£27m investment to improve county travel and transport in 2023/24

Plans to invest £27 million in 2023/24 to repair roads and pavements, reduce flooding and improve local bus and cycle networks will be considered by County Councillors at a Cabinet meeting to be held on 17th November 2022.

Funded by the Department for Transport, the investment marks the final part of the county’s major three-year, £120 million programme to resurface roads and pavements damaged by bad weather, improve bus travel and develop more rural cycling and walking routes to boost tourism.

This year, the county council has already delivered over £20m of travel and transport improvements across Derbyshire.

Councillor Kewal Singh Athwal, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Assets and Transport, said: “This significant investment underlines our commitment to improve travel and transport across Derbyshire, to deliver safer and better journeys with less congestion for everyone.

“By careful planning and despite the challenges of the world economy, we are on course to deliver £120 million pounds of investment across our local roads, cycle routes, pavements and bus network by March 2024.

“Next year, our ambitious plans will target over £12 million to resurface roads and repair potholes across our network.

“Our major investment programme will also help to tackle flooding problems, improve road safety and tackle congestion at some of our busiest junctions. 

“This approach is all part of our work to provide resident focussed services to deliver a prosperous and green Derbyshire for everyone.

“We recognise that these improvements will cause some delays as we will need to safeguard the travelling public and our workforce, and I would like to thank everyone for their patience.”

Projects included in next year’s (2023/24) programme have been carefully selected to reflect feedback from local people, councillors, and government funding available. 

How the money will be spent to maintain Derbyshire’s travel and transport network in 2023/24:

• Road maintenance and pothole repairs: £12.5m
• Pavements: £2.8m
• Drainage and flood relief schemes: £700,000
• Bridges, retaining walls and highway boundary structures: £1.6m
• Landslip site investigations and temporary solutions: £950,000
• Signs, lines and signals: £700,000
• Street lighting: £440,000
• Public rights of way: £715,000
• Cycle routes: £290,000
• Greenways: £405,000
• Contingency to cover unexpected issues like inflation, emergencies etc: £2.4m

Total: £23.5m

New schemes to improve travel and transport across Derbyshire

• Congestion management schemes including new signing, better lighting and pedestrian crossings: £650,000
• Cycling and walking routes: £295,000
• Bus and travel to work scheme improvements including long term, low cost moped hire, bus shelters and bus arrival/departure information at stops: £1.6m
• Road safety including crash barriers, drainage improvements and interactive speed warning signs: £455,000
• Air quality: £100,000
• Contingency to cover unexpected issues like inflation, emergencies etc: £400,000

Total: £3.5m