Graham and residents on the case with Cheadle High Street pavements

by Lib Dem team on 12 April, 2019

Graham writes:

Cheadle is well supported by people who care for and protect the village environment. This morning I was invited by two such residents together with an engineer from the councils Highways Dept to tour Cheadle High Street and review the pavements.


There are clearly issues with some damage and some loose flag stones.
The conclusion was two particularly risky areas will be ear marked for repair as a matter of urgency. These are:


The Tactile drop kerb right in front of the church gates which have been damaged for the second time in recent memory, the damage appears to be on pavement parking. 


The other is the pavement between the charity shop and the church wall on Church Street. Again, the damage seems to be from heavy vehicles mounting the pavement and damaging the substrate such that the pavement is no longer safe.


Other damage noted including loose paving stones in various places along Cheadle High Street. These are subject to a walking surveyed every quarter. Any additional damage identified in these surveys will also be repaired.

   17 Comments

17 Responses

  1. Roy says:

    Graham like Iain is doing his best for the residents but there are limits to what they can do, the council engineer informed Graham on Friday they loose/rocking pavings will not be repaired as they do not constitute a hazard as defined by the council, the fact they many residents have suffered damaged clothing and wet feet after being slashed by dirty water that ejects from the loose and rocking pavings is of no interest to the Council. The councils position is:
    Newly laid pavements are expected to require maintenance after 1 year of use
    Loose and Rocking pavements slabs are to be expected and do not constitute a defect
    More of these defected pavements are being laid despite these known defects

    Trip hazards can be avoided by picking your feet up
    The slurry that is being spread over existing pavements in the conservation areas and elsewhere, is not expected to be perfect but will save money over the next 50 years
    To sum up we all need to accept that what we presently have is as good as it gets.
    Our good Councillors have no power to improve our pavements despite their best efforts

    We all need to invest in wellington boots and pick our feet up

    • Alan says:

      Roy, I get a hint you may be trying your hand at sarcasm.
      Why, if anything in the public realm becomes damaged or worn is the Council responsible? This is a societal problem, not the Council’s. And is becoming more widespread. We as a collective should be more considerate, and this also applies to litter and graffiti.
      The Council does NOT have a bottomless purse to tidy up after all those who wish to flout the laws and regulation to the detriment of everybody else.
      We should be challenging and stopping people mounting the footpath with their vehicles as the surfacing is not designed or suitable for such loadings. Most of these people are just lazy or tight and are unwilling, for their own reasons, to use the parking provided.

  2. Roy says:

    Alan you be happy with the condition of the pavements in and around the High Street but I am not, I don’t think its acceptable to have dirty water slashed up my trouser leg or into my shoes, I pay a lot in council tax and would like to see it spent well, I also think our hard working Councillors should have more power over Stockport Council, we all complain to councillors without knowing how little power/control they have to get things done.
    Alan stop accepting bad services and get behind your hard working councillors

  3. Janet Holmes says:

    When did the rules as to the above issues change? Back in Oct. 2017 (sad I know that I do keep notes) I complained about a loose/dangerous slab….not on the High St. itself, but part of that supposed improvement. At that time an officer phoned to advise that it “did need repair, an order had been raised” and would be “carried out in the next four weeks”! We did get as far as the red paint, then,and another occasion of my complaint we had more red paint.Paint washed away….
    Need I say…no yet done..
    I concur with remarks above about vehicles on the pavement…why not more bollards?
    I do agree about damage by vehicles mounting the pavements, so why not more bollards ?

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Janet – the rules haven’t changed for several years. We could put up more bollards, but we also have the problem that pavements in Cheadle are quite narrow, and there are places where bollards would make it difficult for people to get along easily in mobility scooters etc.

  4. Peter says:

    I’m am afraid and sorry to say that my faith in our councillors is evaporating very fast on the topic of paving slabs.
    Knowing that vehicles park on the pavement the specification should reflect that fact as is the case with other councils. There are many defective slabs behind bollards along the high street so please do not keep using vehicles parking on them as the sole excuse.
    In front of the St. Mary’s church is a classic case of the council wasting money. The tactile paving was laid by Cox, it was replaced again circa 9 months ago, it (according to the council officer on Friday) will now be replaced for the third time. Knowing that funeral and wedding cars park on it why does the council keep putting down an inadequate quality?
    Picking up Janet’s very valid points why has the council identified many slabs with red dots on two separate occasions and not carried out any of the repairs. Premsuably whoever sprays the red dots feels the slabs are an issue so why spend money spraying them if no action is taken?
    Given that we (volunteers) now have to maintain the shrub and grass areas in Massie Street car park, clear the high street and some pavements of weeds and litterpick perhaps we get a group together and fix the paving slabs as well?

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Peter,

      I take your point – and as councillors we would love to be able to sort everything out. That’s not the way councils work though. They have a budget and the ruling group decides how it is spent.

      We agree completely that the pavements should be repaired. It’s not acceptable for paving slabs to be marked up and left. That’s exactly why we’ve had previous repairs done, and it’s why we organised this walk round with the council officer.

  5. Keith says:

    Can I raise the problems at Old Hall Road and Gatley Road junction,
    The parking of cars close to this junction narrows the junction causing blockages
    Cars and delivery vans constantly drive along the footpath
    Delivery vehicles constantly park on the footpaths
    And vehicles from the surgery and people calling at the shops constantly park on the footpath and in no waiting ares.
    This road needs some serious remedial action.

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Keith – you’re right to raise this. We have asked council officers to look at this problem as part of any changes to come in when the Tatton Cinema development is completed in a few months’ time. In particular, we would like to stop parking near the junction with Gatley Road, which would widen the road and make it safer.

  6. Peter Rowley says:

    Given that we (volunteers) maintain Massie Street car park, clear Cheadle high street of weeds, maintain the flowers in the library quadragle, clear some of the pavements of weeds and detritus and of course litter pick perhaps we can get a group together and fix the paving slabs?

  7. moira.bowers@btinternet.com says:

    Iain, you admit that footpaths are narrow in places within the High street. Isn’t it time that all the supposed illegal ‘A ‘ boards are removed and one cafe, who put a table and two chairs out are told to also remove.

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Moira,

      Let us know of any A-boards that are causing a problem and we’ll chase it up. You’re right – if A-boards are causing issues and blocking the pavement, they shouldn’t be there.

  8. Geoff says:

    If these paving problems were as a result of work carried out on my drive then the company who carried out the work would be responsible for rectification. Shoddy work by the contractor is at fault here and not all damaged by commercial delivery vehicles. Even so, where are those responsible for the issue of tickets for illegal parking in the village when we need them? Parking illegally outside Costa a case to consider along with parking on zigzag lines- could be a nice little earner.
    Proof that nobody cares a jot anymore.

  9. Janet Holmes says:

    Iain, you say “the rules haven’t changed for several years.”
    For several years there have been items in this forum on this topic. Had I known that the the “loose flags are of no interest to the council” I (and others probably) would have developed other avenues for conveying our thoughts….
    You say that more bollards could be put up. I suggest that this be done where there is space. Those who do care about the village want to see progress. This item too has arisen previously over recent years, still nothing been done?
    With ref. to “scooters etc “:
    Do you include cycles?
    Do you include a three wheel bicycle towing a trailer on the pavement?
    Thank you

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Janet,

      We’ve been pushing the council on this for some time. We’ve previously reported that, although the wobbly flags don’t meet the council’s official policy for repair, we believe they should be fixed in the village centre and have looked for ways to get this done. We continue to do that.

      We have put up new bollards over the last few years and we’ll look at erecting more. Not sure what you mean about bicycles – they shouldn’t be on the pavement so we would never design the pavements there to take them. It’s important that the pavement is wide enough to take wheelchairs, double-buggies and similar with people passing both ways.

  10. John says:

    I remember when they laid the paving on Cheadle High St (2012 ?) and they were basically dropping flags onto compacted sharp sand / grit sand.
    Bearing in mind that hundreds of thousands of pounds probably changed hands for this work, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
    The flags started moving very quickly. The paving situation is dire at the moment.
    Some paving has just been laid at the junction of Queens gardens and Stockport Rd. It is of an excellent standard and it’s all laid on a mortar bed.
    You would think that someone from the council would be inspecting the work regularly to check the taxpayer is getting value for money and there isn’t a big discrepancy in the standard of work carried out.

Leave a Reply to Janet Holmes

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>