Members of the Alsager community expressed their continued frustration against the borough's active travel measure on Lodge Road, which came from an adaption of a highway initiative from 12 years ago.

Since Friday, there have been two separate occasions where residents have taken it upon themselves to remove the bollards at the edge of Lodge Road/Sandbach Road North.

Two Alsager residents spoke strongly against the scheme implemented by Cheshire East at last night's (Tuesday) Alsager Town Council meeting of Civic and Services Committee.

Cllr Sue Helliwell read out a comment from another resident about their thoughts on the scheme: "It seems to me the only signage that is clear on the no entry signs are from Sandbach Road.

"The rest is a mess, the only reason people can cross the road without walking on Sandbach Road is because someone has moved the barrier, it is clearly marked as an access for cyclists.

"But the previous opening of the barrier to allow others through is not there which means people are likely to think they have to go down the single lane in opposition to the traffic or go onto the pavement, both of which are stupid.

"Then when you get to the end of the shared pedestrian cyclist access, the end is going off and is not accessible for either cyclists or wheelchair mobility scooters.

"I give two out of ten, must try harder."

An hour before yesterday's (Tuesday) meeting, Cllr June Buckley received a phone call from the Cheshire East Highways Officer, who oversees the Lodge Road scheme.

He notified Cllr Buckley that he had rearranged the bollards last night which had been moved again after being displaced for the first time on Friday night.

Cllr Buckley said the highways officer who was dealing with the "legal scheme" had opened up the areas to allow pedestrians and cyclists "better" access.

Cllr Buckley added: "The big problem is when the scheme was drawn up those openings were not there on it, he [highways officer] has not got access easily to the CAD CAM to redraw the scheme, he has got to apply for that.

"Whenever the scheme is messed about with and the highways officer who puts the bollards up comes out, they are working with out of date material.

"He was also incredibly shocked tonight, he has worked and put the signs back where he thought they were really clear.

"While he was on the phone speaking to me and looking at the school gates because they are going to look at remodelling the school entrance so the school buses can turn down coming in from Crewe Road and Church Road."

The ward councillor for Alsager told the committee that four cars came through the no-entry sign.

Cllr Buckley continued: "I met him there about four weeks ago and two cars came through. I stopped both, one woman brazenly told me she was late and that is why she had done it.

"When I said to her it was very dangerous if somebody was cycling, she said 'oh I know, I nearly got killed the other day myself'.

"The other lady was just extremely exhausted and had not noticed the scheme.

"Like it or like it not, it is there until Cheshire East choose to remove it. I do not think this is a particular good scheme and it certainly was not the scheme that the ward councillors put forward."

Cllr Buckley confirmed that the active travel scheme came from the adaptation of the Safer Routes to School initiative from 12 years ago.

Cllr Buckley added: "For people to think that they can move the barriers, it is actually illegal."

Alsager resident Rachel Moss queried how the scheme which blocks off a "small section" of one road in Alsager encourages active transport throughout the whole of the town.

Mrs Moss felt the scheme was "very dangerous" for Alsager School pupils and it was diverting a lot of additional traffic down Pikemere Road with a primary school in close proximity.

Mrs Moss added: "I think it is very serious and I think it needs to be dealt with very quickly with some real evidence to support the claims and make sure that we can get this removed."

Amy Clark, also an Alsager resident, felt that insufficient consultation surrounding the scheme was carried out before implementation.

Mrs Clark highlighted that the Department of Transport stated that they were clear to local authorities that "they must actively engage constructively with residents".

Mrs Clark said: "I do not think that has taken place, a link on a website is not constructive engagement and accessible to all."

Referring to the "debacle" of how the barriers were reinstated on Friday night after being misplaced, Mrs Clark claimed that even cyclists could not access the cyclist zone without having to either mount the pavement or drive against the oncoming traffic.

Mrs Clark added: "Somebody came out today to move that and left the cone dangerously in the middle of the cycle lane."

Mrs Clark, who works for the NHS and represents disabilities across Staffordshire, was "shocked" that there was not any access for wheelchairs apart from a "miniscule access" that Mrs Clark felt she would struggle to fit through.

Mrs Clark felt that the scheme had "almost become a cyclist free for all" and emphasised when cyclists "rarely and I repeat rarely" actually use this zone it becomes a free for all because the cyclists "zip round the corner" with no regard for who might be crossing.

Mrs Clark asked the town council whether a tally had been taken on how many cyclists are using the route.

She continued: "Living right next door to it [the scheme] and observing it on a daily basis, I can tell you there are a miniscule amount of cyclists that actually use this route.

Mrs Clark, who has two children, one who attends Alsager School and the other Pikemere Primary School, has received letters from the schools to state their concerns about the scheme.

Cllr Pauline Hubbard, chair of the Civic and Services Committee, proposed that the concerns raised by residents would be discussed further at next week's planning meeting.

Cllr Derek Hough said: "For the irresponsible behaviour of people removing signs, it is not the will of the people, it is breaking the law.

"The consequence of that is the mess that has resulted these last few days.

"I just wonder what the heck we are doing, condoning the actions of what would appear to be a small minority of people, but the scheme does want improving."

Cllr Helliwell was not happy that Cheshire East were using data which was 10 to 12 years out of date.

Cllr Helliwell added: "If a developer came to us with a planning application with that kind of data, we would be asking them to go away and put forward new data.

"It is not a minority of residents who are against this scheme, if you see the number of emails and messages I get daily, I would say it is hundreds, who are opposed to this scheme."

Cllr Jane Hearne said: "I drove down after the bollards had been removed and it was a joy to drive straight down that road.

"I think it is a mockery especially them blocking the lane for cyclists and pedestrians when it is for cyclists and pedestrians.

"This was put down in haste without any consultation, I think it needs to be removed in the same fashion."

Cllr Hearne's "biggest gripe" was the number of leaves on the side of the road where the bollards have been implemented, which means machinery cannot get down leaving it "slippery and dangerous" for cyclists and pedestrians.

Cllr Buckley felt it was "deeply wrong" that no letters were sent out to residents living nearby the scheme.

She added: "When the Christmas lights are on in Alsager everyone knows they are running, but still the volunteers have to put a letter through every door, who is affected by the road closure."

Cllr Buckley concluded that the highways officer did go to Pikemere Primary School on at least once occasion to conduct a traffic survey.

The findings during an hour survey were "there was not an excessive amount of traffic in highways terms", but the officer was reportedly "shocked" by how some of the parents parked their cars.

Councillors agreed to discuss the Lodge Road active travel scheme further at Tuesday's planning meeting.

The town council also agreed to write to Laura Crane, portfolio holder for highways and waste, asking for answers from councillors and residents' questions ahead of the planning meeting.

Speaking at yesterday's Cheshire East Cabinet meeting on the active travel schemes, Cllr Crane said: "These were emergency active travel measures, so they were brought in, in haste, they were brought in faster than we potentially would have liked to have done, but we did have restrictions on the timescale so we had to go ahead with ideas that were already on the table.

"A lot of this came from Sustainable Modes of Travel to Schools and ideas/concerns that had been raised in the past.

"With the timescales we were working to, it was also in line with schools going back again after the summer and the extended break that they had previously.

"It did seem an appropriate option, we were hoping the second tranche of funding would have been available a long time ago and we are still in the dark over when we will receive that second pot of funding, which is significantly higher.

"With this second pot we hope, and this is the angle we are pushing with Government and the Department for Transport, that we have the ability to have a lot more community engagement prior to bringing forward the measures.

"I really do hope that this next set of measures will be seen in a very different light.

"The buck stops with me, officers put forward proposals and I have the ability to say yes or no. I am happy to take responsibility for those decisions and lessons have been learnt."

At the time of publishing this article, there had been 483 comments on the Lodge Road active travel scheme. You can make your comments here.

The first nine schemes which cost £155,000 in money allocated to Cheshire East from the government included Lodge Road, Alsager.

The measures introduced has resulted in through traffic heading south to Lodge Road being restricted to cyclists and pedestrians only.

Cheshire East implemented the scheme to "provide additional footway space for children accessing Alsager School and to improve safety where there is currently a narrow footway and poor forward visibility".

The lane closure has been in place near the junction of Lodge Road and Sandbach Road North.