Plans to extend controversial cycle lane to go before council bosses for third time

Plans to extend the controversial cycle lane from Castleton further towards Rochdale are set to go before council bosses for a third time next week.

Rochdale’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday (23 july) to decide on ‘Phase 2’ of the work in Castleton. It has been before the panel twice before.

The £9.1m Bee Network is recommended by officers for approval. The last two times the plan was put before executive councillors, they chose to defer pending further consultation with residents.

On 28 May, Councillor Liam O’Rourke requested people with visual impairments were asked for their thoughts. Kevin Greenan, a blind man, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service about apparent flaws with the existing lane.

 

 

Cash from the Mayor’s Challenge fund will go towards regenerating streets, creating segregated cycle lanes and upgrading major junctions on Manchester Road.

Works for Phase 1 finished earlier this year, but left many locals angered over the level of traffic disruption and ‘loss of business’. New crossings to improve safety and new, ‘optimised’ lights to control traffic flow and ‘speed up journey times’ are all on the cards.

But that didn’t stop 70 percent of respondents opposing the plans when ‘Phase 2’ plans were put to a survey in September last year.

The council’s planning officer still recommended the scheme for approval, saying in a report 115 people who responded via post – who were more evenly split on the issue than the 302 who gave their opinions online – were ‘possibly’ better informed.

Some people in Castleton have said they feel ignored by a council they claim is determined to impose a plan – for the second time. Residents previously told the local democracy reporting service (LDRS) they believed the last set of roadworks, which were in place for far longer than expected, stopped people pulling up to pop into shops, impacting on local business.

Smith’s Bakery was one of many local businesses directly impacted by this. They closed one of their Manchester Road shops due to the downturn in passing trade.

Despite this, the owner previously told the LDRS that next phase will not impact businesses as much – but traffic problems would be inevitable.

The idea behind this is to create safer ways for pedestrians and cyclists to get to busier parts of the borough which coincide with the Bee Network infrastructure coming in. It is hoped this would reduce the need for short trips in cars, council papers suggest.

A number of junctions are in line for improvements – including Manchester Road and Bolton Road; Manchester Road and Roch Valley Way; and Manchester Road and Drake Street. A new crossing will be created across Manchester Road to Highfield Hospital, with the existing subway filled in.

A new cycle lane will be created to extend the existing cycle lane in Castleton from The Royal Toby Hotel into Rochdale town centre. To ensure no parking bays or road space are lost, the lane will utilise large stretches of Old Manchester Road, which runs parallel to Manchester Road.

New greenery and benches will be introduced along Old Manchester Road, alongside 20mph speed limits and road humps. If approved, work on the scheme is expected to begin later this year, with the entire project due for completion in 2026. 

If the scheme gets the green light from bosses on 23 July, detailed traffic management plans will be drawn up to ensure that disruption, while inevitable, will be kept to an absolute minimum.

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter