Regular readers of this page will know that I often champion road safety improvements in a variety of forms. In my report to Backford & District Parish Council on Tuesday 15th July 2025, I was able to update them on discussions around the uncontrolled crossing over the A41, Liverpool Road opposite the turn to Backford village.
"I have been in discussion with CWaC officers around ways in which we might bring about improvements to road safety at the crossing point over Liverpool Road towards the village, not least as this is route use by school students accessing the bus stop and other pedestrians / cyclists. In May 2025 I wrote to the Head of Strategic Transport at CWaC as follows (extract), having raised this location with him verbally previously:
- School students from Mollington / Lea-by-Backford are expected to cross this road at this point (the dropped kerbs etc exist) in order to access public transport on the Backford village side of the road. When school transport requests are refused in Mollington, it is cited that students should access the bus here. Aside from the challenges of walking from Mollington and Lea-by-Backford, where for 95% of the route there has no pavement, crossing the A41 is challenging in itself owing to the nature of the road
- There are often grass cutting challenges, although this location is well on the radar of the CWaC team owing to sight line challenges in what is known as the ‘Backford Dip’. Turning right from the Chester direction into Backford village, on Church Lane is not always easy. The grass length at the moment is quite difficult but Rose has responded as attached also to a recent enquiry on this – the grass cutting regime requires traffic management which is not easily done just now owing to the Whitby Lane works. All understood by me, but it illustrates the visibility points. I’ve attached a comment from a resident on 29 April related to this which does show the grass situation then which was much worse on the Backford side of the A41 – helpful for you to see it though I think. He makes some suggestions around possible improvements.
- When we spoke, I mentioned the idea of some additional infrastructure being introduced. My thought was railings or the like to increase visibility of the fact that people do cross the road, although you advised this might not be sensible. However, I wonder whether this is a location we could review further and consider whether there are any options available to help improve the safety of crossing in the vicinity. I’d be more than happy to meet you on site to discuss further or just to walk the route together so we can get a better sense of the location. The resident comment referenced above and attached also makes some additional suggestions in this context.
The response received from a highways officers as follows:
“I do understand your concerns as that is a very busy location for anyone to cross the road, certainly for children to. I’m afraid there is nothing physical that would be appropriate for us to put in there, and as I’m sure you’ll appreciate wouldn’t meet the criteria for the provision of a signalised crossing as it has such low usage. I’ve been out there to take a look at where the uncontrolled crossing point is as you’ve shown as area 2 and 3 and as you’ve shown there is some overgrowth at those places, so we’ll get that cleared out to make sure that the tactile paving is clear and useable to the correct width. I’m sorry there is nothing more that we can do there, but I don’t want to promise something that isn’t feasible or appropriate.”
Updates:
- The ‘tactile paving’ areas were cleared by hand by Streetscene officers when the wider grass cutting following the lifting of the Whitby Lane restrictions were undertaken. This has improved the location from this perspective.
- I have subsequently followed up the above reply with a request that consideration is given to the introduction of some additional ‘pedestrians in the road’ signage which appears in similar locations where people are required to cross a busy route. I gave the example of the Welsh Road in Two Mills where a Public Right of Way is ‘interrupted’ by the carriageway and prominent signage is displayed (see attached). I have received a positive response to this request as follows: “This is something we can look at providing and hopefully not too costly if they can go on existing lamp columns. We’ll get something drawn up and costed and I’ll come back to you to confirm it that’s ok.”
