REFORM UK DELIVERS: PEOPLE POWER BACKED BY REFORM SCRAPS DISASTROUS ROAD CLOSURES!

Common sense has finally prevailed. At an extraordinary Heywood Township meeting last tonight, councillors voted UNANIMOUSLY to bring the Hopwood Triangle trial on Middleton Road and Magdala Street to an end and remove the road closures. The restriction preventing heavy wagons from parking on Coronation Avenue will remain in place, helping to protect local streets.

For residents, this decision has been a long time coming. The consultation results could hardly have been clearer: 86% of the approximately 700 respondents opposed the scheme. Yet despite that overwhelming response, the trial was approved and went ahead. Residents subsequently raised serious concerns about congestion, access, road safety and the effect on local businesses. People living on Manchester Road also felt they had been left out of the original consultation despite subsequently experiencing the impact of displaced traffic. The timing was another major concern. The trial began during the quieter summer holiday period, with residents warning that the true impact would become much more apparent once schools reopened and normal traffic levels returned. Last night, local people turned out in numbers to make sure their voices were heard. More than 50 residents attended the extraordinary meeting, but the size of the room at the old Police Station quickly became an issue. With residents understandably frustrated about access to a public meeting concerning their own streets, tensions rose and the meeting came close to being suspended. At that point, Reform UK Councillor Stuart Crawford intervened constructively. Recognising that many residents had already heard the Highways presentations and wanted councillors to make a decision, Stuart engaged directly with those in attendance, helped calm the situation and pressed for the meeting to move on to the vote rather than risk the evening ending without a decision. The vote was then taken. Every councillor voted to end the trial. That means the temporary road closures will now be removed, while the restriction on heavy wagons parking on Coronation Avenue will remain. And then there is the cost. The figures presented for the scheme are stark: £110,000 to install the temporary measures. That is £110,000 of public money associated with introducing and then removing a trial which had already been rejected by 86% of consultation respondents. The scheme was voted through back in November by Labour councillors Angela Brown, Paul O’Neil, Peter Hodgkinson, Peter Joinson, Susan Emmott and Liam O’Rourke, despite 86% of consultation respondents opposing it. Last night, the decision went the other way. Whatever political arguments follow, one fact should not be forgotten: local residents spoke up, kept speaking up and ultimately got the result they had been asking for. Reform UK will continue to stand with residents when decisions affecting their communities need to be challenged. A huge thank you to everybody who attended, everybody who responded to the original consultation, and everybody who refused to allow their concerns to be ignored. This was people power in action, and people power won.