We’ve known it for years... now’s the time to get town’s traffic trouble solved once and for all
A short walk along St John Street, with HGV vehicles thundering past, is enough to send you rushing to get off the street as soon as possible
Ashbourne Town Team member ALBERT GOLDING explains how a £12 million Levelling-up Fund bid could be used to sort out heavy traffic, polluting and clogging up the town centre’s shopping streets – a problem that was being highlighted in the Ashbourne News Telegraph 30 years ago!
IN last week’s paper I explained what the Ashbourne Town Team and Ashbourne Town Council are doing to bring much needed new investment into improving our town over the next two years.
A £12 million-plus bid is being prepared by the Ashbourne
Town Team for consideration by Derbyshire Dales District Council at their Community and Environment committee on February 23 to go forward for Levelling Up funding later this year.
It is understood that the Ashbourne bid will be competing with a bid from Matlock to assist with their proposed development of the bus station to provide a new cinema and further shopping provision.
One of the main programmes of the Ashbourne LUF bid is the creation of a safe and healthy town centre.
“Pedestrian area for town centre shops”
“It is suggested that the pedestrianisation of St John Street and Dig Street may be especially appropriate.
“The narrow intimate scale of St John Street in particular means that even one way traffic presents a constant danger, preventing relaxed carefree shopping.”
This is not a quote from the Ashbourne Levelling Up Fund bid but is an extract of an article in the February 1992 copy of the Ashbourne News Telegraph commenting on the district council’s recently published Local Plan.
Thirty years on and what has been done to improve safe pedestrian movement across our town centre?
While recognising that full pedestrianisation is not feasible, Ashbourne’s main shopping streets must be made safer and more appealing to pedestrians and shoppers.
A short walk along St John Street, with HGV vehicles thundering past, is enough to send you rushing to get off the street as soon as possible. Not a place to spend more time than absolutely necessary!
Things have got to change and we intend to make sure they do.
We have been working for some time developing our ideas and proposals for making the town centre a safer and healthier place.
The Ashbourne Levelling-up Bid proposals are not a “pipe dream” but a coherent and practical set of traffic management and footway improvements for the town centre.
They will transform Ashbourne, making it an especially safe and healthy town centre in which to live, work and shop.
Our proposals are backed by Derbyshire County Council whose highway officers are now working with the town team in drawing up specific improvements for implementation in 2022.
This commitment of joint working between the county council and the town team is backed by our local County Councillors Simon Spencer and Steve Bull. Moreover the county council has already set aside £250,000 for the implementation of phase one of the Ashbourne Traffic Management Scheme.
There is still a lot of work to do to agree the total Ashbourne Traffic Management Scheme, which should also include proposals from the statutory Air Quality Management Plan for the Buxton Hill/st John Street area.
However, we have now started and intend finally to implement the aspiration for making Ashbourne town centre a safe and heathy place described in what the News Telegraph published in 1992.
In total we believe that the total cost of the Ashbourne Traffic Management Scheme will be in excess of £2. 5 million with work spread over 2022-2024. We hope that the levelling-up funds will contribute significantly to meeting the total cost of the work although further funding through Derbyshire County Council’s capital programme will also be required to match funding levelling-up fund income.
The most important step forward is to work in partnership with Derbyshire County Council to finalise the traffic management proposals and consult Ashbourne residents. This will occur shortly.
It is hoped that the first major improvements will be made later this year with the complete traffic management strategy being fully completed by 2024.
This is the time to invest in Ashbourne and make our town centre what it should be, a thriving town centre for residents and visitors.
A town which people love to visit, experience and explore.
Get behind the Ashbourne Levelling Up Fund bid.