I'm sure many of us who drive along the A56 through Frodsham and Helsby are somewhat fed up with road works, the delay and the congestion they cause. I know I am.
Leaving aside the inconvenience for the motorist - of potentially much greater significance is the air pollution caused by standing traffic.
Those most vulnerable to traffic related pollution are our children and our older folk - those we should be looking after the most. People are most at risk when they are walking alongside idling traffic it or living next to it.
Now you would have thought that CWaC would routinely consider air pollution and air pollution risks as part of planning their own road works. However this is not the case.
Lynn and I have just had the devil's own job in persuading the officers not to impose traffic light controlled single lane traffic on the A56 whilst works are taking place to shore up the cliff edge at the Rock in Frodsham. This part of the A56 leads from our Air Quality Management Area ('AQMA')(junction of A56 with Fluin Lane / St Hilda's Drive) - where air quality is already so poor that it breaches UK and international standards.
We pointed out that the road there is wide enough to accommodate a safe working area and two lanes of traffic. The officers did not appear to be convinced by those arguments. However when I asked to see the risk assessment documentation assessing the impact of single lane traffic controlled by traffic lights on the air pollution and the AQMA area they relented. I suspect this was because that documentation simply didn't exist... nor had the effect on air quality been properly considered.
Through the work Lynn and I have been leading over the years (since 2008) Frodsham has one of the most extensive sets of air quality monitoring equipment anywhere in England. It was through that work that we identified the AQMA at the end of Fluin Lane/A56.
However notwithstanding that we have an Air Quality Management Area and this imposes an obligation on the council to see traffic pollution reduced CWaC has so far done nothing to protect us. They are breach of the legal timetable to see works done too - and they know it.
So - for once we should all be grateful for this particular set of cones. We get the works to the Rock completed whilst two-way traffic flows as well as it can for the moment.
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Leaving aside the inconvenience for the motorist - of potentially much greater significance is the air pollution caused by standing traffic.
Those most vulnerable to traffic related pollution are our children and our older folk - those we should be looking after the most. People are most at risk when they are walking alongside idling traffic it or living next to it.
Now you would have thought that CWaC would routinely consider air pollution and air pollution risks as part of planning their own road works. However this is not the case.
Lynn and I have just had the devil's own job in persuading the officers not to impose traffic light controlled single lane traffic on the A56 whilst works are taking place to shore up the cliff edge at the Rock in Frodsham. This part of the A56 leads from our Air Quality Management Area ('AQMA')(junction of A56 with Fluin Lane / St Hilda's Drive) - where air quality is already so poor that it breaches UK and international standards.
We pointed out that the road there is wide enough to accommodate a safe working area and two lanes of traffic. The officers did not appear to be convinced by those arguments. However when I asked to see the risk assessment documentation assessing the impact of single lane traffic controlled by traffic lights on the air pollution and the AQMA area they relented. I suspect this was because that documentation simply didn't exist... nor had the effect on air quality been properly considered.
Through the work Lynn and I have been leading over the years (since 2008) Frodsham has one of the most extensive sets of air quality monitoring equipment anywhere in England. It was through that work that we identified the AQMA at the end of Fluin Lane/A56.
However notwithstanding that we have an Air Quality Management Area and this imposes an obligation on the council to see traffic pollution reduced CWaC has so far done nothing to protect us. They are breach of the legal timetable to see works done too - and they know it.
So - for once we should all be grateful for this particular set of cones. We get the works to the Rock completed whilst two-way traffic flows as well as it can for the moment.
