Fed-up road users in Wrenbury have launched a petition to get this busy pothole-ridden rural road re-surfaced.
It comes after residents believe Cheshire East Council had the funds to do the work on Station Road and Wrenbury Road last year – but then diverted the money elsewhere.
Now villagers have launched a petition which they intend to send along with a formal complaint to Cheshire East Council chief executive Lorraine O’Donnell.
Parish councils of Wrenbury, Marbury, Sound and Newhall met with Cheshire East highways recently to put their case across.
Oly Lowe, of Wrenbury Parish, said: “From the meeting we ascertained that Highways had funding to undertake the repairs and resurfacing to this stretch of road last year (requiring two sections of drains to be repaired and the lengths resurfaced) – but the funding was reallocated elsewhere in the borough due to the road being designated as a low priority “unclassified road”.
“Funding to repair this stretch – opposite Gorse’s and near the Weaver – is allocated this financial year before April 2023, but the work is not yet scheduled and could again be reallocated.”
More than 650 people have already signed the e-petition, which will be online until the end of May.
“At that point the petition will be sent along with a formal complaint to Cheshire East’s Chief Executive,” added Oly.
The “pan parish” group formed by local villages did get action on some of the flooding issues affecting rural lanes, added Mr Lowe.
“But while we were keen to push making Station/Wrenbury Rd and Cholmondeley/Nantwich Rd B-roads and 7.5T weight limited (due to constant damage to the listed canal lifting bridge and being used as a rat run by lorries going towards Chester), Highways management suggested that it would not make a difference to maintenance standards.
“We’ve now been informed otherwise.
“Wrenbury is the only Local Service Centre in Cheshire East with no A or B roads.
“Hence ours roads are often appalling due to lower maintenance standards and maybe why the A530 road junction at the Aston end – a known deadly accident black spot – and two dangerous bends between Aston and Wrenbury, are permitted to persist.
“It’s our understanding that B Road designation would allow Cheshire East to tap into additional central government funding, which is based upon number
of miles of A and B roads.
“So we’re at a loss as to why Highways haven’t done this previously.”
You can view and sign the petition here https://chng.it/hVqkThqVQs
A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: “We are currently programming work for this financial year on Station Road, Wrenbury, in collaboration with Network Rail.
“In the meantime, we continue to maintain the roads and repair any urgent defects in line with our well-managed highways code of practice to keep the network safe.
“We are constantly working to maintain the condition of our roads, within very challenging financial constraints.
“The council has a £180m backlog of works needing to be done, as a result of reductions in government funding for road maintenance over the last decade.
“All works on the highways and footways have to be prioritised in accordance with the budget available across the whole borough and we place the safety of our road users as our highest priority, within the context of the limited budget we have available.
“All roads are classified in line with guidance from the Department for Transport and the code of practice for well-managed highways.
“As part of the council’s network hierarchy, the roads in question form part of our secondary distributor roads.
“These roads have the same maintenance levels and inspection regimes as our B-road network.”
*So we ask – is this the worst road in Cheshire East? If you know a road that’s even worse than this, send in your pics to [email protected]
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