Roads are axed from the route of gritters
ROADS have been axed from the council’s priority gritting route despite a 500-signature petition in opposition and claims the move will ‘compromise child safety’.
A Cheshire East Council cabinet meeting decided to cut gritters going out along Whirley Road and Birtles Road, in Macclesfield.
The decision, blamed on government policy, will be effective as of next winter but Whirley Road is a bus route and has Whirley Primary on it.
The petition says that both roads are also additionally hazardous in winter with rises, dips and cambers.
And that the Greenside Estate they serve is home to on-call firefighters who need safe access to call outs.
Councillors Rob Vernon and James Barber, in whose Broken Cross and
Upton ward the route is in, spoke out at the meeting to try and prevent the decision.
Afterwards they said: “We are disappointed to see Whirley Road removed from the gritting routes due to Department of Transport criteria.
“While we welcome the cabinet’s proposal to review the criteria for roads with primary schools, we will continue pushing for Whirley Road to be included in the gritting routes and putting our children and residents first.”
And before the meeting they said: “We oppose this move, with Whirley Road housing a primary school with over 200 pupils, and two preschools. This is also a route on which the number 19 bus travels. “We do not want to see the safety of children, parents and residents compromised by funding cuts handed down to local councils. This move is damaging to our community.”
The decision has been blamed on funding cuts from central government meaning the council can afford to grit less of the borough.
But questions have been raised whether Whirley Road and Birtles
Road are the right ones to be cut.
Richard Slater, from Henbury Parish Council, said: “The way the road is, if it is not gritted it is very dangerous.
“They are not looking at the topography, it is a very strange route to be pulling.”
Cheshire East Council has been contacted for comment.