Teenagers flocking to a Cheshire village to see where Harry Styles had his first kiss have sparked safety fears.
Harry's popularity has reached new heights since leaving One Direction, and has starred as a solo artist. His 2022 album 'Harry's House' was nominated for the Mercury Prize - Britain's top music prize.
And that popularity has led to legions of fans - mostly teens - making a pilgrimage to Holmes Chapel, the village where he grew up. Many are heading to the spot where he had his first kiss but Coun Andrew Kolker, who represents Holmes Chapel, said a road near a ‘pilgrimage’ site is particularly dangerous and asked the council’s officers to take a look at it, CheshireLive reports.
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There were a few puzzled looks around the table at this week’s meeting of the council’s economy and growth committee when the Conservative councillor said he wanted to raise a matter ‘under its guise of visitor economy’ and then suddenly started talking about the popularity of the 28-year-old singer-songwriter and actor.
“In Holmes Chapel we have a lot of teenagers, both girls and boys, coming to see the sights and sounds of Harry Styles, which is absolutely no problem. It’s lovely to see them in Holmes Chapel,” he said.
“However, we do have two sites that are a common site of pilgrimage for these kids and that is the viaduct [which] has Harry’s name scrawled all over it apparently from when he was a young youth – and that site’s a popular site for teenagers, as is the site of Harry’s first kiss.”
As councillors continued to look somewhat bemused, Cllr Kolker continued: “This is fine except that the A535 is an extremely busy road and it’s a very, very dangerous road to walk along… It’s an extremely dangerous road with very, very limited parking and footpaths.
“I just wonder whether officers from this committee could have a look at this particular detail.”
Committee chair Nick Mannion (Lab) then began to regale the committee with his memories of when fans streamed into Plumley Station when Take That stars lived in Cheshire.
“There was a major issue because there are no public conveniences at Plumley Railway Station,” said Coun Mannion.
He told Coun Kolker the Holmes Chapel highways issue was not a matter for the economy committee but ‘the police have the powers to deal with overloading of vehicles parked on grass villages, if they see fit, in consultation with the highway authority’.
He added: “I’m sure if Mr Styles’ popularity is generating such concerns they will take the appropriate action, but I’ve learned something new this afternoon.”
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