Questions
In accordance with Procedure Rules 11, opportunity is provided for Members of the Council to ask the Chairman, the appropriate Cabinet Member or the Chairman of a Committee any question about a matter which the Council, the Cabinet or the Committee has powers, duties or responsibilities.
Questions must be sent in writing to the Monitoring Officer at least 3 clear working days before the meeting.
Minutes:
Consideration was given to the following question, submitted by Councillor R Fletcher :-
Some years ago Cheshire County Council accepted that signalled crossings met the required criteria and were needed in Alsager at Sandbach Rd. North, close to the junction with Lodge Rd, Sandbach Rd. South, by the Health Centre, Crewe Rd, in the vicinity of the west end shops, where three people have been killed in recent years, as well as some seriously injured.
Due to concerns about the safety of pupils going to and coming from the High School, preference was given to the crossing on Sandbach Rd.North and because of the high number of pupils involved, it would be paid for out of the safer routes to Schools budget. After about two years of consultation, Alsager Councillors were advised that this would no longer be proceeding out of the safer routes to Schools budget.
Can I have an assurance from the Cabinet Member that the three signalled crossings are still on the list of highway improvements to be carried out in Alsager in the future?
Councillor A Knowles, on behalf of Councillor R Menlove, the Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, in response stated :-
The current position with regards to the crossing outside the High School on Sandbach Road is that no solution that was put forward was acceptable to all parties and therefore the scheme was not able to be fixed in time for submission to the Safer Routes to School programme this year.
With regard to the remaining 2 pedestrian crossings, they have been assessed and ranked within the Ward Minor Works funding option. Unfortunately they have not ranked sufficiently high to be in this year’s delivery plan. The schemes will remain on a list for improvements however it is not possible to guarantee at this point that they will be brought forward in the short-term due to strong likelihood of reduced funding next year from Government.
Although these proposed sites may have been ranked according to footfall, and had some accidents history, none of them are among the worst accident sites/routes in our Borough and therefore have not attracted Road Safety funding.
I regret the news is not of a more positive nature, but it is an unfortunate fact that there is demand for more schemes generally than funding can support, and we all wish it were otherwise.