Streets for People Statement
We welcome the announcement from Manchester City Council that the active neighbourhood trial is still going ahead, and thank the councillors who have shown determination to get the trial started. We recognise that significant consultation has already taken place, but that some felt their opinions had not been heard. It is positive that the council is now pursuing further engagement through commonplace and public meetings. Streets for People will be doing our own work to ensure that as many people in the local area are informed about the consultation and trial as possible. The best way forward is to ensure everyone has access to clear information about the upcoming trial.
To that effect, we have created a comparison map and table of both the old scheme and new scheme at the bottom of our statement so that people can see where changes have occurred, with the keys of both the old and new maps provided.
We believe as a group that a trial is still the only way to find out how these measures will benefit our local area. We are glad to see that there are now several traffic and air pollution monitoring devices installed, especially on roads with high volume of traffic such as Broom Lane and Barlow Road. This data is public and will give us all a live look into how the trial measures affect traffic and pollution in several areas of Levenshulme.
From the information provided by the council, it is not 100% clear whether or not the much needed pedestrian crossing sites and traffic calming measures will be implemented during the trial period. We will seek urgent clarification from the council on this matter. Streets for People supports traffic calming measures for the whole of Levenshulme and Burnage. We want slower traffic and lower traffic.
We are also seeking clarification from the council as to how this engagement data will be used. The council must be clear that this is community engagement to improve the trials and the overall scheme. It is not a referendum on whether the trial should go ahead at all.
We are disappointed with some developments, particularly the further delay of School Streets programs that were due to begin in September. We are a month into the start of the school year and there has been continuing complaints from parents about the situation at the school gates. Recent data from Manchester Urban Observatory shows a distinct uptick in traffic around school times, and there have been multiple coronavirus outbreaks at local schools. Schools require action now and it is unclear based on the council’s information provided when measures will be implemented. A one-day school street closure will be nice, but won’t provide long term protection from both pollution and covid-19 around the school gates.
We are also disappointed about the delay of the Burnage part of the scheme.We spoke to many Burnage residents both online and in person who were looking forward to the trials. Two primary schools fall within the area which is now being delayed. Regardless, we look forward to this section of our community joining the trials in 2021, and the chance to see a low traffic neighbourhood working across the whole of the scheme area.
We will now take time to examine the plans in greater detail and to collect wider opinion from our supporters and signatories. We will examine the commonplace site to investigate the new feedback and see what the common themes are. We will be producing further information and comment on the plans as well as seeking clarification from the council where needed. If you want to let us know your thoughts on the plans, please get in touch at streets4peoplelb@gmail.com
This is just the start of what we hope will be many years of improvements for our community, including to areas of Burnage not covered by the current scheme.
For now, we encourage people to read the information we already have on our site (that we’ll be adding to regularly!) and comment their opinions on commonplace, as well as like comments they agree with. There is also no replacement for talking to those you know, letting them know about the scheme and what you think of it, ask them to comment and chat to others too (and sign the collective letter if they haven’t already!). The more information the council has about the scheme the more it is likely to reflect the views of the people of Levenshulme and Burnage.
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Comparison map and table
See below for an interactive example of the two projects side by side. Bear in mind the original active neighbourhood vision map that includes crossings was for both during trial (filters) and post-trial, whilst MCCs phase 1 map is for the 6 month trial only.
Larger version can be seen here.
Whilst the crossings in the original map were for post-trial, the council seems to have announced traffic calming measures and crossings to be implemented alongside the filtered neighbourhood in phase one, with the locations for these easures being decided now through commonplace. We are seeking clarification, but if true this is brilliant news.
To answer this consultation specifically go here.
Table of filters and changes
| Filter Number (Street) | Status |
| 1. Longden Road | No change |
| 2. Armitage avenue | No change |
| 3. Mayford road | No change |
| 4. Guildford road | Changed from diagonal filter to standard filter |
| 5. Manor road 1 | No change |
| 6. Manor road 2 | No change |
| 7. Caremine avenue | New filter |
| 8. Portville road | No change |
| 9. Dunstable street | No change |
| 10. Barlow road | No change |
| 11. Cardus street (North) | New filter |
| 12. Cardus street (South) | No change |
| 13. Chapel street (West) | No change |
| 14. Chapel street (East) | No change |
| 15. Atlas place | No change |
| 16. Delamere road (West) | No change |
| 17. Delamere road/Gordon road | No change |
| 18. Crayfield road | No change |
| 19. Marley road | No change |
| 20. Dorset road | No change |
| 21. Molyneux road | No change |
| 22. Osborne road | No change |
| 23. Victoria road | Changed from diagonal filter to standard filter |
| 24. Buckhurst road | No change |
| 25. Henderson street | No change |
| x. Green drive | Filter removed (This is a private road) |
| x. Lytham road | Filter removed |
There have also been changes in road direction and the introduction of new turning directions which we will be investigating further.
