Safety fears over lorries as expansion plans are revealed in this Sale street

Residents in a Sale street are campaigning against plans to increase a builder’s merchants, at the end of the Elm Grove cul de sac.  They say the plans raise concerns that in an emergency – police, fire and ambulance first responders will be delayed by vital minutes by the single file traffic.

‘These plans will increase the lorries using the road to deliver goods and it is very worrying,” said Wendy  Snell, who lives in Elm Grove.

Neighbours have lodged 49 letters of objection and a petition against the plans which has been signed by over 300 residents.

They say that the narrow cul de sac is already suffering from lorries delivering goods to the Travis Perkins building merchants depot.

To support their claims Wendy Snell took video of one of the articulated lorries taking three minutes to back up to negotiate the single line traffic.

”You can see the driver has a real problem – it is the same every week, sometimes every day.  Lorries often turn up at 6 o’clock in the morning to be the first into the depot which opens at 7 am.,'” said Wendy. “The HGV’s have great difficulty getting through.”

”There were two sites at the end of Elm Grove next to each other – Actavo and Travis Perkins. Now Travis Perkins has bought the Actavo site and announced plans to knock it down and expand their depot. There has been a definite increase of traffic to and from the yard over the last three years, and we don’t believe them when they say there will not be further increases.   Lorries are getting bigger these days. We also have regular small vans getting to and from the yards. This leads to Elm Grove being blocked and cars being stuck.  Just imagine a fire engine trying to get down Elm Grove when a lorry is also on the road.”

Travis Perkins has lodged a planning application with Trafford Council to expand their depot.  Today is the last day for people to lodge their objections to the plans.

Martin Meech, Group Property Director at Travis Perkins plc said:”It is clear that some local residents are concerned about Travis Perkins’ plans on Elm Grove and we would like to reassure them that safety is our highest priority. Similarly, we would like to reassure residents that the level of traffic generated by Travis Perkins’ vehicles will not exceed current levels.

”We appreciate local residents speaking out and will be taking immediate steps to consult and act on their concerns in due course.’