Councillors to debate safety of busy Chester main road after 14,300 name petition handed in

Cheshire West and Chester councillors held a minute’s silence in memory of an 11-year-old boy who died after being hit by a car on Wrexham Road in Chester, with a debate to consider a 14,300-name petition calling for stricter road saftey measures there now set to take place.

Evan Rothwell was struck by a grey Nissan Qashqai outside of the Kings School on the A483 Wrexham Road, Chester, at around 5.12pm on Tuesday, November 12.

A police investigation is ongoing but at a meeting of Full Council held on December 12, a petition was handed in calling for a number of safety measures to be introduced on the road. The petition details changes which were made to the junction in 2022, to allow for a new housing estate, which included a crossroad near the entrance to The King’s School.

The road currently has a 40mph speed limit, but the petition is calling for this to be reduced to 30mph near the Roman Crescent junction.

The petition has called for:

• Implementation of an immediate, temporary 30mph limit on this section of Wrexham Road.
• Pro-actively work with the school and local community to implement permanent changes to the junction to further reduce risks.
• In future, pro-actively include representations from the local community in risk assessments, rather than rely on third party views and a future accident rate.

The number of signatories was enough to automatically trigger a council debate, but members were told it would have to be postponed while the investigation was underway.

Michael O’Neill, who helped start the petition, told the meeting the need for immediate action was clear and should not wait for the police investigation to be concluded.

He said: “Despite this clear, deep and far reaching public support, a month after a serious incident, there has been no obvious action by the council. From an outside perspective, the internal process and legal advice seems to have frozen the council like a rabbit in a spotlight. There is no reason to delay an immediate, temporary mitigation of a well evidenced risk.”

Council chair Robert Bisset asked the council’s deputy monitoring officer Anne Greenwood to provide advice in the chamber in order to ‘assure’ the petition signatories everything was following a ‘proper process’.

She said: “Because the issues raised in the petition are closely linked to an ongoing police investigation we are unable to debate it until the investigation is complete.”

She added: “The council can receive the petition this evening, and as it appears that it has been signed by more than one per cent of the borough electorate, it is eligible to be scheduled for a council or cabinet debate. Officers will keep the lead petitioner informed on when the debate will be scheduled.”

Council chair Cllr Bisset added: “Whilst I’m sure we all recognise the need to follow due process and legal advice, I do appreciate that not being able to debate the petition straight away will be a disappointment to many.”

Cllr Bissett said the sympathies of the council were with Evan’s family, friends, school and wider community and Full Council was then asked to stand for a minute of reflection for Evan and his family, along with all others who had lost their lives or been seriously injured on the borough’s roads .

In a statement, Cheshire Police said an investigation ‘remains ongoing’ and no arrests have been made.

(BBC LDRS)