'I parked up at my mate's house, I was only there a minute and got a fine'

On the edge of Greater Manchester sits a picturesque town with stunning views of the Pennines, but it has one major flaw.

Mossley is bisected by a train line, and just one road connects them both. If that road is jammed, locals have to drive 20 minutes just to get to the other side of town.

Top Mossley and Bottom Mossley are linked by Stamford Road, which was plagued by roadworks last year.

Residents had to drive for 20 minutes through Stalybridge or Greenfield just to get to the other side of town. On foot it would take just over 10 minutes.

Like many small towns around the city-region, locals in Mossley feel a mass of housebuilding has brought more people and cars to the area. This has resulted in bumper to bumper traffic at peak times.

Joe Hartigan has just moved to the area. Nipping into town for some shopping, he stops to share his thoughts on traffic in his first few months as a Mossleyian.

“Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re not,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “It’s nothing out of the ordinary.

“When there is roadworks on it leads to gridlock. They tend to do it all at once as well. Then it causes problems.”

Carrying on from the bus stop on Arundel Street along to the corner of the busy junction you come across Your Mossley Community Shop. From there shopkeeper Tom Ingham has the perfect viewing spot for all the traffic that connects Top Mossley.

He said: “It’s just one road and if there are problems on it, things will spiral. Is there a solution other than building more streets? Mossley isn't built for this amount of people and there are more and more homes being built.”

Pointing at the junction in front of his shop, Tom added: “It’s just generally busy at tea time and in the morning. When there