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Progress at Winnick Park says MP

Warrington North MP HELEN JONES met with residents, police and borough council representatives to discuss the traffic management problems at the entrance to Winwick Park estate last Friday. She felt progress had been made at the meeting.

At a village surgery in Winwick Primary School in February a number of residents approached HELEN JONES to express concerns about the traffic management at the roundabout on the A49 at the entrance to the Winwick Park estate. Mums taking their children to the primary school were particularly concerned with cars jumping the lights and excess speeding through the roundabout. They also felt that the route to school did not have enough road side barriers and that small children were in danger from the busy road.

As a result HELEN JONES instigated a survey of the whole estate and received a large number of responses which she promised to pass on to both the police and borough council. In addition she promised to arrange a meeting at the site – this took place last Friday.

Comments from residents on the survey returns included:

• cars shooting the lights;

• concerns about the pelican crossing being to close too the traffic control lights;

• concern that the lights were often out of sinc and pedestrians often had to wait up to five minutes for the ‘green man’ to come up and allow them to cross the road;

• difficulties in seeing the lights in the afternoon/evening because of the sun shining directly into them.
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Suggestions included:

• installing traffic cameras;

• installing more barrier protection at the roadside;

• employing a lollipop person;

• moving the pelican crossing closer to the Swan Public House;

• adjusting the timing on the lights to ease traffic flow;

• improve the sequencing of the lights;

• installing traffic humps to slow the traffic down.
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At the meeting with the police and borough council it was agreed:

• that the police will actively monitor the site and crack down on speeding and on those who jump the lights;

• that the borough council will conduct a through safety audit;
• and that the issue of safety barriers and other concerns about children walking to school will be followed up via the borough council using resources provided by the government’s safe route to school initiative.
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Following the meeting HELEN JONES said:

“ I think that we are making progress. Both the police and borough council understand the strength of feeling of the residents at Winwick Park and are now fully aware of their concerns. “ The police will be taking action against motorists who jump the lights or commit other traffic offences. As one of the residents pointed out at the meeting - action needs to be taken now before a child is knocked down.

“ I am pleased that the council are to conduct a thorough safety audit. This will take a couple of months to complete but should provide all the data needed to identify where the problems are and what needs to be done to rectify them. “ In the meantime I will be asking the council to also conduct a review into the route to school used by parents and children on the estate. There is government money available to ensure school routes are made safer and improvements made. I believe this is a resource that should be used in this case. “