Cheshire East has been accused of putting the skids under plans by Macclesfield Town Council to pay for its own road gritting programme.

Several areas across the borough have seen roads axed from the borough council's winter gritting programme as it moved to a new assessment procedure.

As we reported on in October, despite being twice the size in population, Macclesfield has almost a quarter less gritting than Congleton.

There was a 19 per cent per capita reduction in gritting routes for Macclesfield, part of over 200 gritting routes were axed across Cheshire East.

Macclesfield streets Black Road, Brook Street, Union Road, Windmill Street, Blakelow Road and Gunco Lane were threatened by the cuts.

Public outrage even saw the creation of a Facebook campaign group, which has almost 700 members.

This week, Macclesfield Town Council decided to stump up the cash to pay itself for roads which had been removed in its area.

But town councillor Fiona Wilson said Cheshire East had so far made this impossible.

Speaking at Wednesday's Cheshire East Council meeting, Cllr Wilson said: "Following the removal of several roads in Macclesfield as part of the well managed highway review introduced by the Department of Transport, we [Macclesfield Town Council] agreed unanimously to pay for the gritting this winter of the majority of the routes removed from the schedule.

"We have agreed a total cost of up to £12,000 and selected a preferred supplier who has extensive experience and all relevant insurances.

"We've also agreed that we will be prepared to pay Cheshire East to do the gritting.

"I understand that highways gave verbal permission for us to use our provider but they have now declined to give any permission at all with no explanation.

"We have already had one heavy fall of snow and, quite frankly, we are at a loss as to why this issue can't be sorted out."

Cheshire East Council has also been slated for delaying plans to light Middlewood Way.

Fiona Wilson, who is also Macclesfield's Deputy Mayor until May 2022, was also angry at Cheshire East's highways department for this.

The unitary authority scuppered plans to re-light Middlewood Way which, she said, the town council had agreed in June 2019.

"The cost breakdown for solar lanterns provided by highways in June 2019 was £29,880," said Cllr Wilson.

She said the town council was paying for the lights but, by the time Cheshire East had agreed and responded, the cost had increased to £37,000.

"We confirmed this with highways on June 16, 2021, and after chasing several times and getting no response we finally received an update on November 8, nearly five months later," she said.

"This was expected to be a confirmation date of when the work would take place, however we were advised that the lighting spec previously provided by highways did not meet British standards for lighting.

"We've now been sent a quote from Ringway Jacobs [the highways contractor] wanting £3,625 pounds plus VAT to provide an approved street lighting design and that we will now have to pay for maintenance and electricity of the lights which had previously been agreed to be solar to reduce costs and be environmentally friendly."

She said these unacceptable situations needed resolving.

Highways committee chair Craig Browne said he would respond in writing but added he applauded the town council in the way it had responded to the call to town and parish councils to work with Cheshire East as delivery partners.

To learn more about Fiona Wilson, please click here.

See also: Macclesfield Gritting: Angered resident gets down to the nitty-gritty over axed routes.

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