Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Eddie Bisknell
Councillors have called for the speed limit to be lowered on a 50mph route close to a popular Derbyshire tourist attraction.
At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting this month (Tuesday, February 10) councillors approved expansion plans for the Knockerdown Inn, off the B5035 near Carsington Water.
The plans, from the pub’s owners, Andrea and Chris Harvey, through Henfox Ltd, were for a car park increase, a reconfigured caravan park and a toilet and shower block.
This is the fourth attempted expansion for the venue, with two rejected and one withdrawn in the past four years.
It would involve the parking spaces increasing by 24 to 51, with a 33-pitch caravan site to be ‘formalised’, alongside a toilet and shower block built out of local stone with solar panels on its roof.
Cllr Dermot Murphy said the type of traffic leaving the site, slow-moving vehicles, would present an issue.
He said the accident record of the stretch of road past the site was ‘not great’.
Cllr Murphy said: “We could almost do with changing the speed limit on that stretch of road.
“People do fly down that road.”
He later continued: “This is a major growth in this site and not enough of the local people are being asked for their say. It is in the open countryside.
“This is a very busy road on the weekend and you will have caravans pulling in and out.
“People have died and we have had serious accidents on that piece of road.
“We could, in time, be talking about another fatality.”
He supported the council in lobbying the county council over a potential change in the speed limit, with other councillors also raising the same issue.
Cllr Peter Slack said the current 50mph speed limit was “far too high”.
Meanwhile, Cllr Stuart Lees said it was a “fast piece of road” on which people regularly drove at 60mph, not the 50mph limit.
Cllr Peter Dobbs said the plans sought to “upgrade something already in use”, with caravans already entering and leaving the site.
Cllr Slack said: “This site will be a very good site, it will bring a lot of tourists in.
“Carsington has become a tourist attraction and we need to encourage growth.
“We should not turn our backs on this, we should encourage it. We shouldn’t stifle growth.”
Cllr Lucy Peacock said she disagreed with the perceived risk and suggested the very existence of more caravans near the site may slow down traffic.
In December 2022 plans to turn the pub site into a haven for motoring enthusiasts with a coffee shop, car display area and a total of 150 parking spaces were rejected – with opposition from hundreds of people, nine parish councils and the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
Meanwhile, in September 2023, plans for a 32-space car park extension were rejected after a mass wave of opposition from scores of residents, seven parish councils and the PCC.
Proposals for four ‘luxury’ holiday lodges and a 24-space car park extension and the removal of the campsite were filed in April this year but have now been withdrawn.
