New city ‘park and ride’ scheme takes a major step forward
APPROVAL has been given to buy land on which Derby’s newest park and ride scheme will be built to the east of the city.
The city council cabinet gave the goahead to buy the land, which was identified in a report as “in the A52/ Megaloughton Lane/Raynesway corridor”, during its most recent meeting.
But Rachel North, city council strategic director for communities and place, told the cabinet meeting that the new mobility hub, as it will be called, will not be “just a traditional park and ride site”.
She said: “It is an opportunity to use this site to support more sustainable transport such as charging points and other things that can be included in that hub which will increase the level of accessibility and connectivity in our city.”
Funding for the project will come from the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) after £161 million was awarded to a joint bid by Derby City Council and Nottingham City Council in early 2020.
Derby’s share of the funding is around £60 million and it must be spent or committed by March 31, 2023.
From that, £9.160m was allocated for potential mobility hubs/park and ride, including the costs of land acquisition.
The cabinet report said: “The mobility hub in this eastern part of the city will enhance travel choice and contribute to our decarbonisation ambition, as they support long-term adoption of more sustainable travel patterns, in particular to key employment sites. “The concept includes options for sustainable ‘ride’ modes, so will also include cycling and walking route improvements.
“It is also aligned with complementary bus prioritisation measures, also being developed and delivered from TCF.
“There is potential to add EV charge points and other clean fuels to further enhance the site.”
Access to the proposed site will need to be improved and a highways scheme will need to be developed, according to the report. Councillor Matthew Holmes, deputy council leader said: “This is a very exciting proposal and, as time goes by, the public will learn more about what mobility hubs are and it will be far different from traditional park and ride.” Details about the funding and location were deferred and discussed to the end of the cabinet meeting when the public and press were excluded. In December 2018, Derby City Council announced it was looking at the former Celanese site in Spondon as a possible location for a park and ride site. Since then, the site has been acquired to develop SmartParc - a new state-ofthe-art food manufacturing and distribution centre which it is expected will create thousands of jobs in the area. It was also suggested previously that there could be up to three new park and ride schemes or mobility hubs at different entry points into Derby.
A park and ride scheme operates between Derby and Pride Park.
The public will learn that mobility hubs are far different from usual park and rides.
Cllr Matthew Holmes