Warrington Council rejects calls for action over geese deaths

A council has rejected calls for calming measures on a road where a car was allegedly driven at a gaggle of geese, killing at least six birds.

Warrington South MP Andy Carter said measures were needed on Penketh's Omega Boulevard after the "awful incident".

Warrington Council said it was "shocked" by what happened, but there were no "immediate" plans for changes.

It said there were "a low number of collisions on the road" and the 30mph speed limit and signage were correct.

On Monday, Mr Carter said he had been contacted by dismayed locals on Saturday, who had raised concerns "about the speed at which some cars travel along this piece of road".

He said he was keen to see the council listen to residents and "take action to reduce the speed on this stretch of carriageway" and called for traffic-calming measures.

A council representative said the authority was "shocked and appalled at the images of the motorist who appears to drive at and kill a number of geese on Omega Boulevard" and urged any witnesses to contact police.

"We are also aware of a petition online calling for further traffic calming measures," they said.

They said the road was an A road and was "designed to serve the distribution centres, providing the main access to Junction 8 of the M62".

They said the recent closure of the road "for utilities works... would appear unfortunately to have encouraged the geese to sit in or gather on the carriageway", but urged "anyone who witnesses speeding" to report it to the police "so that action can be taken".

They added that a layby had recently been installed on the road "to enable the police to undertake speed enforcement".

"This happens on a regular basis and we have requested for this to be increased following this incident," they said.

Cheshire Police said it was continuing to investigate "an image circulating on social media which appears to show a blue car hitting a number of geese".

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