While I applaud the Highway Agency's concern, I deplore the negative choice of action they propose implementing to deal with it.

Plumley Moor Road serves not only the village of Plumley, but communities beyond.

Now at one stroke these poor people will have their right of access to their main road limited by 50%.

Just the same as for those who use Lennards Lane and Flittogate Lane.

It may be an expedient (ie cheap) measure to adopt in the name of safety, but clearly consideration of the needs of the local community is not taken into account.

Why not?

To me this smacks of yet a further sinister demonstration of the way in which public rights are being curtailed by Local Government.

Why cannot traffic lights be introduced?

With all the industrial development that has been allowed to take place alongside the Northwich by-pass, it is inevitable that the A556 which provides the link to the motorways takes greater traffic flows.

It is equally apparent that in its present form (four adjacent lanes) it is unsuitable, and more to the point, becoming more unsafe for the volume of traffic it is required to carry on a daily basis.

Furthermore it is a sobering thought that it has to a great extent been exacerbated by planning developments approved by local authorities, and I doubt if another 'no right-turn' ban will remedy the situation.

So what are the plans for the future?

The A556(M) link which was an expensive solution to one part of the problem has been set to one side.

The other part, in Tabley, is being swept under the carpet, or so it would seem, to avoid further embarrassing statistics to those in charge.

The unsavoury truth is that for 50 years there has been minimal action taken to up-date the A556, throughout its whole length, from Bowden to Northwich, to cope with the traffic volumes it is now required to take.

What a sorry condemnation it is of the short-sightedness of the policies of the Cheshire County Council and the Highway Agency.

Huge sums of money are spent on new construction to reduce congestion, but all that can be done to improve safety for road users in Tabley is to implement the introduction of access limitations.

J K BRIGGS

Tabley Road

Knutsford

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.