Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish has today called for an urgent review into the trial Heaton Chapel Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme following receipt of a letter from the Chief Executive of North West Ambulance Service raising concerns about delayed response times in the area.
Andrew Gwynne said:
“Everybody wants to see safer low traffic neighbourhoods, and the concept of reducing rat-running and enhancing road safety for residents is an absolutely sound one.
However, concerns have been raised for some time about problems with ambulances being stuck at roadblocks. Every time I’ve raised residents’ concerns with the Ambulance Service, they’ve told me there wasn’t an issue. This has been really frustrating for residents who’ve been insisting there was a problem.
I welcome the fact NWAS has now investigated thoroughly and actually have recognised the residents’ concerns are well founded. This obviously raises issues for the service in how the delays weren’t being properly recorded in the first instance which led to incorrect information being circulated to both Stockport Council and to me as the MP.
However I’ve always said that Stockport should judge the success or otherwise of this trial on evidence, and the new NWAS advice is clear: the scheme is causing issues for the delivery of their service. The temporary measures are coming out next week but there absolutely needs to be an urgent investigation into these concerns before Stockport Councillors decide whether to install permanent features in Heaton Chapel. The NWAS information is a critical part of that, and I want and expect to see these concerns addressed to the residents’ satisfaction.”