Dear Editor,
In February 2020, together with councillor colleagues, I ‘called-in’ the Labour-Independent Coalition decision to slash gritting routes across the borough.
We won a second consultation which councillors, parish councils and local leaders (including head teachers), responded to in significant detail.
Well, now we know how much value this council gives to consultations – absolutely none!
In the Wybunbury Ward, unless you live on the A51 or A529 (very few do), residents of Hough, Lea, Blakenhall, Checkley, Doddington and Hunsterson will be cut off in extreme weather.
Twice-daily milk collections and the transport of over 36,000 eggs from this area will be compromised.
Bridgemere Primary School will have to close.
Significant areas across Audlem, Wrenbury and Bunbury are also affected.
These are not little streets or rarely used thoroughfares, but essential country lanes – the only links between rural communities and businesses which are dependent on these lanes being open.
The council follows a National Code of Practice (Well Managed Highways) but CEC hasn’t published the consultation results or explained how they set the scores that mean 218 roads across the borough will be slashed from the gritting routes.
But before I get too technical, here’s an example: Bridgemere Primary School lies on Hunsterson Road in Bridgemere and over 80% of pupils and staff attend by car – after all, it’s a rural school, with no pavements, no street lights, no safe walking routes and where the distance travelled to school is between 0.5 and 6.0 miles.
The Code of Practice places a high score on roads with schools that “have a high reliance on vehicles for access”, so how is it possible that Cheshire East has given Hunsterson Road a zero score?
If, whenever it freezes, you can’t run your business, your children can’t get to school or emergency services can’t get through, its not surprising that rural residents have little confidence in this Coalition Council’s policies and consultations.
Cllr Janet Clowes
Wybunbury Ward
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