A petition launched by residents and councillors is calling for a better organisation and coordination of roadworks across Derbyshire.

Councillor Ross Shipman, Councillor David Hancock and Derbyshire People Against Roadworks Planning (DPARP) have worked together to launch an online petition to Derbyshire County Council calling the authority to improve the organisation and coordination of roadworks across the county.

Anyone who has faced disruption across Derbyshire in the last few months can sign the petition – with an option to provide more information about which roadworks have caused particular disruption and why.

The petition comes after a public meeting at Tupton Community Hub on Monday, April 27, organised by newly-launched DPARP group.

The public meeting, which was held at Tupton Community Hub on Monday, April 27, saw residents, business owners and local councillors come together to voice their frustrations over "absolute traffic chaos” in and around Chesterfield in recent months.

placeholder image — The public meeting, which was held at Tupton Community Hub on Monday, April 27, saw residents, business owners and local councillors come together to voice their frustrations over "absolute traffic chaos” in and around Chesterfield in recent months.

Residents and councillors raised several complaints over the “lack of coordination” in the way roadworks are planned and insufficient communication from the council.

More roadworks related concerns were raised on Tuesday, April 28, when a road closure was put in place at Storforth Lane despite the signs advertising the road would be closed on different days and times.

This has caused traffic chaos in the area with businesses at Storforth Lane Trading Estate blocked without prior notice.

Councillor Charlotte Hill, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Potholes, Highways and Transport said: “I understand that getting caught in roadworks is frustrating but we always do our best to manage planned roadworks and to let local residents know about work being carried out in their area by our teams.

“At any one time there are around 70 separate sets of planned roadworks taking place across our county every day, the majority of which are utility company works to maintain and improve their gas, water, electricity and telecoms services.

"These private companies are responsible for letting people know about this work.

“On top of this, there are many emergency repairs over which we have no control and we have to allow these to take priority to maintain essential services for local residents.

“Unfortunately, due to the emergency nature of these works it may inevitably lead to some disruption if planned roadworks are already happening in the area.

“Please be assured when working to coordinate our roadworks we take lots of things in to consideration including the types of traffic management required, such as traffic lights and road closures, other works happening in the area or any planned diversion routes.

“We also consider a host of other things that might affect local residents, businesses or services including access to health services, maintaining access for emergency vehicles, bin collections and bus routes as well as taking in to consideration school holidays or exams to try to minimise disruption as much as we can.

“Our residents, quite rightly, expect us to maintain and fix our roads and we are working hard to do this but inevitably this will mean some delays for which we apologise.”