Residents living on a rat run in Altrincham town centre say speeding traffic has turned their narrow street into a "death trap". They have petitioned council chiefs in a bid to get a 20mph limit imposed.
Groups of schoolchildren and toddlers being loaded into cars by parents with cars parked at the roadside on New Street are at risk, say the campaigners. The petition bearing 519 names appeared on the agenda at a meeting of Trafford council where, because of the volume of support, two residents were allowed to make impassioned pleas for the reduction of the current 30mph limit.
John-Paul Moberly, who has lived on the street for the last three years, said the "safety of those who live, work and go to school on or close to New Street depends on it". He said the types of vehicles using the road were large SUVs, fast sports cars and increasingly HGVs.
READ MORE: Coleen Rooney speaks out after winning case against Rebekah Vardy following Wagatha Christie saga
Mr Moberly said that although the council had previously recognised this by installing bollards and a speed bump at the start of a one-way section of the street, further action was needed and a 20mph restriction was "the logical extension to these restrictions". He went on: "The last few years have seen Altrincham transformed from a commuter town into a destination in itself.
"As such, development has accelerated and we currently have two ongoing construction projects ongoing at the north end of New Street alone, including a multi-storey car park with another large-scale project to demolish dozens of flats and replace them with apartments and townhouses. For these reasons, traffic has increased dramatically and will only continue to do so. The inappropriate 30mph continues to be ignored by drivers who use New Street as a rat run through to The Downs and towards Hale."
His neighbour and fellow petitioner is Louise Padmore who told councillors she and her partner and their four-year-old son had moved to Altrincham from London two years ago, believing it to be a "better and safer environment to bring him up in".
"And yet each day we find ourselves fearful of leaving our own front door and trying to get into our car," she said.
"On New Street, the parking provision is on-street. We don't have a driveway which means in order to get son in and out of the car I have to do so at speed in order to avoid us, or the car door, being clipped by a speeding passing car." She continued: "On numerous occasions, I've had to halt the process of getting him into the car seat in order to pull us and the door out of the way of these speeding vehicles.
"This rushed and hasty process often leaves me filled with anxiety about the experience, but also then as to whether I've secured him safely in the car. The same panic ensues each time we leave the house on foot as we do each day to walk to nursery. We have a small front path and a gate, leading directly onto the road.
"So every time we leave the house or the front door is opened, we must anxiously remind our son to stand still, hold our hand, and there is a fair bit of panic." She said the issue was not limited to herself. There were many other vulnerable groups who use the street each day, she said.
Groups of school children en route to Altrincham Grammar School for Girls walk in groups of friends unaccompanied by adults at the busiest time of the day when vehicles are using the street as a cut through during rush hour, Ms Padmore said. "The combination of the very narrow pavements, plus the large groups of children, plus the speeding vehicles is quite frankly terrifying," she said.
"Other vulnerable groups for whom this is an issue are the elderly and disabled who are less able to hastily get out of the way of speeding vehicles and also many parents with young children in prams who regularly use the street." Torsten Schmiedeknecht, who organised the petition with fellow resident David Jacobs, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there was "wholehearted support" for a 20 mph speed limit in the area.
Following their address to the council chamber leaders of opposition groups - Conservative, Liberal Democrat and the Green Party - supported the move. Green leader Geraldine Coggins even said there should be a blanket 20mph speed limit in all of Trafford's residential streets.
Labour council leader Andrew Western said a scheme "will be given consideration" as part of the programme of works through the capital programme, which included a budget for 20mph speed limits. But he went on: "There is of course a need to measure it against other schemes that have been put forward for consideration.
"Clearly, we are not able to say that because a petition comes it will mean that is considered more than another scheme that is required for safety purposes." He said that surveys had shown the average speed of vehicles travelling along New Street was 20mph.
However, he continued: "But of course, I accept that that does not stop the occasional idiot driving down the road at more than the legal speed limit that is currently 30mph. But neither would a 20mph sign and that is the problem.
"We have heard that people do occasionally travel along New Street far too quickly. A 20mph zone will not stop someone who is determined to do that from doing that. That is not me saying it will not happen or that there is no budget for it."
And he added: "What I would say is that if there are more significant about the high speed of vehicles travelling down there, then I pick up a conversation with Greater Manchester Police, because clearly, it needs to be dealt with."
Meanwhile, when the Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the street to gauge opinion, there was unequivocal support for a 20mph zone on New Street. One mother walking along the road with her two children said: "I don't live on the street, but I walk along it regularly.
"It definitely needs something to slow traffic down. The roads around Altrincham are becoming increasingly dangerous. Only last week there was a serious accident involving a young pedestrian near the leisure centre."
Antique dealer Robert Redford, 80, who has lived on New Street for 14 years, said: "It's become progressively worse while I've been here and has become something of a death trap."
And he pointed to a broken bollard outside his home which had been hit by a vehicle and said it was "a regular occurrence". Stephen and Saskia Rosser, 56 and 57 respectively, are residents opposite who do have driveway.
Saskia said: "Getting the on and off the drive is extremely precarious. But we are extremely worried about the girls walking to and from school."
READ MORE:
