Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Jon Cooper
The future of the long-awaited ‘£197m’ Chesterfield-Staveley bypass scheme continues to be surrounded in doubt as the Government’s Department for Transport has still not confirmed the lion’s share of funding for the project.
East Midlands Combined County Authority, which now oversees transport, was expecting ‘further clarity’ on plans for the much-needed Chesterfield to Staveley Regeneration Route Scheme during the summer.
But East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward confirmed this month that the project is still waiting for the Labour Government to confirm funding before it can go ahead.
Ms Ward said: “We are waiting for the Government and Department for Transport to make a decision on the large, major funding for the project.
“We have done everything we can to support the feasibility, and now it’s up to them to tell us what is next.”
EMCCA stated in May that it expected ‘further clarity in early summer’ after the Department for Transport had not made a final decision at that time and the scheme was not included in a round of funding announcements.
But a Government Department for Transport spokesperson stated on September 21 the current proposed Chesterfield-Staveley bypass scheme – which originated around 2022 – is still under review and a decision will be made as soon as possible.
EMCCA, which oversees transport, confirmed earlier in the year that there have been funding allocations for an up to date groundwork investigation of the proposed site and a feasibility study, and a business case has been presented to Government as part of the main funding bid.
Labour-led EMCCA earmarked £3m of funding for the 2026-27 financial year to complete actions for a Large Local Major Submission to the Labour Government’s Department for Transport for substantial Government funding to confirm plans for the bypass scheme.
And the authority confirmed in February that a Chesterfield-Staveley Regeneration Route ground works investigation to establish the condition of the land for the potential scheme was underway after it allocated £2.5m of Transport for City Regions funding towards the development and investigation of options to support a business case for the scheme to release housing growth and regeneration opportunities.
But Reform UK Derbyshire County Cllr Richard Smith, who represents Brimington, near Staveley, and residents have raised concerns that the future of the scheme, which aims to alleviate the area’s traffic gridlock and pollution issues, remains in doubt due to the lack of confirmed Government funding.
Former Chesterfield Borough Council Leader, John Burrows, also stated at a recent Brimington Parish Council meeting that he is aware of four attempts to establish a bypass since 1948.
Some residents, concerned about a proposed housing scheme for 1,000 homes in nearby Brimington, also argued that not a single house should be built until the bypass is sorted because people are struggling with traffic congestion.
Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins also called in July for plans for the bypass to be given the go-ahead after claiming that residents are being ‘exposed to unacceptable levels of air pollution’ due to traffic congestion.
Mr Perkins raised concerns over Brimington’s High Street, Ringwood Road and Church Street in particular, which all exceeded the World Health Organisation’s air quality limits – although not the UK’s higher limit for nitrogen dioxide pollution.
He said: “The high levels of air pollution in Brimington reinforce the need for the Staveley bypass, which I am pursuing with local MPs and the East Midlands Mayor, and it will speed up traffic and take it away from close proximity to homes.”
The bypass scheme, currently overseen by EMCCA and Derbyshire County Council’s highways authority, aims to reduce traffic congestion, create new jobs and open up a growth corridor for businesses as part of a series of plans for the region.
It also hopes to provide a new 5.7km single carriageway, opening up the Staveley and Rother Valley Corridor for regeneration by facilitating development of 150 hectares of severely degraded land, bringing much needed regeneration and opportunity to deprived communities.
Derbyshire County Council originally submitted an outline business case to the former Conservative Government after working closely with Chesterfield Borough Council originally seeking £141m to support delivery of the project with a local required contribution of £25m to fund the overall scheme.
This brought the overall, estimated grand total cost for the scheme in December, 2022, to £166m but its estimated cost has now stretched to £197m.
The Government has not yet made any commitments to provide the remaining overall estimated, necessary funding to complete and get the Chesterfield-Staveley bypass scheme up-and-running.
But EMCCA stressed it continues to engage with Government and partners to secure future funding and it has been considering further capital allocations of £5m in 2027-28, and £5m in 2028-29 for developmental stages, as well as £44m to be accessed from 2031-32 which would draw down on the hoped for final Government Large Local Major Programme grant.
The scheme is particularly significant for several reasons not just to alleviate the area’s awful traffic backlogs and pollution rates.
It is considered to be critical to unlocking land across the Staveley and Rother Valley Corridor, according to EMCCA, to facilitate plans for 1,500 new homes and 5,700 new jobs as set out in the Chesterfield Local Plan and a business case for the scheme was submitted to the DfT as long ago as 2023.
In addition, a lot of the brownfield land in the area would be opened up for much-needed housing if the scheme goes ahead.
But while the scheme remains in limbo this land cannot be used so developers are instead targeting other land including greenfield sites and with more housing schemes in the area congestion and pollution is expected to get worse the longer the area goes without a bypass.
The bypass scheme is hoped to run from the roundabout, at Sainsbury’s supermarket, on the A619, in Chesterfield, to the Heritage Green Estate before finishing at Hall Lane, in Staveley.
A Government Department for Transport spokesperson stated its Major Road Network review was announced last July and 41 schemes were included in the review and in March this year 16 of those were confirmed as being allowed to continue in the programme, subject to usual business cases approval.
However, the remaining schemes, including the proposed Chesterfield-Staveley bypass, are still under review and a decision will be made on these as soon as possible, according to the DfT.
Derbyshire County Council and Chesterfield Borough Council also confirmed that the Government has yet to confirm funding for the bypass scheme and that the project is still under review.
However, both declined the opportunity to comment further on the continued delays with the current scheme dating back to at least 2022 or on the doubts emerging on whether the scheme will go ahead or not.
Political veteran John Burrows, who served as Chesterfield Borough Council Leader between 2001 and 2003 and between 2011 and 2017, and who has Honorary Alderman status, was right to point out how a bypass scheme has surfaced numerous times without success.
The Brimington and Tapton Local History Group revealed that other incarnations of a bypass scheme for the area appear to have started as long ago as the early 1920s with the famous industrialist and politician Charles Paxton Markham’s project for an arterial road.
Subsequent schemes surfaced with Professor S.D. Adshead’s route in his report, The Chesterfield Regional Planning Scheme, in 1927, according to the history group.
The group also stated that it is believed two short lengths of single carriageway bypasses for Brimington and Staveley were designed in the mid-1930s by the county council but these did not progress.
A 1949 ‘Survey of the Chesterfield Region’ also considered favouring improvements of the road system, according to the group, and a 1957 development plan for Staveley indicated a local bypass for the central area of Brimington and even in the 1960s this scheme was still being favoured.
The group states that in 1969 the county council considered a scheme but there was extensive opposition and during the 1970s the council considered other routes.
These were followed by consultations for a bypass held in 1980 and again in 1995 with a possible route following the Rother Valley, according to the group, but despite a detailed scheme in the 1990s funding was never forthcoming.
However, the Tapton bypass part of this revised scheme opened in April, 1989, according to the history group.
For now, residents and local authorities continue to wait on a Government funding decision for the latest bypass scheme which, according to the history group, has already surfaced in other numerous unsuccessful guises in the area during the last 100 years.
