At Thursday’s Gatley Village Partnership, we had some discussion about parking on Stonepail Road.

The Council have been looking at improvements and, at the request of the Partnership some months ago, have included it in a wider look at the village parking and traffic situation instead of taking it on its own.

I’m hopeful we can find the right balance.  As with so many parking issues, we’ve got two competing concerns.

On the one hand, many people quite rightly want more parking in Gatley (hence all the work councillors and council officers have been putting into looking at ways to get a new car park behind the Tatton cinema site).  We’re cautious about putting down further restrictions to make the parking situation even worse.

On the other hand, there are genuine and important concerns about safety.  Ideally, we wouldn’t have parking at the top of Old Hall Road, for example.

Stonepail Road has just this issue.  It’s used extensively for parking and, being narrow, can’t take two vehicles passing when cars are parked down the side.

Elderly people from Guardian Lodge in particular need to cross to the bus stop on Church Road, and others are concerned about the general safety on the road – one of those “accident waiting to happen” concerns.

We’re hoping to agree plans for general improvements to Gatley village in the next few weeks, and I aim to make some changes to Stonepail Road as part of those.

Our local Police Inspector – Steve Gilbertson – has also agreed to bring figures on actual accidents reported to the police on Stonepail Road to the next partnership meeting.