Councillors have urged Cheshire East Council to listen to the 300+ objections submitted against the borough's active travel measure introduced on Lodge Road in Alsager and scrap the scheme.

The Lodge Road active travel scheme was added to Tuesday's Alsager Town Council agenda as an emergency item.

Speaking at the meeting, Alsager resident Chris Venables told the committee that there had been over 300 registered online objections to Cheshire East Council's active travel scheme implemented on Lodge Road.

Mr Venables received an email reply regarding the controversial scheme from Cllr Laura Crane, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for highways and waste, who told him that Alsager's three ward councillors had been consulted about the Lodge Road changes via email.

Mr Venables asked the three ward councillors (Cllr Rod Fletcher, Cllr June Buckley and Cllr Phil Williams) what their replies were to Cheshire East.

Mr Venables added: "There are massive problems with what's happening, this is supposed to benefit cycling and walking and make things safer for the school, but in fact what has happened is the total reverse.

"Traffic that was going down Lodge Road is now actually going down Pikemere Road, so therefore it puts in danger the primary school and also then adds a further risk when the children come out of Alsager School."

Cllr Rod Fletcher stated that he had been looking for the email from Cllr Crane "for some time". The Liberal Democrat councillor told the committee that the first email he received was on 4th August from the active travel team who informed him that there was going to be a scheme introduced on Lodge Road.

The following day, Cllr Fletcher received a press release from Cllr Crane advising that there were going to be nine cycling and walking active travel schemes introduced across the borough to boost Cheshire East's Covid-19 recovery.

The first nine schemes which cost £155,000 in money allocated to Cheshire East from the government included Lodge Road, Alsager, and stated in the press release 'through traffic restricted to cyclists and pedestrians'.

Cllr Fletcher added: "This concerned me greatly because I know the Bank Corner traffic lights are working at over capacity and there were also concerns how it would affect Alsager School. Closing Lodge Road completely to traffic in both directions would cause serious congestion at the Bank Corner."

On 12th August, Cllr Fletcher received a reply from a Cheshire East Highways Officer, who "apologised" for a "misleading" press release and insisted that the prohibition of traffic was only one way and for a short distance.

The highways officer informed Cllr Fletcher that Cheshire East would listen to residential feedback, but Cllr Fletcher sent an email asking for the scheme to be "scrapped" due to it causing "chaos".

However, Cllr Fletcher told the meeting that he recently received an email from Cheshire East, which stated that Lodge Road would be closed until April 2022.

After "looking and looking", Cllr Phil Williams has also not found the email from Cllr Crane but insisted the ward councillors responded to Cheshire East as soon as they were aware what was happening.

Cllr Williams said: "I think the intentions behind the scheme are sound, but it is the way they have been implemented I'm not particularly happy with."

Mr Venables asked the town council what action could be taken moving forward to address the problems the active travel scheme has brought.

He felt that Alsager was being treated differently to towns like Knutsford, who had their active travel scheme scrapped due to the negative responses received by the public and town council.

Cllr Pauline Hubbard felt that the schemes consultation from Cheshire East was "inadequate, "inappropriate and purely a ticking box exercise".

Cllr Sue Helliwell proposed the town council supported their residents and inform Cheshire East that in its current format, Alsager wanted the road closure scheme implemented on Lodge Road removed immediately and wanted a new scheme brought forward.

Cllr June Buckley said: "It has been handled so badly by Cheshire East and we are bearing the brunt of it. Drivers keep on ignoring the no entry signs, and most of the people on social media do not seem outraged that people are ignoring a no entry sign."

Cllr Williams felt there were some elements of the scheme that made sense, but with the majority of people being against the scheme, he felt the town council had to represent those views.

Congleton ward councillor Suzie Akers Smith, who is Cheshire East's cycling and walking champion, attended Tuesday's meeting to discuss the concerns surrounding the Lodge Road scheme.

Cllr Akers Smith admitted: "The lack of consultation was intentional, there wasn't enough time to ask for consultation before the measures were put in place, it's a case of try before you buy.

"We wanted to try the measure and if it was successful, it would enable Cheshire East to apply for further funding, which could lead to other measures that councillors and residents may prefer to support active travel and reduce rat runs."

Cllr Akers Smith told councillors that the temporary measures which are in place for 18 months would be reviewed and could be taken out at any time, but she urged councillors and residents to put across different schemes as an alternative.

As a mum of a new year seven pupil at Alsager School, Cllr Jo Dale stated that the scheme was "really worrying as a family", but insisted it was a "good idea" to promote walking and cycling and to take cars away from school grounds.

Cllr Dale added: "The scheme definitely needs tweaking at the very least to make it a much safer system."

Cllr Dale felt there needed to be two pedestrian crossings, one across Lodge Road and one on Sandbach Road North near Lodge Road.

The Labour councillor, who had witnessed the issues earlier in the day once school had finished, claimed one of the biggest issues came due to the presence of the school buses.

Cllr Dale added: "When the buses are sat there no traffic can get around them, it is a narrow pavement so you cannot do social distancing and what was happening today was cars were overtaking the buses and cyclists were coming the other way, head onto the traffic and it really did look quite dangerous.

"What is needed is to take away part of the gate at the back of the school and create a bigger swing in for the buses, so the buses can still get up the drive.

"If the buses are not on Lodge Road, I think the whole thing will work miles better because traffic can flow in one direction. With tweaks it will benefit children at the school."

Responding to calls for pedestrian crossings, Cllr Fletcher stated that some years ago there was a proposal for a crossing to be implemented at the junction of Lodge Road and Sandbach Road North, but it failed a safety audit because traffic coming from the centre of Alsager swinging left into Lodge Road wouldn't be able to stop on a single crossing if students were crossing.

Cllr Fletcher stated that the next proposal involved having a crossing opposite Grig Place, and for Alsager School to divert their pupils onto the Grig footway, which Cllr Fletcher felt "made sense".

However, according to Cllr Fletcher the school originally said no, but for the last seven years the school had said yes to the proposal, but Cheshire East would not introduce the crossing due to a lack of funds.

Cllr Fletcher added: "The safest way would be to take the students away from that dangerous corner. One person once referred to it as 'suicide corner' because anyone who sees the students flooding out across the road whether it is a one-way system or not, when they flood out it is dangerous."

Cllr Michael Unett felt that the scheme in its current format "wasn't working" and there was not any consideration about where the diverted traffic was being directed to.

Cllr Jane Hearne said: "I think this is the biggest shambles in a long time around Alsager. We were told it was going to be a two-week temporary thing in order to get consultation and then we get another note saying the closure is going to be in place until 2022, which I think is disgusting."

Cllr Hearne proposed that with the town council wanting a crossing introduced on Sandbach Road North to provide safety for children, the Lodge Road active travel scheme was "scrapped" and money from that scheme should go towards the implementation of a crossing.

But Cllr Akers Smith stated that the £155,000 allocation for Cheshire East would not have been enough to fund a crossing in just one town, however, with Cheshire East having indicative confirmation that a further £619,000 will be made available for further active travel schemes and the borough applying for an additional £1.1million, which would allow more "bold" plans to be approved, she told the committee funding for crossings could be secured down the line.

Cllr Julian Goodrich echoed calls for the scheme to be lifted and added: "The idea that central government come up with an idea that everyone is going to go on a bike or walk when you live in a rural society like we do in Cheshire is ridiculous.

"It works in cities where you have got infrastructure to public transport, but we haven't got that here. This hasn't been thought out."

Councillors agreed that they want the current scheme to be removed, further consultation to take place with Alsager stakeholders and residents, on a new scheme, which considers a safe crossing on Sandbach Road North, additional traffic measures (i.e. Lollipop lady, 20 speed limits and pavement width on Lodge Road being expanded) being implemented.

At the time of publishing this article, there had been 358 comments on the Lodge Road active travel scheme. You can make your comments here.