Agency by William Gibson 
A petition has been launched calling for road safety measures at a crash blackspot.
Halls Road in Gillow Heath has been the scene of several collisions in recent years, the latest just weeks ago when a car demolished a garden wall, where a boy had been playing just minutes before.
Now residents have demanded action for their own safety and the safety of children walking to the nearby playing fields, other pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
Those living on Halls Road attended a Biddulph Town Council meeting last Tuesday to speak about their concerns.
They have decided to launch the petition, which Biddulph North County Coun Nigel Yates will hand in at County Hall urging the highways authority to implement road safety measures.
But he pointed that such measures would only go ahead following evidence-based information – and that as far as traffic accidents statistics were concerned, none had been recorded on Halls Road.
The residents said the latest happened on 15th March when a car lost control and mounted the pavement, demolishing the wall. A young boy was playing in the same garden 15 minutes before the accident happened, they explained.
“A car also spun out of control in February 2021 causing another accident and considerable damage,” added a resident.
A few years earlier, a car mounted the kerb on the corner of Linden Drive and Halls Road, demolishing a telephone box.
The resident said: “We’ve got Halls Road playing fields and the Biddulph Valley cycle route, which actually crosses over Halls Road. The area is popular with families, dog walkers, and cyclists and is in the catchment area of several different local schools.
“After a series of accidents in the area, we, as residents, are trying to raise awareness in order to get traffic calming measures along our road to keep everyone safe. It is a miracle that no-one has been hurt yet.”
County Coun Yates said he “fully supported” what the residents want to achieve, adding: “The problem is there has to be some kind of evidence base. Money from local government is extremely tight.”
Data
After last month’s accident, Coun Yates asked for the latest traffic survey data which had been done about three years ago by his predecessor, the late County Coun Ian Lawson.
“I’ve asked for that to be refreshed, so I have paid out of my own county councillor allowance for highways projects including the new traffic survey, which will be a speed and volume survey to provide an evidence base to support interventions.”
He said this would encompass work he had commissioned for Mow Lane, Halls Road, Congleton Road and Station Road.
County Coun Yates explained that as far as road accident statistics were concerned, none had been recorded on Halls Road.
“Unless there’s an injury it’s not recorded and this is fundamentally wrong,” he said.
“I know the police have attended on two occasions in the last 18 months where the cars have left the road at speed, gone up the pavement and demolished substantial walls of people’s houses. If anybody was walking past at the moment that happened they would be dead.”
Added County Coun Yates: “My wife and granddaughter had walked past the scene of the latest accident when the wall was demolished, just 20 minutes before.”
A Halls Road resident told the “Chronicle”: “We are very concerned, especially when there are no statistics for road accidents.”
They said the residents were going to submit a freedom of information request in relation to road accidents on Halls Road and they will be going door to door requesting signatures for the petition.
(Photo by Halls Road resident).
