Lib Dems push Highways England into action on J3 slip

by Lib Dem team on 21 July, 2021

The Lib Dem continues to press Highways England to sort out the overgrown grass and faded Keep Clear sign where South Park Road meets the M60 J3 slip road.

The overgrown grass restricts visibility for anyone trying to turn onto the slip road from the South Path Road Estate, or coming onto the estate from the motorway. The faded Keep Clear markings mean vehicles on the slip road are less likely to leave space for cars to join from the estate.

Highways England have now told us they are aiming to do the work on 1st August, and they are looking at paving over the triangle in the centre, or cutting back the grass more regularly.

The Lib Dem team have phoned, emailed and registered complaints on the Highways England website. We have also asked Stockport Council to contact Highways England and press the case. Keith Holloway has even been down to the site and cut back the grass himself. Several local residents have also contacted Highways England and cut back the grass.

“This is a safety issue,” said Keith. “Every year we have the same conversation with Highways England. We ask them to cut back the grass and it takes an age. Every year we suggest that a permanent solution is needed: replacing the grass with tarmac or stones, for example. It’s not acceptable for a government agency to ignore the safety of road users. Hopefully the work will be done on 1st August, and after that the triangle will finally be paved over – we’ll continue to monitor the situation and to press for action when needed.”

   9 Comments

9 Responses

  1. John Hartley says:

    Sorting out the grass issue will be a “result”. Thanks for the efforts.

    Does this mean they are also re-doing the Keep Clear marking? These have now pretty much disappeared, so drivers just don’t know anything about it. Means that probably the only people who stop and let you out are folk who use the route regularly and know it used to be there. There’s been a couple of occasions recently when, after two or three changes of the lights, the only way of getting off the estate was to go into the Gatley lane, turn right and then go south via Styal Road.

  2. Iain Roberts says:

    Hi John – yes, we’ve been pressing them on the Keep Clear markings too. They’re saying that they’ll do both the Keep Clear markings and the grass on 1st August.

  3. John Hartley says:

    Thanks, Iain. The LD team efforts for us appreciated, as always.

  4. Denise says:

    “It’s not acceptable for a government agency to ignore the safety of road users”

    This also applies to the cross roads at Park Lane, Longley Lane and Altrincham Road.

  5. Roy says:

    Is it possible to put the effort and momentum into clearing all the public footpaths in and around Cheadle. We are encouraging people to walk and cycle and on many occasions the cyclists choose to ride on the pavement, unfortunately lots of residents choose to allow their garden edges to invade the footpath. This is a major problem the Council seem to ignore/condone, on Schools Hill the footpath is barely passable because of bush growth out of Brantwood Park as the Park is the councils responsibility why has it not been cut back?
    Can the council serve residents with enforcement notices clear The footpaths

  6. Karen Sandler says:

    Thanks for this Iain.
    Could I also mention the overgrown shrubs and trees along the walking/cycle paths on Kingsway. They are now dangerous.
    Please could you also get something done about overgrown hedges along public roads. Try walking up the start of Barcheston Road in Cheadle. There is little footpath left due to an enormous, overgrown beech hedge.

  7. Les Jackson says:

    Message for Kieth. You should not be tackling the problem for a number of reasons
    You will not be insured
    You will be breaching health and safety regulations if not wearing hi vis clothing and if the area I was not coned off appropriately and you might even be responsible for doing a Highways Agency worker / Council worker out of a job!
    We are also told that by tarmacing our drives we are contributing to surface water flooding on our roads
    I applaud your efforts to benefit residents and drivers in the area but would suggest that your focus is on making the Council and Highways Agency aware of the issues by contacting them directly as you seem to be doing already

  8. Tony Butcher says:

    Ian .
    Thanks for your efforts on the slip road junction. It’s been the most dangerous driving manoeuvre I’ve had to do every day for past 25 years. Several near misses from cars not stopping at stop sign turning right off slip road lnto estate. Visibility problem turning right is not just at the junction but up to 20 yards further down the road onto South Park. Even when grass etc cut at corner the visibility is still bad and seeing cars coming up from tunnel to slip road remains difficult.
    Any cutting needs to go much further than just the junction.

Leave a Reply to Tony Butcher

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>