THE proposed new route of the HS2 railway line will make it almost impossible for people to travel between the villages of Croft and Culcheth on foot according to local campaigners.
The latest proposals from HS2 will close Wigshaw Lane at the junction with Glaziers Lane, between Croft and Culcheth.
The HS2 Golborne Link will cross Wigshaw Lane where no bridge over the line is proposed.
Local campaigner Frank Allen says the road from Croft will turn and follow a new Glaziers Lane along one side of the line to Warrington Road. The road from Culcheth will be redirected along the other side of the line and also join Warrington Road.
Getting from Culcheth to Croft will involve going up the new road, joining Warrington Road, crossing the line on Warrington Road on a new bridge, and then coming back down Glaziers Lane to rejoin Wigshaw Lane.
This will make it much more difficult to travel between Culcheth and Croft by road, and practically impossible on foot. It will bring significant inconvenience and hardship to people in Croft who for example travel to Culcheth for shopping, medical facilities, schools, worship, and social events, an similarly people in Culcheth who travel to Croft and also to Winwick and North Warrington for similar reasons.
At the HS2 Information day in Culcheth on July 2, HS2 staff estimated that over 400 people attended, four times the normal attendance at this sort of event, and the overwhelming majority were opposed to this proposal.
However, HS2 staff said that the up-coming consultation in September would be on these same proposals, ie without a bridge on Wigshaw Lane, and if local people still objected they should respond to the consultation saying so.
The Conservative Parish Councillors in Culcheth and Croft are strongly opposed to these proposals and have been making this known to HS2 for some time.
They are encouraging all local residents to respond to the consultation when it starts in September, and also to let their local Parish and Borough Councillors know their views, along with local MP Helen Jones.
They say the more people who make their views known, the better the chance of changing HS2’s plans.
Keith Bland, Conservative Parish Councillor on Croft and Culcheth & Glazebury Parish Councils, said “You can be assured that we will continue to oppose this right to the bitter end.”
Picture shows The junction of Wigshaw Lane and Glaziers Lane. Wigshaw Lane will be permanently closed here by HS2.
2 Comments
Why don’t they re-use part of the old transpenine rout that goes through Flixton lymm thelwall and over the Manchester ship canal I’m aware that the TransPennine railway line closed down as it would have cost to much to repair a certain number of bridges but with the amount of money being spent by the government using this line will save money and houses as this is a straight line from Salford to Warrington Bank Quay which is a route what they are looking to go through Croft and Culcheth it makes sense to me
Perhaps with many MPs now openly having second thoughts about HS2 on several counts, this proposal will never be implemented.