A councillor wants further signage provided by Cheshire East Highways on two Congleton main roads to ensure motorists are sufficiently made aware of the 30mph speed limits and there is no "misconception".

Cheshire Police inspector Kelly Johnston attended last Thursday's Congleton Town Council meeting of Community and Environment Committee to give councillors a verbal report on policing matters affecting Congleton.

Over the summer period a road traffic operation called Op Assembles was carried out. Inspector Johnston said: "Speed enforcement and traffic enforcement is really emotive for the public so we took some feedback over that and for a six-week period across the summer months particularly around Covid-19, it was quite an emotive subject around then and we put a little enhanced patrol plan around that."

During the six-week period, Cheshire Police processed 731 speeding offences, which Insp Johnston highlighted in one aspect was "really good" because the police had caught speeding motorists and had been able to deal with and tackle it, but on the other side it was quite "concerning" due to the number in the community that had been caught speeding.

Included in the 731 offences, 163 vehicles were stopped for document stop checks, one person was arrested for drink driving, one person was summoned for having no insurance and one traffic report was carried out due to a motorist using a mobile phone at the wheel.

Insp Johnston added: "So while that speeding figure seems quite high to you, I think we take the positives that we have actually caught people and dealt with people which means the message is out there."

The meeting was told that speed enforcement will continue to be carried out on a weekly basis, but officers found during the Covid-19 full lockdown that motorists were "putting their foot down" due to the roads being quiet.

Cllr Paul Duffy felt that 731 motorists caught speeding was a "high number" for the six-week period and he was aware of issues on the Macclesfield and Manchester Roads due to living on an estate near them and seeing officers undertaking speed enforcement.

Cllr Duffy said: "On those two roads there is definitely a misconception that it is still a 30mph to the point that there was an accident two weeks ago and one of the police officers stated that it was a 40mph speed limit and a neighbour of mine told them no it is a 30mph zone.

"I think part of it is about the visualisation for drivers, they misconstrue the fact it is still 30mph on the roads that they lead away from the ambulance station either towards Alderley Edge or Macclesfield."

Cllr Duffy wanted the town council to contact Cheshire East Highways and request more sign to be implemented to remind drivers that it is a 30mph zone.

Insp Johnston stated that she could pass on the data recorded from the 731 motorists caught speeding to determine how many of those offences took place on the Macclesfield and Manchester Roads.