Congleton Sustainability Group met recently, download the full meeting minutes HERE.
Air Quality Monitoring.
Barry’s paper was circulated prior to the meeting.
Barry starting by reminding/ advising everyone that Turs 8th October is “Clean Air day” and a great opportunity to raise awareness around the subject. Barry has purchased an Air Quality measuring device and plans to visit a number of areas around the town to measure the pollution at those points. He will also be making leaflets available to anyone who wishes more information 9 using Covid 19 best practice) and is looking for volunteers to help in this operation. Please contact Barry direct if you can support.
Longer-term it was agreed that we should look to build a case/ database of information that we can take back to Cheshire East and lobby them to take a more positive/ active approach to improve air quality in general in line with the targets they have set. The group voted in favour of this approach, suggesting that funds be put aside to purchase extra / better equipment so that this can be carried out over a longer period to be able to build up an accurate bank of information that has some legitimacy to it. A budget of £500 was suggested to be funded from CSG or Partnership P&F if required.
It was also felt that Barry should not be paying for equipment out of his own pocket to carry out this work, and that he should make a claim to CSG for reimbursement.
Both MG and KW felt that this issue should be raised with the Green Group for The Town Council to also pursue. They also asked MS to contact J.MacArthur to get a message of support for the Clean Air Day activity out on the Council / Partnership social media platforms.
A comment was made regarding measuring AQ before and after The Link Rd opening to see what improvement that project has delivered.
Hydro Scheme DVCE.
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Construction is continuing apace and broadly on the plan, the screw has nearly finished manufacture in the Netherlands; there is a great YouTube video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGViZ4p3Fuw from Landustrie the screw manufacturers, that shows how the whole hydro scheme works; the cable from the weir to Siemens has been installed; the boardwalk from Havannah Lane to the weir and Power House has been designed and a contract is about to be awarded that will enable pedestrian access for education tours etc;
Active Travel.
Road Safety
The shared space in Bridge St , Little St, Princess St and High St has formally come into being. The ‘Cyclist Dismount’ signs have been taken down and signs that declare ‘Pedestrian and Cyclists’ only have been erected. We know that there are still some detractors but, by closely monitoring the behaviour of all users of the space, we should be able to create the shared space we all want. The temporary ‘Share with Care’ signs at the eastern end of Bridge St have been moved on a number of occasions into the area between the bike racks and the wall of the adjacent building, thus blocking that space for pedestrians. On at least three occasions members of ATC have put them back in front of the racks so that they do not impede pedestrian or cycle flow and so that they are more easily seen. The sign at the Western end has been found lying flat on the ground, face down, on a number of occasions too. We don’t know who is responsible but suggest that this is not helping achieve a safe shared space.
Significant numbers of measures to make the streets safer in the first tranche of ‘integrated transport measures’ were not implemented in Congleton. Some of these measures were Congleton Town Council and some were Cheshire East requests. 20mph was asked for and has not been granted to Congleton. Sandbach appears to have 20 or so 20mph streets! Other towns fared as poorly as Congleton – Poynton, Middlewich among them. The second tranche of measures that was due to have a greater impact on Congleton, traffic calming on Mill St/Swan Bank, Antrobus St and West St has been ‘delayed’ by the central government.
Padgbury Lane is a joke! We attended a meeting with the contractors, prior to its reopening, and pointed out that their proposals would simply encourage ‘Jack the Lad’ to treat the chicanes as a challenge. According to eye witness report and the Chronicle last week, this is precisely what is happening!
Meeting ended 19.42
Next Meeting :- Mon 2nd November, 10.00 am via Zoom.