Cheshire East Council is urging people to share their views on the latest proposals to boost cycling and walking in the town.
The council wants to hear your views on proposals for a new active travel project Manchester Road in Wilmslow and Handforth and Manchester Road in Tytherington. These two schemes secured the most support during the first round of consultation.
The proposals for Manchester Road, Wilmslow and Handforth have been revised and developed following feedback from consultation last year. It will provide a connection with the walking and cycling route between Wilmslow railway station and Alderley Road and proposes a reduced speed limit.
The proposals aim to tackle issues such as vehicles parking on the footway and cycle lanes along Manchester Road, provide safe integration between cycle facilities and bus stops, protect access to properties and improve pedestrian crossing points.
Currently the advisory cycle lane is often blocked or obstructed by parked cars. This creates a hazard for pedestrians using the footway, cyclists who are forced to cycle out into the road, and residents accessing their driveways. Additionally, crossing Manchester Road near Styal Road can be difficult, particularly during rush hours.
Cheshire East Council is proposing to install mandatory cycle lanes between the Styal Road and Station Road junctions and provide better segregation between motor vehicles and cyclists. In response to the previous consultation, this proposal has a reduced number of bollards and includes low-level separators (also referred to as orcas / armadillos).
Vehicles would not be permitted to park on the cycle lane but breaks in the bollards and low-level separators (see visualisation 1 above) will allow access to side roads, residential properties and businesses.
The speed limit will be reduced from 40mph to 30mph between the Bulls Head Pub and Copperfields to make the route safer for all road users including pedestrians and cyclists.
Additionally the Council proposes to upgrade the current pedestrian island crossing point near Dean Drive and Styal Road to a Zebra crossing. The proposed crossing point near Styal Road will also feature a cycle crossing point. There will also be a new shared footway/cycleway on Manchester Road between Styal Road and the crossing point (see visualisation 2 above).
The bus boarders proposed previously have been replaced with bus stop bypasses for cyclists but where bus stop bypasses cannot be provided, there will be a break in the cycle lane to allow buses to stop and for passengers to get on and off the bus. The bus stop bypasses include:
A cycle track running behind the bus stop protected from motorised traffic.
A pedestrian crossing point across the cycle track between the footway and bus stop.
A boarding area where people get on and off the bus.
Councillor Craig Browne, deputy leader of Cheshire East Council and chair of its highways and transport committee, said: "This latest consultation is important for shaping the next active travel schemes in the borough.
"We know that people's travel behaviour has changed during the pandemic – and Cheshire East Council wants to lock-in and extend the benefits of more walking and cycling.
"I encourage people to engage with the online consultation and take just a few minutes to share their views on the proposals. Public feedback will help us get the proposals right.
"We will continue to work with our town and parish councils, local communities and stakeholders to develop and refine proposals before anything is built."
Subject to the outcomes of consultation, the scheme is expected to be delivered in summer 2022.
The budget for these proposals (along with the scheme for Manchester Road in Tytherington) is available since the council secured £588,000 of Department for Transport funding for a second phase of active travel projects.
The consultation ends on 18 February 2022.
To find out more and complete the online questionnaire visit: https://cheshireeastactivetravel.commonplace.is/
Visualisation 1 - Manchester Road Wilmslow Bus Stop Bypass
Visualisation 2 - Manchester Road Wilmslow Parallel Crossing
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Existing pavements broken, hedges growing over pedestrian areas forcing people to walk into the road.
Cars are parked across bike lanes and pavement areas, more pedestrians , young mothers, old people like me , on the road again.
Cars parked on local grass verges …. Tells you a lot about the disrespectful character of the owner.
(Nobody ever seem to do anything about these parking violations ?)
Potholes making cyclists swerve into the middle of the road.
Walking, biking , great , …. Quite a lot to do though isn’t there?
There is a way of reporting road problems https://fixmystreet.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ to CEC; I've no idea how well it works but it might be worth a try.
Cheshire East Council developed this proposal, applied for the funding and the Department for Transport has conditionally approved this scheme. We now have to go through the legally required consultation process to ensure public support and to fine tune what might be installed.
Therefore, we can only spend this money on this scheme and not on things readers may prefer. However, this also means Council Tax money is not being used to fund this improvement.
Vehicles parked on pavements or grass verges have to block pedestrian access for it to be an offence. Even then, only Police Constables or higher ranks are allowed to issue penalty notices to enforce it. This means our PCSO's and traffic wardens, who routinely patrol our streets are both powerless to tackle the problem.
However, the government is consulting on whether to make pavement parking an automatic offence. This would let council traffic wardens issue penalty notices to offending vehicles and so keep the problem in check.
This consultation closed in November 2021 and the Department for Transport is due to give their recommendation in the next few months.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/managing-pavement-parking
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Wilmslow West & Chorley
No-one has paid road tax since it was abolished in 1937. Roads are funded out of general taxation; you know, the taxes cyclists pay as well as everyone else. Vehicle excise duty is a tax on the pollution a motor vehicle emits, so some cars (electric, for instance) don't pay it at all, but unlike cyclists they still wear out the roads and cause potholes and contribute to traffic jams. Almost every cyclist is also a motorist (the converse does not usually apply) who while cycling has left their fully-funded and MOT'd car at home so are freeing up more road space for your car, John Featherstone.
In law, cyclists have exactly the same rights as any other road user, no more, no less. But sometimes they are denied those equal rights by the entitled attitude of a small number of 'Mr Toads' behind the wheel to whom 'might is right' ("you'd better get out of my way little guy, because my mighty motor car is coming through and it's far bigger, more powerful, and less squishy than your unprotected flesh and bone"). Thankfully most motorists do not display this attitude. Poop poop! Mr John Featherstone.
I agree we need roads to be properly maintained. And if you think the current pothole epidemic is bad for motorists, I suggest you experience it from the saddle a bicycle!
As a motorist you are not a user of a facility that only you paid for and cyclists didn't, but are a subsidised user of a facility EVERYONE pays for, whether they have a car or a bicycle or never use the roads at all.
There needs to be an urgent review of the contractors and their bodge it n scarper way of working imo.
Road tax as called may well have been abolished (or name changed) in 1937 but Road fund licence continued and was not tied to emissions until much later.
Motorists pay VAT on purchase, fuel and repairs, duty on fuel, insurance premium tax (more recently at 12%), Road fund licence (or whatever), parking charges and various fines (often in dubious circumstances and often deserved) into the system and the total is far more than is spent on roads etc so there is a benefit to non motorists not a cost.
However I think that electric vehicles (just wait until we have to dispose of toxic batteries) with no RFL to pay and charging at home on 5% VAT is a colossal mistake only council and gubmints can make!!
I also pay VAT on the purchase and repairs on my bikes, being pedantic I also pay tax on the 'fuel' for my bike. I also pay IPT on the insurance for each bike.
I ALSO pay the same for my cars - although I don't tend to get fines, so scrub that. Perhaps if you didn't drive so as to incur fines, we'd all be better off?
On top of that, I ALSO pay all the non-motorising taxes which are what actually pay for the roads....roads that YOU are probably doing more damage to if every journey is being done by car.
If you want to even the system up, maybe you should pay me (or support a tax refund to me) for every mile I ride compared to drive?
Or maybe you should try riding a bike...it sounds like you could use the relaxation it brings.
I find that cyclists are able to assault pedestrians with their speed and we have to suck it up.
I don’t go out as much as I used to.
On your first point, about the use of cycle lanes. They are usually in a dreadful condition, filled with debris, in a poor state of repair, and often shared with pedestrians (see Marcia's comments above).
There are two kinds of cyclists. The 'pedestrians on a bike, kids/adults, getting from A-to-B, riding fairly slowly. These riders WILL usually use the cycles lanes where they exists, and do so safely. The second are 'leisure cyclists', those out for exercise - usually travelling around 20-25mph and riding for several hours. These riders are better using the roads as being on pavements and shared spaces is dangerous.
Yes, it's a shared path !