Reporter says hazardous borough pavement cannot be navigated without users fearing for their lives

HGV traffic and damage on Ilkeston Road. Image from Eddie Bisknell.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

There is a pavement in Derbyshire which I challenge anyone to walk along without fearing for their lives or taking a wing mirror to the head.

The 400-metre stretch of Ilkeston Road from the Sowbrook Lane junction, between Ilkeston and Stanton by Dale, does have an accompanying pavement for pedestrians on its eastern side, but walking this route you would struggle to see it carry out its intended function.

More often, this pavement solely serves as an overspill extension for the road, used several times a minute – even outside of peak traffic – by heavy vehicles including a broad range of  lorries and freight, some with extended trailers, alongside buses and bin lorries, due to the narrow width of the route.

The pavement measures around three feet wide, but two of these feet bear unnerving tyre marks from large vehicles mounting the walking route in order to avoid fellow vehicles coming the other way.

On the opposite western side of the road a makeshift lookalike pavement has been formed on what was a grass verge, carved out by around two feet in width by the sheer regularity in which it is utilised by large heavy vehicles needing more space.

While at the site, the Local Democracy Reporting Service witnessed numerous near misses in which large vehicles including buses, recycling lorries and bin lorries, reduced speed to to a crawl with their wing mirrors missing by mere centimetres due to the narrow width of the route.

Our reporter also encountered their own series of near misses on the pavement by vehicles screeching against the kerb to avoid fellow passing lorries and with many wing mirrors hanging over far into the pavement airspace.

This is not a route which can be walked or cycled without keeping your wits about you and has to be seen to be believed.

Large vehicles can be seen rocking back and forth, leaning severely towards the pavement side of the route in one particularly subsided section which has had some patch repair.

Deep crack-ridden trenches run the length of the route on both sides of the carriageway due to the volume and type of vehicles using the narrow road.

This is all ahead of the reopening of the former Stanton Ironworks as the 4,000-job New Stanton Park, which is gradually becoming occupied, so far through parcel service DX, McDonald’s and Starbucks.

A planned roundabout had formed part of the wider upgrades aimed at the junction between Lows Lane, Ilkeston Road and Sowbrook Lane, but this formed part of a development blueprint scrapped by Erewash Borough Council in January on the advice of a Government inspector.

Cllr Kate Fennelly, vice chair of the borough’s planning committee, is calling on Derbyshire County Council to widen the road and move the pavement further away from the roadside.

On a visit to the site with the LDRS, the Labour councillor said: “With the Core Strategy dropped we don’t know when or whether we will get improvements and with New Stanton Park opening up we are seeing a lot more pedestrians use this route. That will increase with Starbucks and McDonald’s too, and that will likely be mainly young people.

“You feel the road leaning when you are in your car and you can see the HGVs tipping. It is horrendous. The police are called out here quite a lot, many car wing mirrors have been lost.

“The cost of widening will be high but over time that will be outweighed by the cost of constant repairs and cleaning up after crashes, potholes and compensation claims, it will disperse all of that. The county council has got to look at the bigger picture.”

She said the wider impact from the Stanton Ironworks regeneration has not been experienced yet but that heavy vehicles do continue to breach the weight restriction through neighbouring Stanton by Dale, causing significant potholes and other road damage.

Councillor Charlotte Hill (Reform UK), the county council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “Our highways team are currently looking into any action that can be taken, including talking to the developer about what mitigations can be put in place. 

“We appreciate residents’ concerns and will work with key stakeholders to try for a solution.”