NEVER mind strange signs, any
drivers who followed the sign (left) to Crewe along Millstone Lane from
July onwards would have found themselves utterly lost. There are
NO road signs further along the street.
But, as of mid-September,
that isn't a problem as this sign has also been removed.
A road sign which was three quarters
of the way along Millstone Lane, which pointed to everywhere but
Crewe, is missing, as are all signs at the Crewe Road - Millstone
Lane junction (below). Nor are there any signs pointing to Stone
(A51) and other locations at the Churche's Mansion roundabout a
little further on. the last time I looked, there was one sign to Whitchurch and Audlem by
the roundabout. But that was all.
I had thought it was a
temporary measure as part of the signage renewal programme. But
the signs are not being replaced!
Drivers from out of
town are not meant to be on these roads in the first place - if they
have been following earlier signs properly - and so, it would seem,
don't need to be told where Crewe, for instance, is located. (It's
first left, by the way). Let's hope that supermarkets, hospitals,
etc, won't follow the same illogical thinking. [What about sign
makers, too? They cannot be happy about the latest situation on the
roads.]
You can still drop off to
see Nantwich as these roads still have signs to car parks, but
getting out of town again to travel to your next destination might
be a problem . . .
Leave the Waterlode car
park and a sign sends you to the left to "Crewe (A532)", but the
next sign sends you to the right, to "Crewe (A5020)" when Crewe via
the A532 is straight on. If only you knew it.
A MEMBER of staff in Cheshire
East Council highways department told me it was all to do with the
reclassification of Millstone Lane from an A road to a B road. It
seems that B roads don't have road signs . . .! I asked him again, in case
I had misheard him or misunderstood. But no, it was right.
Beam Street is also devoid of
signs - apart from car park signs. The man at Cheshire East didn't mention that had been
reclassified, but I was asking about Millstone Lane.
The only signs now remaining in some areas of town
are those pointing to car parks, or indicating roundabouts and
pedestrian islands.
The idea is to get cars and
lorries not to use certain roads in Nantwich.
Millstone Lane has a problem with
cars parked along some stretches because the owners aren't able to
gain access to the rear of their property to park. They could create a
car-parking space in front of their house, but that would mean them
losing their garden, and backing in or out (you have to do it one
way or the other) would be tricky on what is not an over-wide road.
The move also keeps
vehicles out of Hospital Street, scene of a double fatality in
recent years.
Millstone Lane is a bus route and
so it can be tricky driving along it, and lorries use it, too.
The trouble is that drivers
do make mistakes, try as they might, and some will find themselves
driving along Millstone Lane to get to Crewe. With no road signs to
help them, one option is to turn round and start again - using the
road a second time. The idea isn't working.
Visitors to Nantwich are not
stupid. They will soon realise they are being sent on a wild goose
chase and will avoid the town like the plague. That will cut down on
the need for car parks, and then the car park signs needn't be
replaced. You can see how it works.
lActually,
the man from the council also said: "That's not to say that at some
stage there won't be new signs coming back." But local authorities
don't usually go back on something they have done - unless there is
a huge public outcry. . .
ONE GOOD THING . . .
THERE is one good point about the demise
of the road signs. Among those to go was one pointing the way to
Nantwich Library on the corner of Barony Road and Beam Street - the
one that the vandals kept redirecting. At least the confusion that
that caused has been removed.
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