Bypass plan to improve the air quality in village
ABYPASS could be on the cards for Disley as a council action plan for improving air quality takes shape.
Cheshire East Council (CEC) has written that it will ‘review the possibility of a bypass round Disley’ as one of seven ways to improve air quality in the village in its draft action plan for 2018 to 2023.
Cllr Harold Davenport, Conservative member for Disley, told the committee that the village suffers with ‘very heavy traffic’ travelling to and from the High Peak.
And he claimed this would increase once the nearby A6 to Manchester Airport relief road (A6MARR) opens later this year.
He said: “It’s busy all day long, especially early morning when they are all coming down.
“This causes great concern because at the moment air quality is not that good and we haven’t yet got the A6MARR open which is due to open this year.
“Indeed the traffic is likely to increase by a considerable percentage.
“I am pleased to see here that at last we are getting a firm mention of reviewing the possibility of a bypass around Disley - because that is the only answer, frankly.
“Anything else would work to some extent - that’s the only thing that will cure it.”
Members of the environment and regeneration overview and scrutiny committee were presented with data from CEC’s air quality management areas - including Market Street in Disley.
It showed that more than a quarter of nitrous dioxide in the air at Market Street came from lorries - a higher percentage than in any of the borough’s other air quality management areas.
Meanwhile, a further 26 per cent of the harmful pollutant in Market Street came from diesel cars.
Frank Jordan, acting deputy chief executive of CEC, told the committee that while a timeframe could not yet be drawn out for a possible Disley bypass, it would ‘absolutely not’ drop off the radar.
CEC is currently working on bypasses for Congleton and Middlewich, while a future study of the A50 corridor in Knutsford could pave the way for plans to progress for a relief road around the town.
Suggestions made by the scrutiny committee are due to be considered by CEC’s cabinet when it looks into the draft air quality action plan later this year.