I AM disgusted that the council didn't have the courtesy to inform all Hindley Green residents affected by their "Rat Run" proposals. I didn't know anything about it until I read The Journal.

Taylor Road, Hindley Green, is a straight road which branches in to a roughly circular road - like a lollipop on a stick.

Now it is proposed to create two cul-de-sacs on part of the circular section. I contacted the highways department and queried the ability of vehicles to turn round. I was informed turning facilities would be available by reversing in to space at 53/55 Taylor Road and up into Calder Avenue.

Be warned, residents of Taylor Road, not park your cars in front of your drives!

The highways department must be living in cloud cuckoo land. Residents in Severn Drive and Mersey Close (both cul-de-sacs) say any large vehicle, like refuse collection, have to reverse along the road to exit.

Now the emergency services! On approaching Taylor Road do they fork to the left or right? At the moment it doesn't matter, but it would in the new scheme if they made the wrong choice.

And how do they get into Severn Drive! The new approach would be down Swan Lane (the road so busy it is causing the rat run), along Edinburgh Drive - known as the chicane because of the number of parked cars - and I seriously doubt a large fire engine could negotiate easily the 90 degree bend halfway along. If they can it is on to Stuart Avenue and Taylor Road and finally Severn Drive.

Hindley fire brigade are concerned about response times. I dare say the ambulance service would have the same reservations.

There are approximately 65 houses on the Taylor Road estate which would become blocked off. Assuming each house has a car (many have two) and make only two trips per day (some make four or five) this will make an extra 260 cars a day along Stuart Avenue, and eventually in to Swan Lane, during daylight hours. On top of this you have visitors and delivery vehicles.

It is said that 42 cars travelled along Stuart Avenue between 8 and 9am. I assume the majority of these would be mothers taking their children to school and should cause no problem. At night there are 95 cars an hour and I presume these are the problem.

Let us consider some alternatives to the proposed scheme:

Instal proper sleeping policemen in Stuart Avenue. These have been effective with other councils.

It is assumed cars on the Rat Run come from the Hindley Green Industrial Estate. Make Stuart Avenue 'no entry' at its junction with Edinburgh Drive. If they are coming the other way place the 'no entry' sign at the junction with Taylor Road.

Make Stuart Avenue into a cul-de-sac, residents to choose which end. The highways department say there are no turning facilities for lorries, but they are too small in existing cul-de-sacs.

Now let us be mercenary. The proposed changes will certainly devalue property, due to either long, winding approaches or prospective buyers having to three- or five-point turn to leave the estate.

However, it is said we have a caring council, who I am sure will pay all affected householders full recompense immediately if the proposed scheme is installed.

Finally, may I congratulate the highways department on making Taylor Road into Taylor Road, straight, Taylor Road fork left, Taylor Road fork right and Taylor Road that isn't, and by creating the longest cul-de-sac I have ever seen: Stuart Avenue, Taylor Road that isn't and Severn Drive!

Confused

Name and address supplied

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