Congestion charge, lorry ban and 20mph limit are suggested as frustration grows over bypass wait
COUNCILLORS have voiced fury at the long wait for action to build a bypass and tackle pollution and congestion in a Derbyshire town.
At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting, councillors approved plans to bid to central Government for £15 million to make a range of improvements in Ashbourne. This bid would be to the Government’s Levelling Up fund.
However, councillors and officers were clear these were stop-gap measures and the ultimate end goal would be to have a bypass, taking traffic and HGVs from surrounding quarries out of Ashbourne.
Members and officers agreed a bypass, currently costed at £21 million by Derbyshire County Council, would not be happening “this week, or in the next 10 years” so they needed to look at improvements that could be delivered sooner.
The authority has said, after decades in the offing, the bypass plans will go out for a final public consultation next year, after which the way is clear for a planning application to be submitted.
Councillor David Hughes bemoaned the delays and action to tackle pollution in Ashbourne – a part of which was designated as an air quality management area in April 2021.
He said: “People’s lives are at stake here. The county council has a duty of care to the people of Ashbourne and it needs to do something.”
Cllr Hughes said a 20mph speed limit should be imposed in Ashbourne town centre, along with a clean air zone charging scheme to put people off driving through the town in more polluting vehicles.
He said: “Surely road casualties are only one sort of casualty. Casualties happen in lots of different ways and people who suffer from asthma is one sort of casualty which can be caused by traffic through road pollution.
“A 20mph limit and local clean air charge should be put on the table?”
Councillor Peter O’Brien said: “For each month we delay, every time we delay, we are effectively causing more harm to the health of our citizens and we are responsible for that.”
In February, the county council said air pollution is a contributing factor in 530 deaths per year in Derbyshire, with an economic impact comparable to that of obesity and smoking – up to £20 billion a year.
Councillor Neil Buttle said HGVs should be banned from the town during the day, saying: “We don’t have HGVs in central London between 9am and 6pm. I see no reason why we can’t do the same in Ashbourne?”
Steve Capes, the council’s director of regeneration and policy, told the meeting: “Ultimately the bypass is the solution and this (the Levelling Up bid) doesn’t deliver the bypass. It doesn’t cure the problems, we can’t pretend it does that but it can make things better in the short and medium term and at the same time promote an environment which, when the bypass is eventually delivered, will make Ashbourne a more resilient and better and healthier town for all.”
Tim Braund, the council’s director of regulatory services, said the best way to reduce emissions in the town was to lower the number of vehicles. Research by the county council showed traffic on a number of routes through Ashbourne can reach as many as 10,000 to 12,000 vehicles a day, with almost half of this identified as through-traffic.
He said: “The most significant way to do that would be to redirect traffic by the development of a bypass. That is not going to happen, if we are going to be honest, in the immediate foreseeable future but it is hopefully a long-term ambition for the town because clearly it would have benefits in terms of air pollution and in respect of many other things for the town, it will make the town nicer.”
Mr Braund contended that a clean air charge “is not something that can be done just like that”
He said: “I would suggest, look closely at the clean air zone charging stuff around Manchester Airport”.
Cllr Hughes slammed the county council for its “procrastination” over a plan to counter pollution in parts of Ashbourne.
He said: “It is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace, that they are sitting on illegal pollution and cannot produce an action plan to tackle it and to get it through cabinet and to get it into the public domain for consultation.”
Mr Braund said the guidance was to have an action plan for air quality management areas solidified within 18 months, so the current 14 months is within a reasonable scope.
He said a draft action plan was out for consultation with 11 measures, including the bypass, but said it would be “foolish” to only put the £21 million new road as a solution.
Mr Braund said: “It might never happen, or it might never happen in a reasonable timescale.”
Councillor Mike Ratcliffe said: “I would like to say sorry to the residents in Ashbourne who are involved in this, it must be terrible for them. The lynchpin in this, which is the bypass, doesn’t seem to be an immediate prospect and one wonders if it will ever come about, quite honestly, and I can see the Rebourne project (the £15 million Levelling Up fund bid) being well under way before that is being considered. We seem to be moving at a snail’s pace.”
The £15.42 million Levelling Up fund bid will include upgrades for the Market Place to make it a smoother surface, though losing some parking spaces, along with Victoria Square, Millennium Square and Shrovetide Walk.
It will see improvements in Compton, Dig Street and St John Street, widening pavements and installing more pedestrian crossings.
The final part involves turning Ashbourne Methodist Church into a community hub. An announcement on successful bids is due in October or November.