ON MAY 26, 2011, four houses on Beach Road received a letter from Cheshire West and Chester Council informing them of plans to move the bus shelter from the corner of Beach Road and Bradburns Lane to directly outside their homes and crossing the access to their drives.

The letter stated that this was because of changes being made to this road junction on account of the Winnington Urban Village development. No other properties on Beach Road where informed of this drastic change and that included those houses facing on to the junction as well as the Methodist Church.

These properties would soon find traffic lights at the end of their drives! The four property owners who received letters were granted a few weeks to object to the proposal to move the bus stop, but only on safety grounds – which we promptly did.

Furthermore, with the help of a neighbour I distributed copies of the council letter, a note of my own and a petition to all of the houses on Beach Road between Bradburns Lane and Hodge Lane. The petition was against the changes to the junction on our road along with the plans to relocate the bus shelter. Our petition was signed by every single person (37) that we were able to speak to. All of my neighbours were quite frankly shocked at this proposal and disgusted by the way in which the work was going to be undertaken without their prior knowledge. Nevertheless our petition fell on deaf ears and our specific safety concerns, based upon our experiences of actually living on Beach Road, were simply dismissed out of hand.

Adding traffic lights and a right-turn filter lane from Beach Road into Bradburns Lane will not ease traffic flow during peak times in the slightest. During the school run, the traffic can easily back up from this junction to beyond the Hodge Lane roundabout on to Northwich Road towards Weaverham. Traffic heading to Northwich will still be impeded. Outside of peak times, the free flow of traffic will be needlessly thwarted by the traffic lights. Worse still, the houses around the junction will become subjected to unnecessary engine braking, idling (or stop-starting) and acceleration as traffic pulls away 24-hours-a-day. Worst of all will be the noise of the heavy tankers that use it throughout the night.

For my part, having a bus shelter directly outside of my house will block my sight of oncoming traffic making it far more dangerous to exit. For the same reason the bus shelter will also restrict my view of pedestrians as I pull into my drive. A stationary bus at that point on Beach Road will also pose problems for overtaking cars with respect to cars pulling out of Grange Drive or other properties on the Road. I currently look out on to a field with alpacas roaming around in it and I can only imagine how this will affect the value of my home when this is blocked by a bus shelter with people sitting on my garden wall. I certainly would not buy such a house.

Although it is probably too late (and apparently futile) to protest against the junction road works, I do hope that CWAC reconsiders its decision to move the bus shelter which will endanger my family, other road users and pedestrians. Who does CWAC work for? Who does it represent?

Chris Hope Beach Road Hartford