Cost of new Derby A50 junction surges to over £89 million with work yet to start

The proposed new A50 junction and link road at Sinfin. Image from Pegasus Planning Group

The cost of a new Derby A50 junction has soared to more than £89 million with work on the major project yet to start.

Seven years since public consultation on the scheme took place and five years since planning approval, work on the A50 junction at Deepdale Lane, just south of Stenson Fields, has not begun.

During this time, the cost of the project continues to surge without a spade even entering the ground.

The initial cost of the scheme had been £37.5 million with a start date of 2023 to be complete in early 2025.

Fast forward to today and the cost now sits at £89.1 million, with the forecast start date still currently sitting at April 2027.

But there is no specific completion date given – and the project now boasts a £11.6 million black hole.

New papers from Derbyshire County Council detail a need to extend funding agreements via Government to allow spending up until March 2029 and make reference to Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) sitting squarely in the middle of the construction process – March/April 2028.

A public inquiry into the plans, which will involve the legal seizure of 129 acres of private land – broadly owned by farmers – is to take place in September, meaning no work can start until that ruling is known.

The last known cost of the scheme was £78.04 million in January, when the cost had increased from £70.4 million, officially doubling the initial price of the project.

Papers detail: “Four objections were received to the compulsory purchase order. Positive discussions are ongoing with objectors to seek withdrawal and avoid the requirement for public inquiry. However, a public inquiry date set by the Secretary of State for September 8-9 puts the programme at risk and exacerbates related cashflow challenges.” 

Council officials say there is to be an approach to Government to fill the £11.6 million funding gap via the Growth and Housing Accelerator Fund.

The long-awaited junction is the lynchpin facilitating plans for upwards of 6,000 homes and creation of 5,000 jobs through business space expansion between Stenson Fields, Sinfin and Chellaston.

It would be built at the current underpass between the A50 and Deepdale Lane, with a link road up to Infinity Park, paving the way for acres of new business and industrial space and easing congestion through Derby for those new enterprises.

This news comes more than four years after the Government awarded £49.6m for the project in October 2021, with extensions already given to allow that money to be spent past March 2026.

To date, there have now been five Transport Secretaries and five Prime Ministers since the project was given the Government’s backing.

The East Midlands Combined County Authority has already had to step in three times, last year and in January, to provide extra funding to save the project, in the form of a £1.5 million grant, £2.5 million grant and £18.64 million cashflow grant via the Transport for City Regions fund.

Developers, including Wilson Bowden Developments, have agreed to contribute a minimum of £6 million to the project, papers detail.

The county council says it has already spent £4.96m of the Government funding it received for the junction in 2021 and would face “clawback” of the remaining sum and what it has already used if the project were not to go ahead.

It says it is already using combined authority funding to fund the current cashflow issues and will face clawback on this too, should the scheme not go ahead.

The authority says one last cabinet approval is required to progress the project to construction and purchasing of the land.

It said the full business case submission to achieve the missing gap in funding would also be an opportunity to “withdraw from sponsoring the scheme should it consider that risks outweigh benefits”.

The council said: “The council is taking all necessary measures to mitigate the clawback risks identified above. Key delivery partners remain fully committed to the successful implementation of this scheme, and constructive and continuous engagement with the Department for Transport is ongoing to ensure these risks are managed effectively.

“Collaboration agreements are in development to formalise risk sharing arrangements and responsibilities between Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council and South Derbyshire District Council as local authority partners. Discussion is also ongoing with EMCCA about the appropriate sharing of financial risk on this shared priority scheme.

“The project will be at mid-construction stage by 1 April 2028 vesting day (of the new northern/southern Derbyshire councils through LGR), meaning consideration needs to be given to support efficient completion of the project and support approval and adoption of assets by the successor authority.”