The official news has just been received. The A525 through Audlem from Newcastle to Whitchurch has been removed from the Primary Route Network.
The announcement says:
“Satellite navigation systems will no longer drive traffic into a rural area of Cheshire East.
The A525 links the towns of Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Whitchurch and is currently listed as a Primary Route. This has now been re-classified.
At the current time, all manner of traffic, including heavy goods vehicles, are often guided on to the road, which passes through small, rural communities by a satellite navigation system or atlas.
As a result, in future, the road will not be shown as a preferred route in road atlas' and satellite navigation systems.”
Local campaigners, supported throughout by local MP Stephen O'Brien, saw the A525 as the major local issue following public demands for something to be done about long-distance HGVs through Audlem in the 2005 Parish Plan.
They have fought long and hard for this change, with reports and pressure applied to a succession of Ministers of Transport through Stephen O'Brien. All involved will be delighted by the news today.
The Parish Plan team submitted a report to the Minister of Transport in 2006 citing Health & Safety and Human Rights arguments why the road should not carry the number of HGVs it does currently.
Shortly afterwards came the good news that, for the first time in forty years of camapigning about the road by various pressure groups, Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire highways officials had agreed the road should be de-primed. Removing the A525 from the Primary Route Network then became possible.
Four years of pressure by local campaigners, Stephen O'Brien and highways officials in the three counties – including numerous stories on Audlem Online – was then needed to achieve a positive result.
Much more will need to be done and the Traffic & Transport Working Group on the 2010 Audlem Parish Plan will be pulling ideas together as de-priming a road does not result in an instant reduction in traffic. De-priming is, however, the vital first step that has to be taken before other action can be taken.
Today's good news means there will certainly be something to celebrate at tonight's Annual Village Meeting with Cheese & Wine in the Public Hall.
This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.
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