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Have your say on Council plans for improvements around Roscoe’s roundabout area
by Lib Dem team on 26 June, 2018
Stockport Council says:
We are seeking your views on a number of proposed improvements along the A560 Stockport Road corridor in Cheadle and Cheadle Heath. The proposals include traffic signals and pedestrian / cycle crossings at the A560 Stockport Road / M60 Junction 2 (Roscoes) Roundabout, cycle facilities on Stockport Road, path improvements in Abney Hall Park and better pedestrian crossings at the Stockport Road / Manchester Road junction. Works will be funded by the Department for Transport’s National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).
You can have your say here – the survey shows you the different proposals as you go through it.
53 Comments
Looks good really needed
I think the lights will make the traffic worse..it seems programming them is a step too far for humans. If they do go in then yellow boxes are a must. Schools hill round about is a joke at rush hour also..needs yellow boxes to prompt common sense.
What an absolute waste of money! Why fix something that isn’t broken? It works perfectly well as it is. I would love someone to do an accident/incident survey on the roundabout and compare it to other accident spots that need more attention than this! IT WORKS AS IT IS!!! LEAVE IT ALONE!! If the council want to waste my council tax money on this then I won’t be paying it anymore!
I think it busy enough without the traffic lights in each quarter of the round about
And what with all the bike lanes it WilI be like the wacky racers…..
Please have more thought before continuing in this…
Too many light’s on the roundabout. I’m unsure why the very limited parking outside premier foods etc is showing landscape?.. what are raised area to park way and Kenilworth….
Why does all this money need spending on a cycle path. There’s a cycle path parallel to A560.
Don’t ruin Abney we have nothing left…
Beggars belief!…
Is it really planned to make the traffic island a publicly accessible open space?
All the additional infrastructure and the resultant expense in both the initial construction costs and, perhaps worse still, the ongoing maintenance problems and EXPENSE – is a recipe only for increased Council Tax!
The ‘benefits’ of this plan will be of use to only a few but paid for by the many.
LEAVE IT BE.
Beggars belief is cutting it finely DR C! They say it’s one of the busiest islands in Gtr MCR (which is inaccurate), but this proposal will make it a very busy island, increasing congestion and carbon footprint! And to construct a 3m wide track with lighting right through the centre of Abney hall park is ludicrous – who on earth is coming up with this rubbish! Waste of time and money!
Reading through the proposal, this will finish the green space of Abney Park off for good. I’ve walked here each morning this week, sitting with my dog from 7.30am until 8.45am and counted less than 7 bikes throughout this time period each day. So there’s the evidence that to cut down trees and replace with a shared cycle/walking/dog and child unfriendly three metre long pathway is not needed. You council fools only need look back at the mess that’s been made along Manchester Road. Here’s more evidence that this hasn’t work three years in. And yet another accident this week involving cyclists who don’t use the shared pathway and continue to use the highway. Luckily no one killed. Police called and even they said the shared cycle way was ineffective and a silly idea from the start. Abney Park is for walkers, families, fun-cyclists (not commuting fast types) and dogs/dog walkers. This proposal will kill the natural habitat of the greenspace. The parkland was given to the people of Cheadle for public realm use by the kind Watts family. They would be turning in their graves if they knew these stupid plans.
In case the Councillors haven’t yet noticed, there’s already a perfectly good bridge crossing at the Roscoe’s end. It would be money better spent putting right the unsafe crossing at the Manchester Road/Cheadle High Street junction which is appalling and a constant accident blackspot.
As for the abney park, it doesn’t need lighting and a wide track. This will alienate people from using the park – or is that the council plan so that they can then build on it?!
Sheelagh
How will having lighting along the main path through the park allianate people. Surely having low level lighting would actually encourage more people to use it as it would be percieved as being safer?
Like everyone else is saying, leave it be! There’s no reason or justification for this work and yes, in the longer term it will be yet another unwanted burden on the taxpayer – we already have the high council tax in the whole of greater Manchester and the council should be looking at ways to reduce the tax bill, rather than unnecessarily adding to it – where do these people get these ideas from! Just like the Manchester Road Cheadle to Parrswood mess, nobody wanted this, everyone shouted in the consultation that it wasn’t wanted or needed, and now with have an absolute mess left with an increased danger and risk to life! We’re all fed up with the senseless, thoughtless ideas our local authority and local councillors keep pushing for, listed to your voters and taxpayers for once!
Fix the current traffic lights tgat dont work. Fix the crossings in Cheadle that are dangerous. Nuff said.
Jane – which crossing are dangerous?
david dryden have you not seen the footbridge? Surely this is as safe as it can be to cross any road?!
Leave Abney Park alone, not everyone owns a car and not everyone can ride a bike, particularly if you’re older or have a mobility issue or a disability. But alomst everyone is able to walk and enjoy our local greenspace without the worry of getting hit by a bike. Turning Abney Park into this cycle pathway will ruin it and alienate more people who currently use it, than new users of it.
As people have said on here, if the focus is merely on taking cars of the road then foe Gods sake lets start talking about a public transport services that’s effective, affordable and reliable as the current provision for Cheadle is worse than it was 20 years ago AND it’s getting worse as more and more routes are being cut.
Hi Ian.
I support the proposals. The current junction is very car dominated and the rbt is just a massive waste of space which could be better utilised by opening it up.
I also think that improving the existing footpath through Abney Hall by providing lighting will only encourage people to use the route, especially in winter where it is currently unusable. It’s also good to see that the cycle improvements will be funded by the DfT rather than the council.
For those bashing the cycle route on Manchester Road, i remember when i regulary had to walk in the carriageway to pass people and cars used to wizz past at 40mph? The situation is a hell of a lot safer now than it used to be. I regularly walk and drive the route and always see a substantial number of cyclists using both the cycle track and the carriageway so I think the scheme has had a positive effect.
Overall I think it’s very good to see proposals of this nature coming forward.
I think the money would be spent else where. Abney park is a park not a cycle route. leave it be. spend the money on the A34 kingsway, A560 gatley crossroads.
You are absolutely right Paul. If there is any money it should be spent on sorting out the Cheadle/Gatley Kingsway junction.
Abney Park is perfect, please don’t cut down any live trees
Insanity!! Traffic lights on the roundabout? It works fine now and doesn’t need fixing.
If there’s money to be spent, all that needs to be focused on are two words- Cheadle Station. By saying this money is available proves there’s no political will to give us what we really want – and need – in Cheadle; a real, rail alternative.
I agree that Roscoe’s roundabout should be left as it is. I think the proposals are another example of money being made available for ‘high profile’ projects when basic requirements, such as road surfaces that are safe to drive and cycle on are no longer the norm. Only when we’ve got the basics right should we be looking to spend money on more sophisticated things.
All these plans to improve the infrastructure for cyclists to use roads as speed tracks and they don’t have to contribute a penny in road tax. How about charging them a fiver a year to help pay for their roads?
At least cyclists are not contributing to pollution and the horrendous congestion caused by cars in the Cheadle area, and everywhere else for that matter. We need cycle paths to encourage more people to leave their cars at home. And if they charge cyclists they,ll have to put decent cycle paths everywhere and i,ll be ok with that.
Fantastic, great proposals. Let’s hope they come to fruition quickly.
In addition there are proposals to sort the pedestrian lights outside the George and Dragon at the top of the high street and deal with the parking mess around Newlands Road where it joins Manchester Road and around the entrance to The Green/Institute which are equally brilliant.
I’ve just been on the council website and filled in their have your say survey. It also covered changes covering the roads and paths up to the Farmers Arms. I suggest everyone goes on that and completes it.
ROSCOE’S Roundabout
Was always referred to as BOUNDARY BRIDGE ROUNDABOUT and I recall many years ago the council refusing to officially name the roundabout after the DIY store which stood close by for many years. I bet these days not many residents of the younger generation would know the location of Boundary Bridge.
I suppose it stopped being referred to as Boundary Bridge, around 1974, when it ceased to be a boundary between Stockport Borough and the Cheadle & Gatley UDC.
I’d like to leave a message for some cyclists because although I take care crossing the road I don’t expect to have to swerve on the pavement to avoid being knocked over by a speeding cyclist. It’s just luck that I haven’t been hit from behind by one up to now. So when the above proposals for Abney Park go through for shared widened path pedestrians be prepared!
Why are only large scale plans available by ringing a number? Surely the plans in the survey could have been produced in a suitable, zoomable form.
From the TfGM web site, there’s been 5 accidents in the last 60 months. Hardly “a poor accident record” as implied by the survey
Absolutely agree with the majority here. Why can’t it be left as it is. If you have money to spend there are more deserving projects. This is madness! I regularly have to pass bikes riding 2 or 3 deep out of the boundaries of the existing bike paths and even the lone bikers can’t keep to the track. From my point of view many bikers ride in a dangerous manner. All we seem to do is make a mess of the road system to accommodate bikes lanes. We need good public transport – buses – trains – trams.
A pedestrian bridge across the Cheadle Heath side of the roundabout might be a solution rather than all the proposed changes, which I notice includes no fewer than 20 traffic lights.
Another waste of money! Why would anyone want to walk/cycle across the centre of Roscoes roundabout?! Surely this will only create a dangerous situatation? The only thing that needs doing to that roundabout is to repaint the road markings, making it clear that the right hand lane from Cheadle is for Carrs Road, Cheadle Point and returning back to Cheadle, NOT for getting ahead of people who are using the roundabout correctly, people nearly drive into me on a weekly basis, trying to cut across!
As for Abney Park, please leave it alone, do not chop down any trees!
And as for more cycle lanes that no cyclists use (ie the one on Manchester Road), I am speechless!
We have few green spaces in Cheadle and Gatley with beautiful trees like Abney park. Any spare money should be used to sort out the mess of the Gatley/Cheadle Kingsway junction.
Roscoe’s roundabout does not need any attention
Roscoe’s Roundabout basically works. So along comes the Council, with a budget which they need to spend on something.
“I know!”, they say. “This will enable us to tell the electorate we’re doing something about transport! Let’s put up a load of new traffic lights! That’ll slow traffic down.
And, while we’re at it, let’s stick a cycle path over the middle of the roundabout, with traffic lights at each end to allow cyclists to get back onto the, er, road. That’ll slow traffic down even more, and allow us to claim we’re being green!”
On the one hand we have Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, Mozart and Lionel Messi. On the other, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.
Couldn’t have put it better Nicholas!
Hi Iain……… please can you let us know what your thoughts are on this – would be interested to hear. Thanks.
Hi Angie – I’m keen to hear people’s views, but I have a couple of initial thoughts.
If we’re to stop our roads grinding to a halt, getting more people out of cars and onto bikes and foot is essential (as is improving public transport). We can do work on roads, but there’s a limited amount of roadspace so it only goes so far.
We need to get some of the people who don’t currently cycle onto their bikes.
Roscoe’s roundabout works OK for cars at the moment but is rubbish for pedestrians and cyclists. Improving it would be a good thing. I’m not convinced these proposals are yet the right solution though.
I would like to see us moving to segregated paths for cyclists and pedestrians rather than shared paths.
I’m also not clear how the Cheadle Heath part of the scheme will work.
Finally, only a very small portion of the scheme is in my ward, so expect the local councillors for Cheadle Hulme North and Edgeley & Cheadle Heath will have their views.
IAIN- I agree with you about shared space for cyclists and pedestrians. A couple of examples are
(1) the northbound A34 between Cheadle Royal and Kingsway school and in particular going downhill northwards as a lot of cyclists do not use their bells (if they have one).
(2) The shared path adjacent to Barnes as one section of it is much too narrow (near the train line).
Thanks Iain. I don’t agree with the bike route. Although you may get a few more bikes on the road I don’t think enough to warrant the proposals – at all – and as I have said the bikes I see don’t even stay within their own lane so it’s a complete waste of money. I also think some of the bike lanes are responsible for roads ‘grinding to a halt’ as you say as 2 lanes of traffic become 1 etc. etc.
I feel you need to focus on public transport. I also think it’s terrible to use any green land for this purpose and as people are saying there isn’t too much of a problem so why focus on this in the first place!
Thanks Angie, useful comments.
From my side, I get a lot of complaints about congestion. Occasionally someone might be stuck behind a cyclist legally using the road, but far more often it’s simply lots and lots of cars, and that’s going to get worse.
Public transport can work for some sorts of journeys, but for shorter, local journeys and short commutes, cycling works better for a lot of people. Public transport is also very expensive compared to cycling provision.
We know that in areas with good cycle facilities, around 10% of journeys are taken by bike. In our area that’s just 2% which means thousands more cars on our roads with all the congestion and pollution they cause.
So I would say that there is a problem, and its one that affects us all. More cycling has to be part of the solution.
As I say, I don’t think these plans are quite where they need to be yet and I’ve got a number of unanswered questions.
When are people going to stop being rude about these plans and be constructive rather than destructive
Abbey lighting scheme would give a good stretch of route where cyclists can go safely without interfacing with traffic
What is required is educating cyclists as follows
1 Use lights at night
2 Use a bell or horn to warn pedestrians
3 Remembervred lights apply to cyclists as well as cars
4 Why must cyclists think they can undertake cars at traffic lights what happened to the Highway Code
Roscoes roundabout needs some work on it
Maybe the plans are over the top but traffic coming from Cheadle tends to go to the right lane and then has to merge with M60 traffic. Entering the roundabout in the left lane means big queues At least this layout removes this issue
I agree with what is said about box junctions etc but maybe the answer is a box junction and camera so that people who wish to ignore box junctions can help to pay for our Councill tax in fines
As an engineer myself and knowing a number of highways engineers I think it is time people stopped going on about a right hand filter at Gatley which will never happen due to the close proximity to the motorway and the issue of traffic wiring on the motorway to get off which is far more dangerous
How about pushing for the A6 motorway link to be reinstated so that traffic coming down the bypass and going ont the motorway eastwards will have an alternative route logically this works in reverse and will reduce traffic at gatley lights
Anyone who thinks roscoes is “working” must be solely a vehicle driver. I use abney path daily either running, walking or “social” cycling with my son and crossing the road is useualy down to how curteous the drivers are on that particular day. No one could be more passionate about abney than myself i know every inch and it is one of cheadles prised assets however widening (ever so slightly) the current existing concrete path without intruding on the trees and wildlife surely cannot be a bad thing? I do share the concerns of speeding cycling commuters using the path however this could perhaps be overcome with warnings signs for cyclists to reduce speed? We have to do something to encourage cycling, walking and even scootering as an alternative to motor vehicles and a balanced opinion must be taken.
I tried three times to put a quite reasonable response to the question of cyclists and their speeding past me on pavements and was ‘blocked’ every time by this web site. ???
Hi Margaret, I’m sorry. I can’t see what happened and the website has no record of you being blocked from posting a comment. It certainly wasn’t anything deliberate!
As a carrs road estate resident I am disappointed that more people and businesses haven’t been informed of these proposals i myself found out by hear say, especially who this will effect for months on end in the making, after all we all pay council tax, surely it is the councils responsibility to inform there residents of any changes to their environment.
Sorry to hear that, Tina -as local councillors, we tried to get the message out as best we could.
sadly, it sounds like this was intended to sneak these plans passed the direct local residents who this will directly effect..
Apparently these consultations have been going on for a number of years without the direct residents being informed,exactly how far off are these plans to being accepted.
Hi Tina,
There has been once round of consultations, a few weeks ago. Council officers are currently revising the plans following that work. There were no previous consultations.
I can’t speak for the Council and I don’t know who was written to about the plans.
I *can* say that we put the plans, and the consultation details, on Facebook, on the web and in our weekly email to get the news out as far as we could. I do know that some local residents did attend the exhibition.
My observations are that the council needs to learn from the Cheadle/Bramhall footpath ‘improvement’ for cyclists. Footpaths are becoming no go areas for pedestriand as they become racetracks for off road motorbikes. Green areas are getting eroded and our very small amount of peace and quiet is disappearing. I’d rather wear suitable footwear rather than end up with a litter strewn ‘better’ path which contributes to more light pollution. Leave the few wild life spots alone.
Also the roundabout a waste of space? Isn’t it valuable for insects and birds? Stop concreting every tiny bit of earth.
What an absloute waste of money. All i see is pavements being widened and roads being narrowed in stockport. Like we have a surge of pedestrians and cyclist. The work that has been going on around roscose roundabout has been going on for far to long and serves no purpose what so ever. You have put a pavement around the roundabout. Who walks round a roundabout. You clearly have to much money. Our money. The pavement outside cheadle college again been going on for months. Wouldn’t mind if you widened them all over but you only widen them for about 100 yards. I cycle and wouldn’t jump on the pavement for the short pathetic distance then jump back onto the rd.
Hi Hayley – as you say, it’s really important for schemes to link up to improve cycling. The work at the college is being done by the Laurus Trust so they’ll just do their bit, but other work is planned to make sure routes properly link up. This is all part of the Greater Manchester Beelines proposals to have cycle networks across the area. You can see more of the plans at https://mappinggm.org.uk/.
Regarding pedestrians and cyclists, the infrastructure comes first. We know that when we improve the infrastructure, more people choose to walk or cycle. Roscoe’s is a particular issue as the railway line effectively cuts off two areas from each other (Cheadle Heath and Cheadle) and that’s one of the few linkages.
Just gethe job done .why does it take the council forever to complete a job .every time go round there All talking and laughing
Private contractor with deadlines would have it finished now
Pull your finger out and get it finished.
So you can make a night mare some where else .
Disgruntled mike.devitt
Why does it take forever for the council to do a simple job if it was a contractor you would have them pay a penalty for dragging there heels . Where do you decide to make drivers and walkers there next misery no doubt you will .very disgruntled resident you got my name respond
Will you please re-surface the road i cannot believe you have such disregard for peoples personal vehicles it destroys bearings,suspension,ball joints ect .
It is now a shocking road surface.