RESIDENTS are demanding action after the new hamburger roundabout turned their residential street into a ‘rat run’.
Locals argue the Boughton Heath junction has had a ‘dangerous and unacceptable’ impact on the neighbourhood.
Motorists are avoiding queues at the controversial junction by using Toll Bar Road to cut through between the A41 Whitchurch Road and Ring Road.
A planning inspector forced Commercial Estates Group to reconfigure the roundabout as a condition of granting permission for their housing development at the former Saighton Army camp.
The residents’ petition states: “We are deeply concerned for the safety of residents and children on Toll Bar Road and insist that Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC), our Member of Parliament and local councillors take some real, urgent, visible and meaningful action to stop vehicles using Toll Bar Road as a cut through.”
Petition organiser Neil Green, of the Ring Road, who has written to CWaC and the MP, said: “Despite assurances the matter is being taken seriously and that improvements are being sought, seven months after the completion of the alterations local residents are still suffering its negative impacts on a daily basis.”
CWaC’s planning board rejected the Saighton camp housing proposal arguing local roads wouldn’t be able to cope in future. But CEG won on appeal.
The traffic-light controlled ‘hamburger’ roundabout is so-called because the dual carriageway passes through its centre with other routes going round as usual.
Mark Palethorpe, CWaC’s director of adult social care and health, said: “Both the council and the developer are aware that traffic is not currently moving as efficiently as was anticipated by traffic models, although no traffic counts have yet been undertaken.”
One potential measure being examined is to improve the left turn from Vicars Cross toward Whitchurch Road.
City MP Stephen Mosley says a new planning application for further development at Saighton Camp should be rejected until there is adequate transport provision.
He said: “It is quite clear that the new hamburger junction is not fit for purpose, even for current levels of traffic, and so I have strongly opposed this new application.”
