Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
Your Lib Dem team for Cheadle West & Gatley Learn more
by Lib Dem team on 23 March, 2011
After our consultation with South Park Road residents via this blog, Pam and I have progress to report.
I had a conversation with Inspector Steve Gilbertson on Monday about enforcement and I’m very happy to say that Steve has now publically promised that police will be on the Kingsway Service Road next week handing out fines to motorists, and that this will not just be a one-off but part of more regular enforcement. We look forward to seeing the results.
We also asked for feedback on a Council plan to make the estate a 20mph zone and put in speedhumps.
As a result of that feedback, Pam and I have also asked for two additional options to be included in the Council’s consultation: one for no speed humps but just a 20mph limit across the estate and another for no speed humps, a 20mph limit and speed tables/plateaus at the junctions of Kingsway service road with South Park Road, Mardale, Lyndene and Braystan. Residents will, of course, also have the option of saying they don’t want any of the four options.
I should add that the funding for whatever residents decide to have is not coming from taxpayers – it’s money from the developers of the Barnes Hospital site which has to be spent on road improvements in the local area. That’s not to say, of course, that we can’t do something else with the money if residents don’t want speed humps or speed tables.
9 Comments
Am I right in thinking that speed “tables” are the much larger version of “humps”, with a flat top? Are there perceived benefits of this type?
Yes, you’re right. I was doing some research on t’internet and this was the best page I came across for explaining what they are and what the pros and cons are http://www.trafficcalming.org/speedtables.html
Thanks, Iain.
Working on the basis that the problem is for residents along “lower Kingsway” and immediately related roads, and not the rest of the estate, I’d suggest that measures need to be concentrated there.
I see that the “tables” are less effective at controlling speed and, therefore, less of a deterrent to the rat-runners. That might suggest that humps would be preferable to tables but I think you need to be guided by the folk who live along there and would have to drive over them.
Whilst the enforcement is great for residents of the south park road estate, i can’t help but feel this will lead to more offenders driving south down kingsway, turning right onto gatley road, then either do an immediate u turn on gatley road to enable them to turn left onto kingsway northbound, or simply use torkington road to do a sweeping u turn to enable them to turn left onto kingsway northbound. Any chance the police can do a similar job here in future?
It’s a fair point that enforcement is bound to have a knock-on effect. It probably isn’t huge numbers of cars compared to the volume going up and down Kingsway already (it’s just a lot compared to the number on the South park Road estate which only has 185 houses on it).
Hopefully enforcement will get more people to comply with the law, but we’ll have to keep a close eye open to see if further problems are created elsewhere as a result.
I’ve commented before about the dangers caused by Kingsway u-turners. It is only a matter of time before there’s a serious accident involving a u-turner and a Gatley Road left-filterer. I’ve had two “near misses” when filtering and I’m sure others must have have had similar.
1 Comment
1
Jerry Clegg
Sunday 27 March 2011 – 3:35 pm
We don’t want any bumps or humps or ‘plateux’ or any other such ridiculous ideas at the junction of South Park Road or anywhere else thankyou. The roads are already unfit for motor vehicles without degrading them any further. If there is some money from Barnes (I presume its a bribe of some sort) then spend it on repairing the roads.
Hi Jerry,
To be clear on the money from Barnes, it certainly isn’t a bribe!
It’s a legal requirement for developments that a certain sum of money is contributed. There are fairly strict rules on what casn be done with the money. It has absolutely no bearing on whether or not an application is approved.
with the wide and varied views, you’ll never please all the people all of the time, but if you send out a poll to all 180+ housholds on the estate detailing the options, you may get a democratic majority opinion on what people want.