Lockside Rat Run

[alastair]

Would be lovely but as suttens Lane is not a nice road (is privately owned!
And as mentioned below the waterways board road is strickly private and should be really shut off more regularly.

So how would we get on to lockside without either breaking the law or breaking your car

As a resident of this area I totally agree this needs looking into. It is only a matter of time before a serious accident occurs. How about Lockside is made one way? With the traffic being allowed to travel downwards towards Stockport road and the junction at the bottom being maked no entry thus shutting it down as a short cut. '>

[alastair]

Yeah that sounds about right but havent the council now taken over that car park and designated it for public use!
If the passing bays are supposed to be passing bays then (that would be a good thing) let them be used for that but parking for residents does need to be provided my mum lives in the top block of house also but is slightly more active than yours!
Still its usefull to be able to load up the car etc

I agree with the speed restriction ideas, even the accursed sleeping policemen, but I don't like residents only parking. The main reason is that my lovely  old mum lives in the top set of houses and isn't very mobile and her sons and daughter need to park nearby to pick her up, etc, and non of us are residents - although I was born there. Incidentally, when the road was remodelled with 'passing bays' no-one was supposed to park in them and everyone was suppossed to park in the Union Street Car Park behind the Navvy!

[PeteA]

As a resident of Lockside I would like to add my voice to this debate. We moved here in February 1997 and since then have noticed an steady increase in the number of cars using the road. This has been made worse recently by its discovery by many who used it whilst the water pipe replacement work was being carried out in the town centre. Many vehicles turn into the British Waterways yard and continue on. There are also a number of vehicles that use excessive speed for such a narrow road. I believe that a number of actions could be taken that would be beneficial all round:

- Reduced speed limit, 15mph sounds good.
- Speed bumps at various points. Bearing in mind that there is no subsurface drainage for much of Lockside care would need to be taken with these, but some sort of gap at the edges for bicycles would probably suffice.
- Closing of the British Waterways yard except for pedestrians and cyclists (Note that the British Waterways vans that use Lockside seem to do so with the utmost care - thanks for that!'>.
- Residents only parking wold help, given that there are carparks within easy reach, e.g. behind the Navigation Inn.
- Consideration does need to be given to access to the Girl Guide hut (once rebuilt) and All Saints Primary School, perhaps some sort of turning point?

Finally thanks to the MCC representative for monitoring and acting so promptly.

Thank you MCC for your response, I will await with interest

We will write to SMBC and ask that they have a look at this.
The Council can measure both numbers of vehicles and their speed.
It is quite true that the rear of the Waterways properties is on "private land" but we would expect both parties, SMBC and Waterways, to get together and address this problem for the benefit of the Marple Community.
We will also leaflet the properties on Lockside to ask residents if they perceive a problem.
Could we also let you know that one of our web sites (linked to the Marple web site) on www.marplehighwaywatch.co.uk
has a facility to submit such observations as yours.
IF we get a hopeful response from SMBC we will post in our web site and request it is posted here also.
Thanks.

I do wish that the local authority would pay some attention to the increasing use of Lockside, by vehicles as a short cut to avoid the traffic lights in Marple whilst making their way towards Church lane and beyond.

Only the other day I was horrified to see a Range Rover "going like hell" whilst the male driver carried out a conversation on his mobile phone, what a selfish and reckless attitude towards others. School hometime and traffic peak periods will show a marked increase on these vehicles which use the canal yard as a short cut route.

Lockside was not constructed and is not designed to carry this sort of traffic, it is single track and in my opinion 15MPH Is an absolute maximum speed.

British waterways tell me that they would like to close the gate into the yard, but Stockport MBC SAY IT IS A "RIGHT OF WAY". Is that for pedestrians only? does it include cars?.

I think in the interest of safety Lockside should be access only to residents and speed humps should be put down, perhaps then we will avoid the accident that is bound to happen.

Perhaps through the good offices of the community council, this problems might be investigated and our elected representatives get something done as a matter of urgency