Ann Smith has taken the case up of an elderly woman who was struck by a cyclist on a Stockport pavement.
The woman, who is partially sighted, was hit by someone riding their bike on a pavement despite this being against the law.
Ann has written to Greater Mancheter’s police and crime commissioner to see what can be done. “I appreciate obviously that this matter is not going to be up there as a priority, “she said in her letter. “However, I would like to think that something could be done.”
Cycle Safety Mirrors (also called Trixi mirrors) have been installed around our area, and are being put in at 50 junctions across Greater Manchester.
The mirrors help drivers of large vehicles like lorries or buses see cycles alongside them. Those sorts of vehicles have a very large blind spot and one of the most common ways for cyclists to be killed or seriously injured is being trapped to the left of a large vehicle turning left at a junction.
The team has also enlisted the support of our Lib Dem MEP, Chris Davies, who is a cyclist himself and wants European rules to improve cycle safety, as many of the lorries on UK roads originate in other European countries.
Northern Rail has finally taken action following Ann Smith’s request for a clean-up of Davenport Station car park.
The state of the car park was raised by local residents in a Lib Dem Residents’ Survey. As well as litter and dog fouling, one resident reported criminal damage to a car. Ann asked Northern to do more to keep the site clean and look into better security with measures such as CCTV, as is used in similar facilities elsewhere.
Northern’s response read “Davenport has received some attention recently to improve security… Unfortunately there are no plans to extend CCTV.”
But trees were trimmed or removed and a large number of bushes were cut, and a general litter pick was undertaken.
Local Liberal Democrats are proposing a capital investment scheme of over £100 million in a once-in-a-generation programme that will see hundreds of roads and pavements properly relaid.
The proposal, which will be voted on as part of the Stockport Council budget in February, will see hundreds of roads and pavements resurfaced across Stockport.
This will be the biggest programme of road repair and renewal ever seen in this borough.
“This scale of investment is not something to take lightly,” said Executive councillor Iain Roberts. “Lib Dems have been working on this for over a year. Every single road in Stockport has been checked more comprehensively than ever before, to ensure we have the data to be able to make the right decisions and spend this money wisely.”
“Because of all the preparation and investigation we’ve done, we know that the cost of that borrowing will be similar to what we’d have to pay to continue our programme of patching roads and pavements to maintain them at their current standard.”
If the Lib Dems can get this proposal through the Council, the road and pavement repairs will be completed over the next few years.
Some of the residents of Canterbury Road are concerned about commuters using their road as a cut-through when Hall Street is busy in the rush-hour.
They ‘ve suggested a one-way system be introduced and the FOCUS team is now writing to all residents to see if this idea is popular.
If there is wide support, traffic engineers will be asked to draw up a scheme for formal consultations.
A second phase of consultation for the A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road will be open from This week to allow residents, businesses and road users to give their views on the emerging preferred scheme.
From Monday a four page leaflet will be delivered to 85,000 homes throughout areas of Stockport, Cheshire East and Manchester, to give an overview of the scheme and explain how residents, businesses and road users can find out more and comment on the proposals.
Further information on the consultation will also be made available on the SEMMMS website www.semmms.info. The website will also include an online version of the questionnaire.
The second phase of consultation will run until 19 July.
The first phase of the consultation looked at various options for junctions and asked people whether they were in favour of the road.
This second phase consults on the proposed route, drawn up from the earlier responses. It also gives people a chance to feed back their views fully, now the environmental studies and other information has been published on the Semmms website.
The proposed road will join up the A6 at the southern end of Hazel Grove to Manchester Airport, and will include a separated cycle path along the whole route.
