Chesterfield residents react as town centre roads are closed for 'social distancing'

Corporation Street and South Place have been closed to traffic by Derbyshire County Council using Government cash – following an earlier closure of Crow Lane between the train station and Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

County Hall has received £443,000 from ministers to put social distancing measures in place and encourage cycling and walking.

The closure of Corporation Street is intended to create a safe socially-distanced walking route from the train station into town and South Place has been shut off to make more space for people to walk from Ravenside retail park into the centre of town.

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Posting on our Facebook page, Lee Mitchell said: “I think that if the council want to encourage people to cycle into town, they should spend some of the grant on providing a 100 per cent secure bike parking facility of the sort you see in the Netherlands.”

Bex Atkinson posted: “How is closing Corporation Street inconveniencing motorists? Not exactly a major thoroughfare is it?”

Peter Wardle described it as a ‘ridiculous and completely unnecessary step by the local authority just done at the drop of a hat with no notice or consultation with businesses or residents’.

John Holmes posted: “Closing South Street so that people can walk from Ravenside to the town centre? I'm sure the car parking company that looks after Ravenside will be happy about this. Will we be able to send the tickets to the council?”

And Andy Miles said: “Corporation Street is ideal for taxis and disabled access to the theatre. DCC are clearly out of touch with the needs of Chesterfield.”

The county council says it has worked ‘very closely with Chesterfield Borough Council on everything we’ve done’.

Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, Councillor Simon Spencer, said: “We’ve received £443,000 from the Government to put social distancing measures and encourage cycling and walking into town and village centres across the county.

“We are putting some sort of measure into over 40 different locations."

Chesterfield Borough Council was unable to provide a coment before our deadline.

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