Former councillor hits out at ‘dangerous’ beacon plans

A FORMER town councillor has made a formal objection to plans to site Ashbourne’s Jubilee Beacon on land outside the town’s boundary.

Nick Fearn, who stepped down from the town council in May, was a member while the authority was working on ordering the £3,000 structure, which the town hoped would form part of a chain of lit beacons during the fourday celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

However, the council underestimated the size of the one-tonne structure, realised it could not be installed in time, and a temporary beacon made out of an old oil drum was lit on a hillside on the south of the town.

Since the celebrations, plans have been submitted to site the original beacon on common land known as

The Punch, at the junction with Windmill Lane and the B5035.

The plans, submitted to Derbyshire Dales District Council, have already been met with an objection from a resident living nearby, and from the former owner of a firm asked to quote on a cost of the beacon’s installation, largely on the grounds of safety.

The beacon’s official guidelines state that it must be installed at least 60 metres from a public highway because of the danger of smoke obscuring the road, and the retired chairman of Whitehouse Construction, Brell Ewart, has pointed out the dangers of having a solid 20ft structure close to a 50mph road.

And now these concerns have been echoed by Mr Fearn, who has also written to Derbyshire Dales District Council ahead of a decision being made, citing parking as his main issue.

He said in his letter: “The proposed location is plagued with accessibility issues impacting the possiblity of future use – the main issue being parking.

“Surrounding the site, Windmill Lane and the B5035 would have a significant increase in dangerous parking from associated vehicles when the beacon is in operation.

“This particular segment of Windmill Lane is already narrow for two vehicles, with the additional parked cars I fear sections of this road would become impassable in places.

“If the B5035 was used for parking for visitors to the beacon, the majority of these cars would be hidden to vehicles heading southwards towards Ashbourne town, creating a substantially dangerous situation, especially with the addition of a large, lit beacon for drivers and pedestrians alike.”

Last week the News Telegraph reported that the burgeoning Friends of Ashbourne Park group had written to Ashbourne Town Council indicating that they would like the beacon in Fishpond Meadow, which would allow people to gather around it and would negate any highway problems if it was ever lit. Ashbourne Town Council has said previously it wants to see how the current planning application is responded to before it starts to consider any alternative sites.

Windmill Lane and the B5035 would have a significant increase in dangerous parking when the beacon is in operation