Stop the speeding!

The issue of speeding on our local roads has been ignored for too long by Rochdale’s Labour Council.

In January 2023 Rochdale’s Labour Council carried out a traffic survey on Rooley Moor Road. Among the findings were that traffic flow has reduced on the road by 16% in the past 8 years.

The Focus Team has yet to find a single resident who believes that statistic to be true, but maybe the fact that the survey was carried out on a day that the historic weather reports say was foggy until early
afternoon might be a reason? It might also explain why the recorded ‘average’ speed was under the legal limit at 26mph.

“Speeding cars might not be an issue on a foggy January morning,” said one resident on Blenheim Street, “but things are very different on a clear day.”

Another told us that “the average isn’t the problem, and it doesn’t end at 7pm when the surveyors packed up.”

The Council report came up with several options although they recommended just one. The local Area Forum asked the Council to override this and overwhelmingly voted for a particular traffic calming measure to be implemented. This was then taken to the Labour dominated Township Meeting, which refused the funding, So one of the options remains – for a crossing patrol for a couple of hours each school day. 

Rabina Asghar said “Most people I’ve spoken with in the area seem to agree that this doesn’t even address the problem let alone solve it. But it does have one major advantage for the Local Authority –
because the road is officially designated as ‘low risk’ it means that the money for the patrol would have to come out of the funds of the local school.”

What we need is traffic calming for the area that meets the needs of the local people, not more broken Labour promises.