THE demise and subsequent announcement that the Co-op store, located on Chesterway, Northwich, is to close has been on the cards for a considerable time and comes as no surprise to anyone.

Ever since the introduction of the totally unnecessary, unwarranted and quite frankly ill-conceived oneway system, implemented to ‘manage’ more effectively the transport infrastructure, the death knell has been sounded for the Co-op store.

In addition the Co-op’s suicidal introduction of limited parking times drove away the very few customers it could rely upon.

Yes, they were parking for extended periods but they were the very people who would ‘pop in’ to the store before heading off home.

Talk about cutting your nose to spite your face.

Arriving in Northwich from all three major directions, the Co-op store is virtually the last retail shop you are able to visit before departing the town.

Shoppers have already done their shopping and have no need or desire to stop at the Co-op store having ‘fought’ their way through the traffic debacle that exists at the moment.

As a former roads policing officer for the Cheshire Constabulary (now retired) one of the many duties of my office was to regularly meet with local authority engineers and planners to discuss all matters relating to the management of traffic throughout Cheshire.

I fear that little or no consultation took place with regard to the introduction of what, quite frankly, is a road system that is strangling Northwich from every angle.

Not only is it strangling the town, and thus driving away the very shoppers it hopes to attract, I fear for the town should any part of the one-way system be closed for a period greater than just a few minutes as there appears to be no way of re-routing traffic through the town due to the ‘new’ roads layout.

I cite as examples a serious traffic collision necessitating a road closure or the extended closure of any of the town’s four bridges.

Mayhem, I fear, would ensue.

Nicholas Woodcock