Long-awaited plans for a potential bypass around a congestion-hit Derbyshire town have once again been shelved due to funding issues.
In a Derbyshire County Council meeting this week, councillors were informed that the previous Conservative administration “paused” work on the potential Ashbourne bypass after years of planning.
News of this pause from the previous administration comes more than four months after the Conservatives were replaced by Reform as the controlling group following the May elections.
This announcement came as Cllr David Harvey, Reform councillor for the Hardwick division, called for investment into a Glapwell bypass, near Shirebrook.
The Ashbourne bypass, last priced at £21 million, was a core priority of the former Conservative administration and particularly of its then deputy leader, Cllr Simon Spencer.
Under the council’s previous leadership, the authority had invested in numerous feasibility, ground investigations and traffic studies and had selected the preferred route for the bypass four years ago.
It was to stretch around the west of the town, arcing clockwise to north from the A52, close to the town’s recycling tip, and end near Callow Top Country park and the Landal Sandybrook Lodges.
The intent two years ago was that information from landowners and then impending surveys and ground investigations was to then submit a planning application – but that has not progressed.
During a meeting this week, Cllr Harvey said: “The people of Blackbrook have been talking about a bypass since 1937 and here we are in 2025 and traffic has become far worse. It is something I feel very passionate about.”
Joe Battye, the council’s director of economy and regeneration, said plans to improve the “access into Shirebrook” is on the authority’s regeneration pipeline and this would start with a feasibility study into potential options.
She said the council aims to get that project onto the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) agenda to get funding for that first stage.
Previously, this had been “rescinded” from the county council’s priorities due to the potential impact outweighing the benefits.
However, former council leader, Conservative Barry Lewis, had made a commitment in 2021 to then Bolsover MP, Conservative Mark Fletcher, to set aside money for a feasibility study and a further potential £150,000 to fund investigations into the Glapwell/Shirebrook bypass.
Cllr Steve Bull, Conservative member for Ashbourne South, wished Cllr Harvey “good luck” with his pursuit of a Glapwell bypass.
He said: “We got very close in Ashbourne. If it wasn’t for Storm Babet and bad weather conditions it would probably be in the planning process.
“It has now sort of disappeared. Despite the levelling up funds (£21.4 million spent on Ashbourne from Government grants), the town is still being shaken to pieces by HGVs.
“I hope yours is put on the list, especially when you have been knocked back so many times.”
Chris Henning, the authority’s executive director of place (which includes highways) said: “We took the Ashbourne relief road through feasibility through to designs and started the pre-application process such as talking to the Environment Agency.
“Due to the financial challenges which are affecting local authorities the last administration took the decision that we couldn’t spend more on that without a route through and the lack of understanding of whether there was going to be more funding.
“We did have talks with EMCCA about that but their pot of funding is not infinite and is about choices and there are choices to be made at a strategic level, such as do we fund roads which will provide relief or roads which will provide access to jobs, housing and investment opportunities and that is a decision for them.
“There are absolutely choices to be made including Ashbourne and Glapwell. With Ashbourne we had to make the decision in the last administration to pause but that is not to say it cannot come back as funding becomes available.”
