Claims new Chesterfield to Staveley road is not the long-awaited bypass proposed 100 years ago

Chesterfield and District Civic Society has commented on new plans drawn up for the route as a pubic consultation on the £130million Derbyshire County Council project continues.

The society says the planned route is intended to regenerate Staveley and provide economic growth – not primarily to reduce congestion on the A619 through Brimington and Staveley.

Society chairman Philip Riden said: “At first sight, this scheme might be mistaken for a revival of the age-old plans for a bypass to relieve Brimington and Staveley of through traffic, an idea first suggested by C.P. Markham in the early 1920s, when he suggested that a motor road be built along the bed of the then disused Chesterfield Canal between Chesterfield and Staveley.

"Congestion on the A619 between Chesterfield and Staveley has got incomparably worse since Markham’s day, and especially since the opening of the Derbyshire section of the M1 in 1967, for which the road provides a very unsatisfactory means of access to Junction 30.

MORE: Angry residents on new-build Chesterfield estate claim they weren't told about bypass plans close to £500,000 dream homes

"The road is heavily congested with both local traffic, especially vehicles travelling from places on the A619 to and from Chesterfield, and long distance traffic, including large numbers of HGVs, going to and from the motorway.”

He said it has been ‘widely agreed’ for many years that a fast route similar to the A617 dual-carriageway from Horns Bridge to Junction 29 was required – but the current plan is for a single-carriageway with much lower speeds.

"This road is not being built principally to bypass a congested section of the A619 or to provide better access from Chesterfield to the M1 for northbound traffic,” Mr Riden said.

"It is being built to open up for development land on the floor of the Rother valley which at present is either derelict former industrial land or low grade farmland.”

He said the county council should ‘not pretend that Brimington and Staveley are finally to get the bypass that Charlie Markham first proposed a century ago’.

A Derbyshire County Council spokesperson said: "We would urge residents to give their views by taking part in the consultation which is open until April 10, 2022."

Take part in the public consultation on the bypass here.