More than 5,300 sign petition demanding crossing on busy Sandbach road

The residents first started campaigning for the crossing on The Hill in 2018 and today (Thursday) presented a petition signed by more than 5,300 residents to the highways and transport committee.

One resident told councillors at the Macclesfield meeting:  “The Hill is an extremely busy A road which parents and children have to cross to go to St John’s Primary School. In 2019 a new Co-op opened and a housing estate was built which has added significantly to the volume of traffic.”

Highways and transport committee meeting (Image: Belinda Ryan, LDRS)She said this summer officers had visited the crossing and committed to a design feasibility study to be carried out, but this now wasn’t going ahead.

“I identified some time ago £100,000 of S106 money from the Persimmon estate,” said the resident.

“This must be spent by June 2024, if not it will be returned to the developer. Cheshire East have currently allocated this money to upgrading the traffic lights and roundabout on the bypass, a project that cannot go ahead as it requires S106 funds from another development that hasn’t even begun construction.”

She added: “We are extremely concerned and disappointed at the recommendation in the report to defer the assessment until the new criteria [for assessing pedestrian crossing need] is adopted in late Spring 2024.

"The residents are dismayed and shocked the council are now attempting to backtrack on their commitments and appear to have little regard for children’s and elderly residents’ safety. This road is an accident waiting to happen.”

Cllr Sam Corcoran (Image: Cheshire East Council)

Ward councillor Sam Corcoran (Lab), speaking as a visiting member, said he supports the current campaign but, when the site was assessed according to the council’s current policy criteria. it was a well below the threshold.

The council is about to consult on introducing new assessment criteria and Cllr Corcoran said if this becomes policy ‘that should favour this site where the volume and speed of vehicular traffic deter people from crossing the road’.

With regard to the £100,000 S106 cash, he said: “This money is suggested to be used for works between the lights at the bottom of The Hill and the Waitrose roundabout to reduce congestion on Old Mill Road, but if those works do not come forward soon then I will be pressing for the money to be used to fund a crossing.”