Graham, Tom and Ian

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Lib Dems fight Cheshire Tory plans to pour more traffic onto Kingsway

by Lib Dem team on 5 August, 2014

Mark Hunter MP and the Lib Dem team are opposing plans by Cheshire East Conservatives to build 2,500 new houses near Handforth Dean, pouring even more traffic onto the A34 in rush hour.

Mark said “Instead of spreading new housing around the county, the Conservatives say they want to build this huge development on the greenbelt right on the Stockport border where traffic and other problems will cause huge problems at the Kingsway/Gatley Road junction. Lib Dem-led Stockport Council has been highly critical of the plans and I will fight the Conservatives to make sure local interests are protected.”

Councillor Keith Holloway added “The Kingsway junction is one of the busiest in Greater Manchester. The development the Tories want to build on the greenbelt would see it get much worse.”

   13 Comments

13 Responses

  1. Mark says:

    Fair point, but how exactly is the Handforth development different from the Woodford one? Is there reason to believe the latter won’t also add to congestion on the A34?

  2. Iain Roberts says:

    The Woodford development is on previously developed land (the aerodrome) so in planning terms it’s always the case that something can go there and the only question is what.

    That’s different to a proposal to release undeveloped greenbelt land for development.

    As part of the development a full traffic assessment was done and we think the agreed mitigation measures (including improvements as part of the Relief Road) will largely counter any increase in traffic on the A34.

  3. Mark says:

    Thanks for the explanation. Out of interest, what is the projected impact on the A34 of the relief road itself? I can’t see how it will cause any decrease, and my guess is you’ll get an increase by picking up (i) traffic from Poynton and perhaps even Hazel Grove and the Peak District to Manchester going A555-A34 instead of A6, and (ii) traffic from parts of Manchester to the airport going A34-A555 instead of A5103-M56…..

  4. The country needs more homes as there is a national shortage and tough decisions have to be made. When the council allowed Cheadle Royal it increased the traffic flow considerably at the A34 Gatley junction so why was that allowed? some of the houses near the junction are almost ‘unsellable’

  5. robert cohen says:

    Speaking as a local resident, and a local business owner who is a chartered surveyor, the flood gates are opened with Handforth by pass. There could not have been any review into the traffic congestion we now have on the A34. If there had, Cheadle Royal, Sainsbury, John Lewis, Tesco and M&S wouldn’t have happened…….

  6. Garry says:

    There are many housing estates built along the A34 on the Cheshire side, most don’t have direct access onto the bypass (most turn onto A roads first), unlike the estate on the Stockport side at Cheadle Hulme where the office block is. Sadly Wilmslow and Handforth don’t have the multitude of brownfield sites like Stockport so expansion will inevitably be onto green belt. As for Woodford, it seems okay to build almost 1000 homes on a site which, according to plans will include a small part of green belt, I’m not sure how small it has to be to make it okay to build on. And sadly all the traffic will be funnelled out on existing overcrowded A roads, unless another road is built, which will cross green belt.

  7. Alan Gent says:

    Perhaps we ought to consider making the A34 a toll road. There is a railway line which parallels the A34 as an alternative mode of transport.
    Any monies collected could be used to fund an underpass at the junction with Gatley Rd. this was one of the options in the original proposal which was rejected on cost grounds. I suspect the justification could be made now.
    Incidentally one Lib Dem report did stated that traffic would increase slightly as a result of the relief road being built; one reason I’ve always been against it.

  8. Steve Whitaker says:

    Superb idea Alan Gent in offering a real politicians answer to any problem – tax it to death. Let’s hope no-one takes your solution seriously.

  9. John Peoples says:

    Robert Cohen is 100% correct and the councillors once again did not listen to residents, as still do not listen. Cheadle Royal is now 50% empty, and never required except for developers to make money.

    When do the residents ever get an ear of the councillors. East Cheshire not only wishes to control the A555 but Handforth, Mobberley and more with over 6,000 homes in total.
    As with the CMA issue, this is our area and we should have a voice on all these proposals.

  10. John Peoples – Cheadle Royal 50% empty? Last time I went through it wasn’t.

  11. Iain Roberts says:

    Cheadle Royal is pretty full, with some major companies based there providing thousands of jobs.

    There’s a wider issue of course: few people disagree with the notion that we need more houses. It’s not just the growing population: also because more of us want to live along and old houses eventually need replacing.

    We want to provide the houses and jobs that people need, and we want to do it in a sustainable way. That’s rarely easy and normally requires a degree of compromise, but the alternative would be to become an area without jobs for people – like all the mining towns after their mines closed.

  12. David Johnson says:

    Why not build houses nearer to jobs! If jobs are being created in office blocks in Manchester efficient brains should require houses nearby. Build tower housing blocks on Manchester areas. Replacing terraced housing with towers to greatly reduce travel problems, travel cost, pollution and it replaces very old stock with new efficient human dwellings (and fills the developers pockets – tell David Cameron and bring a smile to his pocket too). Most important – it saves green space – the more important resource on our small island!.

  13. Robert Cohen says:

    I take David Johnsons point and in an ideal world, building towers seems a good idea. problem is that when its been tried before, its mostly been a disaster – look how many towers have been blown up.

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