Fears of serious disruption over trio of roadworks

A county councillor is predicting serious disruption after three major road projects were scheduled to happen in South Derbyshire within a few months of each other.

National Highways will be carrying out work on the A38 at Willington, while Derbyshire County Council will be repairing a damaged bridge nearby, and gas mains repair work is planned on the A514 near Swarkstone Bridge.

Matthew Benfield, who represents Repton and Stenson, said there would long delays in the surrounding villages during the projects as drivers try to avoid the roadworks.

National Highways and the county council both said they would try to keep disruption to a minimum during the works.

The first of the projects to get under way will be gas works on the A514 near Swarkstone Bridge.

The project, which will be managed by the county council, is due to start on 9 February and is expected to last for 12 weeks.

A few miles away, National Highways will carry out work to strengthen the foundations of a bridge over the A38, near Willington.

It is set to be the biggest of the three projects and could take up to 18 months to complete.

The project is due to get under way in the summer, but it is not known exactly when it will start.

Finally, Derbyshire County Council's work on a bridge on Repton Road in Willington is planned for the school summer holidays and is set to last for four weeks.

Benfield said recent preparation work ahead of the National Highways project caused delays of around 70 minutes through the villages of Repton and Willington.

"I was getting e-mails and messages from concerned parents that it was sometimes taking an hour and a half to get home from school," he added.

"Summer of discontent is the only way I can describe it. We have had discontent in the last three or four weeks and it is going to get a lot worse during the summer period."

Benfield, who said traffic was generally bad in the area, has contacted East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward calling for a bypass for the villages of Repton and Willington.

Ian Doust, programme delivery manager at National Highways, said the agency had been working with local authorities to "consider mitigations for issues such as rat-running".

He added contractors "have been made fully aware of the situation and tasked with putting in a suitable plan".

Doust said: "We always try to minimise disruption for motorists and communities and have a team strategically co-ordinating work on our roads.

"Once details of the scheme are confirmed, we will ensure the information is widely communicated so people can be prepared."

Charlotte Hill, the county council's cabinet member for potholes, highways and transport, said: "While the work to the A38 is largely out of our control, we are in the process of carefully co-ordinating any other necessary works required on other major routes in the area to try to manage the disruption as much as possible.

"We are also ensuring that we are communicating with key stakeholders and will update residents as early as possible.

"We understand that these works will undoubtedly cause some issues for drivers but please be assured that we are doing what we can to keep that to a minimum and would like to thank residents for bearing with us during this period."

In response to Benfield's call for a bypass, Ward said any request to the East Midlands Combined County Authority for funding would need to be considered alongside other transport priorities across the region.

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