Manchester City Council

Roads and transport Consultation phases and results

Phase one results - including Workshop A

The project began in March 2021 with the 'Have your say phase' where local people could tell us about their street and the wider area in a number of different ways. This followed on from the Withington Village Framework consultation run by Manchester City Council, which highlighted a clear desire amongst residents for better public space and safer environments for walking and cycling. 

Phase one and additional discussions with local people will shape the layout of the final recommended design for safer streets. It is then up to the local council to trial this design and explore which changes should be made permanent.   

Project and survey launch 

The project was launched with flyers and a ‘Tell us about your street’ survey posted to every household within and just beyond the project area – 2,161 addresses in total.  

We set up this project website where the 'Tell us about your street' survey was available to fill in online, as well as an interactive map where you could tell us what you liked, disliked and would improve about the area.  

We also reached out by email and phone to local groups who may want to share their thoughts on the project. 

Who had their say 

We collected demographic data for survey respondents to help us understand if any groups were under-represented. From this we have identified additional groups to get in touch with, to ensure that as many as possible get to have their say.  

View consultation

Workshop A results : June 2021 

Workshop A was a chance for us to introduce the project and the team to local people, share some of the early findings of the surveys, and explore how roads can be categorised for different uses.  

A combination of discussions with local people at the workshop, input from local council highways team and traffic data will help inform which streets need interventions to help create safer, more pleasant streets.  

At Workshop A we asked participants to really think about what and who streets should be for, and whether some streets should be more about facilitating traffic movement (i.e. main distributor roads) and others should be more about 'place', a space for residents to spend time in where pedestrians come first (i.e. residential streets). 

The first task was to look at the wider road network of Withington and to classify streets as: 

  1. Strategic roads ('red routes') - suitable for long distance/strategic journeys and larger vehicles, such as lorries 
  2. Locally strategic roads ('blue routes') - locally significant, for trips into a town centre for example 
  3. Residential streets ('colourless routes') - streets where residents, play and non-motorised movement should be prioritised. Where there should be no through traffic or rat running 

The key difference being that red and blue routes are for carrying traffic and, if nothing is done, are likely to carry more and more traffic in the future, whilst residential streets are not designed to carry high levels of traffic.  

Then we asked attendees to be aspirational and mark up the roads as they would like them to be. This involved changing some blue routes to residential and discussions around how the remaining blue and red routes might be improved. 

Key points of discussion among the groups regarding road categories: 

  • Number of accidents on junction of Brunswick/Parsonage near Gandi Hall 
  • Concern that if nothing is done on Parsonage Road, vehicles will come from parsonage onto Alan Rd and it will become a bigger rat-run. 
  • Concern for roads near the edge of the project area like Amherst - need to ensure rat running doesn't increase here. 
  • Ambition to reduce rat running in Cotton Lane, Heaton Road etc.  
  • Something needs to be done on Parsonage Road - are filters or other traffic calming measures best? Discussions over where filters would work well.  
  • Traffic needs to be monitored on Parsonage Road 
  • Mauldeth Road is an important traffic route but residents here need to be considered if the project isn't able to reduce traffic volumes here 
  • More car journeys should stay on the motorway and not use Wilmslow road. Ambitions to reduce traffic on Wilmslow Road through the village.  

We have included anonymised comments from attendees at the Parsonage Road Safer Streets Workshop A (10 June 2021)  

Current barriers  

  • Too much litter – makes it unpleasant for pedestrians  
  • Number and size of cars are too large, visibility difficult  
  • Number of delivery drivers are increasing which is a worry – they speed because they have to do a lot of deliveries quickly, needs controlling. We may stop other car traffic but these delivery vans will always exist and are increasing  
  • rat running. parsonage road. % car? and where are they going to? Response: traffic counts are doing shortly, will be presenting the data. Speed is a big issue in the area. Excess speed.  
  • Great school in the area, narrow scope of this project, only focus on the west side. Potential for displacement in the other school. Not creating new rat runs by fixing an area. Not great school street.  
  • Danger from the road, next to school. The staff are doing their own closure. Need something more substantial. School budget is too short. Trying to keep the children safe with the community.  

Potential interventions  

  • Can interventions be aesthetically better? Large planters in Didsbury acting as filters, community can get involved  
  • Is it easier to spend money on traffic calming than closures? Are crossings and speed restrictions more cost effective? We could expand the area more cost effectively through other measures.  
  • I don’t have children and I don’t want my street becoming a playground. I want a peaceful street where I can sit in my garden, I don’t want kids on my road.  
  • I own a Land Rover and do a lot of deliveries, I still need to be able to do that and have customers be able to get to my house  
  • Will emergency services be consulted?  
  • A lot of schemes (bollards etc.) are really ugly and don’t enhance the area. Planters not maintained. Materials need to be considered, e.g. black plastic. A lot of the plants are dead!  
  • Lots of people are cutting down mature trees locally. Trees planted *into* the streets instead? Incl. watering service while they become established.  
  • Overall agreement. BUT: scheme like this doesn’t work by itself. Need to consider impact on increased traffic for people living on main road.  
  • Sunday morning speeding – should be a policing issue not a traffic issue  

Survey  

Survey got it spot on – people most concerned about speed of traffic. Need good evidence – who’s speeding? Why? Locals? Who’s involved in the accidents? Going from and to? What is GMP’s assessment?  

  • Amherst Road  
    • Amherst to Fairholme Rd is a rat-run, potentially exacerbated by suggested project boundary – crossing Parsonage between Alan Rd and Fairholme Rd is dangerous, cars at high speed  
    • Boundary of area: nice road and community. Used as cut through to wide estate on Parsonage Road, drive fast. Danger of displacement of traffic – background concern?  
  • Alan Road  
    • Disappointment the area will be limited to west of Alan Road. Alan Road to Parrs Wood is wider, vehicles coming from here move much faster and slow down one they reach Alan Road  
    • Concern that if nothing is done on Parsonage Road, vehicles will come from parsonage onto Alan Rd and it will become a bigger rat-run  
    • Amherst to Fairholme Rd is a rat-run, potentially exacerbated by suggested project boundary – crossing Parsonage between Alan Rd and Fairholme Rd is dangerous, cars at high speed  
  • Brunswick Road  
    • Number of accidents on junction of Brunswick/Parsonage near Gandi Hall: no sign to indicate there’s a junction coming up. Need to do something around landlords maintaining trees, front gardens and bins – block sight and major contributor to 2 major accidents.  
  • Cotton Lane  
    • Cotton Lane: currently mostly residential traffic however some park there because of the Christie  
    • Ambition to reduce rat running in Cotton Lane, Heaton Road etc.  
  • Parsonage Road  
    • Concern that if nothing is done on Parsonage Road, vehicles will come from parsonage onto Alan Rd and it will become a bigger rat-run  
    • Road closure example in presentation looked great but can be contentious o Corner of Parsonage Road with Wilmslow Road outside Coffee Lab could be filtered/closed, but is it better to slow traffic rather than stop traffic through road closures  
    • Blind individuals in community – paths on Parsonage Road uneven and unsafe  
    • Speed of traffic on Parsonage Road – is it being monitored? Yes as part of the project. Watch out for Workshop 3!  
    • Parsonage Road resurfaced – when full of pot holes people had to drive more slowly. There’s no enforcement. Underneath tarmac original pavers:  
    • Would look more attractive  
    • Would slow speed  
    • From Parsonage Road towards village pavement is uneven.  
    • Take Parsonage Road out – needs to become residential  
    • Parsonage road, rat run, and also need a traffic island on Mauldeth Road in the middle of the road because it's really a wide one.  
    • All over parsonage road, bad pavement surface  
  • Fairholme Road  
    • Amherst to Fairholme Rd is a rat-run, potentially exacerbated by suggested project boundary – crossing Parsonage between Alan Rd and Fairholme Rd is dangerous, cars at high speed  
  • Mauldeth Road  
    • Mauldeth Rd goes through Ladyburn – Mauldeth Rd West is dual carriageway but the rest is in Ladyburn village  
    • Parsonage road, rat run, and also need a traffic island on Mauldeth Road in the middle of the road because it's really a wide one.  
    • Mauldeth Road problematic: o Seems busy o MR West Locally significant route – rat running  
  • Moseley Road  
    • Moseley Rd is 40mph, a significant route out, would argue that it is a red road  
  • Ladybarn  
    • Mauldeth Rd goes through Ladyburn – Mauldeth Rd West is dual carriageway but the rest is in Ladyburn village and feels very different. Not consistently red or blue along the length of the road  
    • Route up to Ladybarn park is dangerous – getting people there safely is more important, by introducing crossings etc. Existing green space intended for activities and fun, just need to get people there safely.  
  • Wilmslow Road  
    • Is it mostly around Wilbraham Road / Moseley Road as main road for lorries?  
    • Often more buses than cars  
    • Aspiration is to reduce traffic through the village  
    • Withington to Fallowfield – a bit hairy for cyclists!  
    • Withington village part of road choked – such a same with cafes etc. Addressed via regeneration of village???  
    • I agree with all the points made. In addition I think the junctions onto Wilmslow Road cycle lanes need improvement  
  • M60  
    • Only through route is the motorway – I wouldn’t take any of these roads?  
    • Motorways often ignored by google maps – distance the same but fewer junctions  
  • Parkville Road  
    • Parkville Road is blue – one down from Cotton Lane. Should be just residential but people rat run round the closure.  
  • Fog Lane  
    • Fog Lane: feels red but shouldn’t be  
  • Whitchurch road  
    • Useful east west connection for driving  
  • Agecroft Road  
    • Agecroft Rd: council doing some work around improving road safety especially around proximity of schools  
  • Heaton Road  
    • Near Heaton Road, no very limit signage of the speed. Additional parking space coming with the extension of the hospital. So even more issue coming with that. 

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