Temporary traffic lights were installed close to Stoke Station and Staffordshire University, causing additional delays for commuters while other important routes are still closed. Rush-hour traffic is a result of the three-way signals at the intersection of Leek Road and Cauldon Road.
It happens when College Road and Station Road are still blocked up as part of a multimillion-pound transport project. National Grid is executing the project at the Cauldon Road intersection, and it should be finished by Wednesday.
Visitors to Hanley Park had to take an other route over the weekend due to the extension of the College Road restriction into Cleveland Road.
The construction on College Road, which runs between Hanley and Shelton, is expected to continue until February, according to StokeonTrentLive. Its goals are to reduce traffic and enhance safety along the route.
A ‘bus gate’ will be a feature of the £9 million Station Road project, which is part of a makeover of the city’s main railway station’s exterior. The two initiatives are a part of a larger plan to reduce traffic and enhance the flow between the station’s surrounding neighbourhood and the city core.
However, the work being done on Leek Road has caused more traffic jams as drivers try to dodge the road closures. There are other projects underway in the vicinity.
Other North Staffordshire roadworks to be aware of are as follows:
Today is the scheduled removal of temporary lighting at the intersection of Scotia Road and Williamson Street in Tunstall;
construction on Stone’s Radford Street through June 30;
temporary lighting along Knypersley’s Meadows Way, close to Tunstall Road;
Meir Heath’s Lightwood Road will have one lane closed until August 2;
Newcastle’s Silverdale Road closed from Enson Lane to Lichfield Road in both directions;
waterworks at Biddulph Moor on Leek Lane till June 26;
Up until June 25, “bus stop improvement” work is being done on Bucknall’s Werrington Road.
temporary lighting from now till July 4 on City Road next to the Fenton Manor turnoff;
Up until June 25, Blurton Road will undergo maintenance;
Sneyd Avenue in Clayton has two-way lights through June 27.
For years, vintage cars have been clogging Thornton Heath streets, and the Croydon Council has been criticised for being “weak” in its response.
Locals assert that the owner has been able to “hoard” cars and act as though they can do as they like, regardless of the impact on their neighbours, because the council is unable to relocate the cars permanently.
The individual who allegedly owns all of the vintage cars is a former Norbury Road resident who moved away but left a variety of vehicles behind.
After the council declared them “abandoned,” an attempt to remove them was unsuccessful since the former occupant claimed ownership of every one of them, making it impossible for them to be considered abandoned.
According to locals, the enormous collection of vintage automobiles, motorcycles, and even a boat—many of which have rusted—has taken up space on Livingstone Road and Norbury Road for years.
Locals assert that during the course of the last ten to twenty years, there have been roughly eighteen different cars parked on the driveway of the property he occupied—which has since been boarded up—as well as across the two roads at any given moment.
Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) was informed by locals that they have had enough.
Karen Jewitt, a councillor for Thornton Heath, claims that many of the automobiles are parked illegally and aren’t roadworthy.
On a visit to the area last week, one Livingstone Road resident told the LDRS: “There are people on this road who say that it has been going on for 20 years. Everyone’s had enough.
“People come down and take photos of the cars all the time because they think they’re collector’s items. They’re not, they’re just falling apart.”
One young resident living on Norbury Road told the LDRS: “I’ve been here most of my life and I’ve always just known him as that man on the corner.
“He just parks his cars wherever people will allow it. I don’t mean allow it by giving their permission, it’s just they won’t kick up a fuss.”
Some of the cars reported to belong to him are parked one in front of the other and some are double parked making the road narrower.
This array of rusting cars has led to concerns from residents that emergency service vehicles will not be able to properly access the nearby properties.
The Livingstone Road resident said: “Trying to get a fire engine or ambulance up and down this road is difficult as he’s also got cars running adjacent.
“Fire engines have tried to get up here before and they can’t, or it takes forever.
“Even rubbish collection vans struggle, and they’ve had arguments with him because they may have accidentally clipped one of his cars.
People even came to try and put yellow lines on [the road] for parking and he [allegedly] refused to move the cars.”
Many residents are pointing the finger at Croydon Council for a lack of action over the years.
The Livingstone Road resident added: “As much as this guy is a nuisance, this is Croydon’s fault.”
Posts from residents complaining about this issue on a Thornton Heath community Facebook page date back to at least 2019.
Residents say the council has previously removed some cars from the road, only for them to return in the months following.
More recently, the council placed notices of removal on each of his cars parked on the road but the cars have not been removed, however the notices appear to have been taken off.
A spokesperson for Croydon Council said: “At the beginning of June 2024, the council, responding to complaints from local residents, took action to tackle abandoned vehicles on the public highway.
“The owner of these vehicles claimed all of the cars identified by the council which prevented us from removing them under the abandoned vehicle process.
The council is now pro-actively seeking alternative arrangements to deal with this issue.”
A lock-up at the rear of the man’s former address, which used to house carpets when the building was a retail space, is another cause for concern among residents who are worried about a fire risk from what they say is a huge pile of clutter contained within including flammable materials.
As the wait continues for effective action to be taken, some have given up hope.
Another Thornton Heath resident on her way to the high street told the LDRS: “These cars are a nightmare, but I can’t see Croydon doing anything about it.”
The LDRS made attempts to approach the former resident for comment but were unsuccessful.
