Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire’s transport overhaul: what’s on the priority list?

A shortlist of priority transport and road improvement schemes across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire has been compiled by the region’s new combined authority.

The East Midlands Combined County Authority has listed 14 initial transport and road schemes which have been put forward by the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire councils for priority funding.

This also includes a number of schemes that were already on the combined authority’s radar due to their scale and “strategic” regional importance and would “unlock” housing and employment development sites.

The combined authority stresses that the projects it is looking to support are not limited to this current shortlist.

In total, the shortlist involves requested funding of more than £48 million, with four schemes based in Derby at £6.25 million, four in Derbyshire at £15.48 million, three in Nottingham at £4 million and three in Nottinghamshire at £22.695 million.

The Derby priority schemes are:

Culvert and highway structures replacement, repair and replacement of key assets around the city – £1.5 million

A52/A52T Spondon Interchange – detailed design and construction on improvement of a complex junction to enable increased active travel, bus priority, improved road safety and reduce severance – £1 million

Darley Abbey Mills Bridge – feasibility, detailed design, business case and planning approval for a replacement permanent bridge – £750,000

A strategic scheme based in the city affecting the Derby and South Derbyshire area is Merrill Way/A514/Boulton Lane junction improvements junction improvement works.

The combined authority says improvement to this junction is a key planning condition for enabling the new A50 junction south of Sinfin at Deepdale Lane, which in itself is costing £70 million. 

This scheme includes bus priority at a “pinch point” junction on the A514 along with active travel and network efficiency improvements with £3 million of funding required.

The Derbyshire priority schemes are:

Landslip prevention and mitigation programme – Targeted remedial works to landslips affecting resilient and strategic routes on the Derbyshire highway network – £8 million

Market town interventions – contribution towards traffic management, active travel and public realm improvements – £1.5 million

A6 historic retaining walls – to advance preliminary designs, undertake geotechnical and structural strengthening of early 19th-century highway retaining walls between Matlock and Whatstandwell – £3.48 million 

A strategic scheme for Derbyshire is the Chesterfield-Staveley Regeneration Route, last priced at £166 million and paused by the Derbyshire County Council indefinitely in late 2023.

This was due to the council’s own financial difficulties. Since then, further action has also been hindered by the scheme forming part of the Government’s ongoing review of all new development schemes due to a financial black hole stretching into the billions.

The council has asked for £2.5 million for ground investigation to support the outline business case for a single-carriageway road.

The Nottingham priority schemes are:

Real Time Information (RTI) parking signs – upgrade life expired city centre signing system for off-street car parks – £2 million

Gregory, Lenton & Radford Boulevards – active travel enhancements – deliver increased pedestrian and cycling improvements along Gregory, Lenton and Radford Boulevards – £1 million

Streets for People programme – small-scale improvements to footways, cycleways, carriageways, parking areas and green spaces across the city – £1.067 million 

The Nottinghamshire priority schemes are:

Priority maintenance to carriageways, footways, drainage, road markings, public rights of way and other critical assets. The critical assets element is targeted around those that are reaching life expiration and where failure to invest could have significant negative impacts on the transport network – £15.195 million

Pipeline feasibility & development work – feasibility and development work for further schemes – uncosted

A strategic scheme for Nottinghamshire is the improvement of the A614/A6097 major road network to address congestion and journey time reliability as well as support planned housing development along the route. 

Nottinghamshire County Council has requested a £7.5 million funding boost to address a cost shortfall and enable the Department for Transport to consider the full business case and potentially allow the scheme to progress.