On Roads

Maesbury is full of narrow lanes. Some are more narrow than others. You can see an example of a wide narrow lane in the attached photo. This one has wide verges but don't let them fool you - there are ditches hidden in the grass and the last time a car (passing a truck) went in one they had to get the local farmer to bring his tractor and pull it out.

Luckily this lane is a dead end but others are not and down some some very large lorries go. Of course farmers and other locals can use any lane but such is the size of some lorries that there are prefered routes to get to various firms. As other lanes are mainly used for local cars, bikers, walkers and horses there was a request some years back (in the local Village Design Statement) to make some lanes - including some used as rat-runs by those not using prefered routes - should become quiet lanes. But nothing came of it.

Then, out of the blue Maesbury locals received with their post a questionnaire asking if they wanted certain lanes to have weight restrictions (except for local traffic) on them. 

Now, if you know anything about these sorts of delivered documents you will guess that all but 20% never get filled in, with the majority binned as junk, unread or even not getting read as the occupant doesn't bother. Still the majority of those returned said yes to the weight restrictions.

One might expect that to be the end of the story with signs being put up but - no - this is the land of power groups and local politics and Maesbury - quiet though it is has plenty of both.

 First the groups - we have a couple of lorry firms, we have a number of farmers, and we have, as some say, not got out of the middle ages as far as who controls what goes.

 Now the politics. Maesbury Parish does not have a parish council. It is actually part of a rural parish council with some large villages and other areas and on that council has only 3 votes. So anything Maesbury wants has to be approved by the majority of a group who are mostly outsiders.

 Finally the council that actually own the roads and made the original offer is the County one who have links with a lot of persons and groups and who really control everything. Normally they send our local county councillor to the rural parish meeting to do whatever you wish to imagine she does.

So, we arrive at the rural parish meeting to find the rural council are happy to endorse the plan. But in the public in attendance is a lady who has heard of the plan an objects as she and others she knows have not been offered a vote. Now this lady does not live in Maesbury Parish but in one of those large villages and as far as anyone can see has no reason to drive a large truck along any lane. So, noting her objections the parish council vote for the weight restrictions.

Shortly after we hear - via our county councillor - that the county council have decided to issue questionaires to all in the rural parish - including our lady one assumes. More time and the result of the new poll is in - still in favour of the limits.

 Now around this time locals have found out (as he told us) that the affordable housing man from the council has been round looking for possible sites and thinks a good one is down the lane by the school. Of all the lanes this is definitely the one that needs signs as it is very narrow, on a rat run, and runs right by the school entrance. (The photo was taken near that entrance.)

It may be that this is a red herring in the story but...

The next thing we hear is that the council is unhappy that so few voted so they plan to hold another vote. The low number vote is nothing new to local politics - councillors get elected by very low numbers of people in our area and a previous questionnaire was said to be well responded to when it achieved 20%!

So - a new poll or are they playing for time. One wonders.

Then, yesterday, we hear that 'due to the current climate of recession the council is saving money by cancelling any vote or the plans for weight restrictions in the lanes of Maesbury. This proposal is not dropped however - it will be considered again in the future. Carry on rat running lads! 

On the subject of lanes recently one was closed (according to the county council notice in the paper) for 3 months for repairs to a canal lift bridge.

I lack a photo of said bridge as one has to go through a ford to get to it one way or down a very narrow lane the other where you might meet a lorry and have a very long difficult reverse as there are no passing places.

What concerned me about the closure was those lorries for, according to the office bound council officers, the road over the bridge and through the ford is the only route to a farm. So how would the farmer feed his hundreds of shed-bound cattle? My worry was that the road being shut would mean all traffic wound go over Spiggot's Bridge. (Photo Opposite) 

Spiggott's is a bridge which should have a 4 ton weight limit plus width restrictions but was given a ten ton one by the council. As the bridge is original 1795 stuff it is almost unique and should be protected but our council don't do protection.

A similar bridge in the East midlands collapsed spectacularly under a tractor/trailer load. Like Spoggot's this bridge was bowed on both sides of the road and it is thought that the tractor brushed one wall taking it out. Then as the walls are part of the support for the bridge the wall going weakened the bridge enough for the ten ton trailer to go straight through it - luckily the coupling to the tractor broke. The bridge rebuild cost a quarter million pounds.

With this in mind I e-mailed my concern to our councillor while also making enquires of the navigation authorities (also in an office many miles away) of what was happening. Meanwhile locals reported the bridge was up/down/up/down over the next 3 days. The navigation mob (British Waterways - run by a government appointed group whose chief executive gets more than the PM) gave conflicting reports from their local (Nantwich) office but finally decided the bridge was fixed after 3 days. As for the council - it took them three weeks to inform the local councillor that repairs were completed. This information she passed to me yesterday.