On November 16 Derbyshire County Council announced proposed routes and dates for their public consolation on the possibility of a bypass for Ashbourne. A public consultation on the routes and associated transport issues will start on November 23 2020, with every household in the town and surrounding area due to receive information shortly. The consultation will then close on December 18.
Sarah Dines MP said, ‘Since being elected almost a year ago, I have been working hard to raise the need for a bypass in Ashbourne. I have raised this multiple times with Ministers, The Chancellor and directly with the Prime Minister on multiple occasions. I am delighted that from November 23, residents in Ashbourne and the surrounding area will be asked to take part in this consultation. I urge everyone who is able, to take part in this important work and make sure that their views are heard. I have met with Cllr Simon Spencer to discuss the bypass and I am pleased he is leading this important consultation. I want to thank the County Council for taking this work seriously and making sure that residents get a say.
It is my opinion that a bypass is needed for vehicle users and pedestrians alike in Ashbourne. Most Fridays I find myself stuck in terrible traffic in Ashbourne, with quarry vehicles struggling to make it through the narrow roads. For residents of Ashbourne this is an everyday occurrence. We need the quarries. They are vital not only to the local economy, but the minerals they produce are vital to the whole country, but the residents of Ashbourne deserve safe roads, with minimised pollution. An independent consultation in 2017 found that there were up to 12,000 vehicles using main routes through the town each day, that almost half (46%) of traffic using the A515 was through traffic – with somewhere other than Ashbourne as its end destination and a £1.5 million estimate placed on the cost of traffic delays in the town per year. A bypass is a common-sense and much needed solution to these problems.’
