstly, acceleration and velocity are two different things so limiting the maximum velocity does not limit the maximum acceleration. If your car is capable of accelerating from 0 to 20mph in 2 seconds, it can accelerate from 0 to 20mph in 2 seconds if you stop at 20mph or if you carry on accelerating until you get to 100mph.
Secondly, the fast acceleration is what causes excessive noise. It's not really possible to explain this in a comment box, you need to read a book on how cars and engines work if you don't already know this and don't understand why it's the case.
Thirdly, super cars are most likely to get stuck on a speed bump due to the space between the road and bottom of the car being significantly less than with a normal car. This means the drivers will have to slow down to almost a walking pace to go over the speed bump.
So if there's 5 speed bumps on a road the driver of a normal car will slowly accelerate to 20mph and remain at will probably around that speed until they reach the end of the road, subject to there being no obstructions or heavy traffic.
On the other hand the driver of the super car will likely rapidly accelerate to 20mph, slow down to around 5mph (to go over the speed bump), rapidly accelerate to 20mph, slow down to 5mph etc. This process will be extremely noisy.
Second point, Fulshaw Park was inundated with illegal spectator car-parkers going to view the idiots' cars from the Whitehall roundabout - no safety barriers- Fulshaw Park is legally subject to a Fulshaw Park "Prohibition Of Entry Order" (i.e. Access Only). The police who attend seem unable, or unwilling, to understand the simple & plain English of the Order. I have written to the P & C Commissioner with a copy. we await his police authority taking positive action. I've also spoken to Cllr Brown about the two issues- he made the point that Fulshaw was not his ward or in Alderley Edge!! - same cause of problem, same road, was irrelevant. I#ll be making the same point to this myopic survey - the more the better for Wilmslow as it is not simply a Alderley problem as this survey attempts to address.
If law enforcement aren't looking for it or recording it all these proposals are just nonsensical... particular when you look at parking issues... what chance has this got of being effective.. Not much.