DISGRUNTLED residents have branded the closure of a main road in Mobberley a ‘horrendous debacle’ and a ‘nightmare’.

Last week, the Guardian reported how motorists got caught up in roadwork chaos on Hall Lane, Mobberley.

Cheshire East Highways closed the road from its junction with Mill Lane and Newton Hall Lane, between 8am-5pm June 23-27, to allow for resurfacing work.
Now residents have hit out at Cheshire East after the closures left them stranded, confused and out of pocket.

Raymond Wiman, 79, and his wife, Pauline, 78, live on Oldfield Drive in Mobberley. Due to the roadworks, their regular bus had to take a diversionary route but the couple could not access the service as the route cut out Mobberley.

Raymond said: “As there was no provision made for the people of Mobberley, the elderly had to either rely on taxis, or if they were lucky, had their own vehicles and could get out to do their shopping.

“Unfortunately for those who had no access to their own transport, they were absolutely isolated due to the poor planning of the closure. Highways seemed to have no consideration for them.”

Raymond said that, like many of their neighbours, they had no forewarning of the closure and therefore could not plan ahead.

Pauline said: “There are a lot of old people in this area. The poor souls didn’t know what was happening.”

Another resident, Bob Lee, from Faulkner’s Lane, told the Guardian he had lost money because of the disruption.

The 62-year-old is currently carrying out rendering work on his house and said he lost £1,000 on the first day of the roadworks.

“I have had an absolute nightmare financially,” he said. “I was given a letter to say the work would start on June 16 so I postponed the work on my house for a week. I was given no notification of the change.”

The workmen returned to resume their work on June 23 but couldn’t get easy access to the building due to the closure.

Cheshire East Council's responds:

Cheshire East Clr David Topping, Cabinet member in charge of environment, said: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents during these necessary roadworks on Hall Lane, Mobberley.

“Hall Lane was in a poor condition and the much-needed resurfacing has been completed one day ahead of schedule. This is really good news for local people and road users.

“Cheshire East Council is currently embarking on a £26m investment programme to improve the condition of roads across the Borough. This will, unfortunately, cause some disruption to all road users as there is a lot of critical work to be completed in a fairly short period of time.

“When roadworks are planned we make every attempt to notify all residents that are directly affected via a letter drop, which we did in this case.

“Unfortunately, both the residents that have contacted the press do not live directly on or near Hall lane and therefore did not receive any notice.

“As part of the forward planning of every scheme we carry out we are duty bound to notify the Council of our intended work and this is placed on the council’s website (webpage called ETON). This notice is then forwarded to all affected parties – including bus companies.

“Once the notice is issued, the bus companies are responsible for notifying any services users of changes to their service by our works. This is normally done by notices on both buses and bus stops.

“As a Council, we recognise that roadworks often cause temporary inconvenience to residents and road users and we are grateful for their patience and understanding while we work hard to improve Cheshire East’s road network for the benefit of residents and visitors to the Borough alike.”