GRANDMOTHER Charlotte Peters Rock has won the promise of a lock this week for a new gate near her home alongside the M6.

Charlotte lives within sight of the motorway, and is concerned that her grandson, who has autism, could gain access to the M6 via the newly-installed gate.

Charlotte lives in Middlewich Road, Allostock, and wrote to the chief executive of Highways England about the danger she felt the unlocked gate posed for her 20-year-old grandson.

She said: “With no prior information three men turned up to place a large wooden gate into the long, rotten wooden fencing which lies between my home and the motorway.”

She said it was a park-style gate, readily openable, which was left in a position where her autistic grandchild – who knew how to open such gates - could gain ready access to the M6, with its soon to be ‘four running lanes in both directions’.

The Guardian contacted Highways England about Charlotte’s concerns, and a spokesman said: “We’ve installed new gates by the motorway boundary to allow engineers to safely service, monitor and repair the new smart motorway technology.

“We have temporarily secured the gates and are fitting permanent locks this week.”

Charlotte said the locks should have been fitted when the gates were installed.

She said: “This is not an empty landscape here – there are people in it,” she said.

“If they are going to get locks for the gates they should put them in as soon as possible - I do not want to see my grandson harmed.”

She said she had been told by Kier Highways that 48 such gates were being placed along the length of smart motorway.

She added: “To what end? A long time ago, there had been a form of stile, which was perfectly adequate for others to gain access to an electricity sub-station (now long gone) through that fence.

“If every one of those 48 gates is to be fitted with a padlock, eventually, is everyone certain vulnerable people will not be killed by wandering onto the motorway in the meantime?

“Three large vans turned up on Saturday morning, but not to fit a padlock on the motorway gate.

“They had come to work on the verge, feeding electricity wires through.

“I walked down to ask whether they had come to fit locks. I was told they had two plastic ties.

“So the next time someone works on the verge, the plastic tie will be cut off and that gate will be openable, as before, leaving my autistic grandchild - and others - at the same risk as before.”