HOTEL manager Steve Ogden is calling for the speed limit to be cut on a 60 mile an hour road following the latest crash.

Mr Ogden run the Cottons Hotel and Spa in Manchester Road, Knutsford, a stretch which has witnessed numerous crashes in his time at the hotel, including two which were fatal.

Mr Ogden joined the hotel as general manager in February 2015, a month before a 56-year-old motorcyclist died after being involved in a collision with a car outside neighbouring business Fryer’s Garden Centre.

In September last year Miroslaw Chlap, a chef at Cottons, died after being hit by a car outside the hotel just after 10pm as he cycled home after work.

The car which struck him was driven by Melissa Darbyshire from Knutsford, who was sent to prison for eight years and banned from driving for nine years for causing death by careless driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

Mr Chlap’s family look after a floral memorial they created in the grass verge opposite the hotel entrance, and a bench near the spa entrance bought by Cottons in his memory bears a plaque to Mr Chlap.

The latest crash, at 5.15pm on September 21, involved a car and a van outside the hotel.

Mr Ogden is calling for the speed limit on the stretch of Manchester Road which runs alongside the Guy Salmon Land Rover dealership, the hotel, garden centre and Gauntlet Birds of Prey, to be cut to 40.

Such a cut would reduce the risk of crashes, he said, and he would ideally like the 40 limit from Knutsford to be extended to the Mere junction, but at a minimum beyond the garden centre.

“Sixty miles an hour is too fast because of the volume of traffic and the number of pedestrians who use that part of Manchester Road,” said Mr Ogden.

“We have guests who walk into Knutsford for a few drinks, and who also like to walk over to Fryer’s to see the garden centre.

“However I always feel I’m risking my life when I walk along the pavement because of the speed of the traffic.

“I see cars that are going over 60, and something needs to be done about the speed.

“If the proposed housing developments are built along here the speed limit will come down straight away – why can’t they do it now?”

He is calling on the highway authority to review the 60 limit in Manchester Road, and if a lower limit is not possible wants to see mobile speed cameras being used and signs installed indicating concealed entrances.