At next Tuesday’s Cheadle Area Committee (to be held at Bolshaw Primary School, Heald Green, starting at 6pm) several changes to parking regulations around Cheadle will be considered.
- On Old Rectory Gardens (the parade of shops and take-aways next to the Post Office), waiting is currently limited to 1 hour. The shops requested a change to reduce the time to 15 minutes – they want the parking to be for people to nip into the shops along the parade and keep the throughput of shoppers. After a consultation, the proposals are coming to Area Committee for consideration.
- A long-standing problem with cars parking on the pavement near Riversdale Road (off Gatley Road, between Milton Crescent and Warren Avenue) is being tackled by extending yellow lines along Gatley Road to each side of Riversdale Road. This won’t change the parking on the road (that hasn’t been a problem) but will stop the few cars parking on the pavement and, on some occasions, blocking the pavement for passers-by.
- Proposals for parking changes on Oak Road and Oakfield Avenue were approved by councillors at the last Area Committee. They come back following objections by some residents, especially around Oakfield Avenue. Some people want the yellow lines to extend further into the avenue to stop other people coming in to park there, but others want the lines to be shorter so they can park there.
All of these show the issues with parking restrictions – very reasonably, most of us don’t want our roads parked up by people from outside (especially if, in the case of Oakfield Avenue, it can make the road so narrow that bin lorries and ambulances can’t get round). But yellow lines also displace traffic (the cars don’t vanish – they go somewhere else) and apply to residents too.
As councillors we work to get the balance right, recognising that there’s rarely a completely perfect solution, but hopefully finding something that makes things better for the majority of people.
As I have said before, there is a very simple solution to the [arking problems in Cheadle – make the car parks free for the first half hour. Everyone I have said this to agrees with me that the prolems would vanish.
It is also vital that we get easy access back to the main car park in Cheadle.
The problem remains with Mary Street. The was even a PCSO walking past this week and ignored the cars parked on the double yellow lines.
The solutions are there and easy to implement. Why make it hard?
Hi Karen,
I’m not so sure – we already have a good deal of free parking around Cheadle within a couple of minutes walk for the centre (e.g. Ashfield Road, Oak Road, Charlotte Street) that’s rarely full. If people aren’t parking there, why would they park in the car parks that are little nearer?
Also of course there’s the issue of money – if we make car parking free for the first 30 minutes or hour, that adds up to a lot of money lost, which means less money to repair our potholes and pavements.
Fantastic news on the action being taken about parking on pavements outside Riversdale House. Totally ignorant people who park there and even after being informed of the fact that people in wheelchairs/mothers with prams etc can not get past unless they go onto the road.
Let’s have the extended yellow lines asap and enforce the law on these louts.
ok Iain,that’s ok for Cheadle, but once again, I’m raising the problem on Old Hall Road, Gatley——– is anything going to be done, on Friday morning last week, cars driving up Old Hall Road, having to be on wrong side of road because of parked cars… cars turning left into the Road from Gatley road then driving on the pavement whilst old people and mums with buggies, have to squash into the hedges – really it isn’t right – my parents were walking up to the crossing from the health centre, Dad is 96 and nearly blind, Mum helping him along, she is 92, and they have to get out of the way of cars driving on the pavement, surely stopping parking of two cars outside the Mousam would really help ? ???? I know you are doing your best Iain, but this problem isn’t that difficult to solve is it?
Hi Jean,
I think the answer is the same as when we last discussed it: we’re expecting development proposals for the Tatton site to be submitted shortly and I hope that as part of that we can solve the problem without losing more parking spaces.
ok Iain – thanks,hope so .
I don’t mind paying 30p for the 2 hrs, as sometimes if I meet someone I know I don’t have to rush away. In Hale they had a problem (empty shops etc) and now it’s 10p for the first hour I think, then it goes up. I cannot understand the curve that we have for parking outside the post office – it’s difficult to do and the bollards are extremely near the kerb edge and quite low, so almost invisible. When the post office is busy (some of us have PO boxes as well as using the counter part of the P Office) 15 minutes would not be enough. And the spaces outside those shops are used as much for the Post Office as for those shops. As for it being just for popping in and out of those shops, taxis often park up waiting for a call to their next job. It’s not an easy one; however I think 15 minutes is really not a good idea. It’s too short.
Look it’s 30p, it’s nothing! What annoys me is the people in very expensive cars who park at the bottom of Milton, who can plainly afford 30p but somehow feel they don’t need to contribute to the local community. Milton should be the next road for double yellows.
In Didsbury, there is virtually no street parking and less car parking than we have so let’s be real about this. make people park and pay!
I regularly pay 30p to collect my prescription fromBoots and it takes me less that 10 minutes, what’s the hassle?
Alan
I agree with Estelle Weiner’s comments about the very poor parking arrangements at Cheadle Post Office. Very few people seem able to cope with parking on a curve, hence those who pull into the area just to post a letter frequently find it necessary to park parallel to an existing stationary vehicle, thereby blocking the curve for a minute or so until they return to their vehicle.
In my opinion, the situation could be greatly improved by constructing a straight service road across the whole frontage of the sorting office and post office. This service road should have, on its left side, a series of parking spaces at an angle (so-called “herring bone” parking. Any parked vehicle would then be located off the service road and would not then obstruct it.
I suggest that the existing mail box should be relocated to the right hand side of the service road (or an additional box located there) so that persons wishing to post a letter without using other postal services could do so by simply winding down the window of their vehicle. There is no safety issue here, though doubtless someone will seek to introduce one – it is after all no more than the process we go through when we insert a ticket into a machine at a car park exit barrier.
Perhaps the Council’s planning department could be persuaded to join the the Royal Mail to produce a draft plan for inspection and comment by local residents?