COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH - RYLEYS LANE

On Thursday 23rd January, volunteers and local residents from our Community Speedwatch team braved the elements and carried out a one-hour session on Ryleys Lane. The results on this occasion were:

- 30 vehicles in total recorded exceeding the speed threshold
- 22 vehicles exceeding the speed threshold but under 40mph
- 8 vehicles travelling at more than 40mph
- highest recorded speed 47mph
- average speed of all vehicles was 39mph

This section of Ryleys Lane is within a designated school safety zone, where the speed limit is 20mph. Once again, I am grateful to our team of volunteers for helping to raise awareness of local speed limits and the importance of safe and careful driving close to our schools.

CONSULTATION BEGINS ON PARK MASTERPLAN

Last summer I met with ANSA officers to discuss our ideas and aspirations for the park. The resulting masterplan is intended to show how the park might evolve over the next few years. The proposed improvements are likely to cost in the region of £100,000 and therefore by necessity they will be introduced gradually, as and when funding becomes available.

The Parish Council have considered the masterplan and will be feeding back with their own thoughts and priorities, with Cllr Bev Chapman commenting “we are determined to improve our green spaces and to support the village environment, as well as encouraging biodiversity; however, we recognise that getting this right is going to take time and cost money. We want a park that is fit for our community.”

In addition to ensuring improvements to the bowling green, the introduction of more seating and a new noticeboard in the park, the Parish Council is keen to support an initiative by the Alderley Edge in Bloom group to introduce a Community Orchard in the grassed area between the railway line and the footpath leading down from the steps near to the park entrance.

Before going back to ANSA with our comments on their proposals, we would like to invite residents to share with us their feedback and aspirations for the park. Please use the comments box below to leave your suggestions, which we will collate and then report back to ANSA by the end of January.”

COUNCIL SUPPORT FOR 130 BUS CONFIRMED

Following my announcement at a meeting of full council on 19th December that D&G intended to register the 130 as a commercial service, Monday to Friday, I am pleased to confirm that Cheshire East Council will be supplementing this service with a supported (subsidised) hourly service on Saturdays, starting from 1st February. The Saturday service, like the weekday service, will run from Macclesfield to Handforth (via Alderley Edge and Wilmslow) and back to Macclesfield.

The rationale for council intervention to ensure a Saturday service is in line with our stated intention to reduce the environmental impact of car journeys, whilst supporting the weekend economies of principal towns along the route and ensuring that vulnerable and elderly residents are able to access healthcare at Macclesfield Hospital more easily.

A small number of residents have asked why the service will now terminate at Handforth rather than at East Didsbury as it currently does; however, an analysis of existing passenger journeys has shown that 75% of journeys on the 130 are wholly within Cheshire East, whilst a further 9% are wholly within Greater Manchester. It logically follows that only 16% of passengers are using the 130 for cross-border journeys, which is insufficient to justify a public subsidy to the service.

Vulnerable residents who are adversely affected by the change in this commercial operation, may be able to use the council’s newly launched flexilink service as an alternative.