Councilors statements of support for stopping the A38 expansion
We are delighted that since the latest DCO for the A38 expansion, our campaign has received official statements of support. These have been published with their permission.
A hand made sign saying “Bigger roads = more traffic” at the bottom of a mature tree under threat near the Markeaton Park area of the A38.
Photo credit: https://tony-fisher-photography.com/
Statement From Amber Valley Borough Council’s Green Party Councillors on Proposed Changes to the A38
Like many people in the communities that we represent, Green Party councillors experience the congestion at Markeaton Roundabout and appreciate the inconvenience that this causes. We know that people understand the road changes would come with very high environmental and financial cost and bring several years of construction disruption. Many residents tell us that, despite regretting the damage, they feel the work is necessary to help traffic flow.
But evidence shows that increased road capacity fills very quickly from ‘latent demand’ and ‘induced demand’; Satnavs will send drivers past Derby as an alternative long-distance route; local people, who currently choose to avoid Markeaton Roundabout, will use the route more; commuters will move to areas they would have avoided and start using the A38.
But the most significant reason why a modified A38 will fill is because it will allow developers to put thousands of houses in the wrong places.
The planning policies of Amber Valley Borough and Derby City Councils are failing local people. In the past, housing that the government requested of Derby City has been exported to neighbouring authorities. This has resulted in car-dependent homes being built on fields, creating congestion.
Amber Valley Borough Council is looking to allow two thousand houses on fields beyond Markeaton Roundabout. There are suggestions that Derby City may request its neighbours to take a further 9,000 of its housing allocation.
The changes to the A38 would create huge environmental damage, costs a vast amount of money and cause years of construction disruption. Then the road would fill.
We desperately need more houses but they need to be in the right places. Homes inside the city can be built as terraces, town houses and apartments at higher density than in suburbs which means there are more people in an area to support public transport, shops, leisure and jobs.
Homes outside the city are usually lower density, detached and more spread out so people have to drive to shops, leisure and work.
We should be supporting public transport to alleviate peak congestion and have planning policies that revitalise Derby with homes within the city. We should not be allowing car-dependent urban sprawl in Amber Valley. Amber Valley Borough Green councillors are working hard to influence local planning policies so we get the right homes in the right places and the right transport solutions.
We don’t believe that the changes to the A38 will, in the long term, resolve the congestion. The changes would come at a high financial and environmental cost.
Alison McDermott
AVBC Green Group Leader
alison.mcdermott@ambervalley.greenparty.org.uk
Breadsall Parish Council Statement on A38 Derby Junctions Approval
Dear Ms C Leak / A38 Junctions Campaign Group,
Breadsall Parish Council wishes to make the following comments in support of your aims.
Derby City Council and the Government have declared a climate emergency so the destruction of mature trees and other important wildlife habitats in these circumstances would be unforgiveable.
Preparatory works for this road expansion scheme would have many detrimental effects on the city – the loss of mature trees at Markeaton Park and Mackworth Park and in the locality of Breadsall and elsewhere in Erewash Borough; the loss of local wildlife sites, loss of natural screening that protects residents from noise and pollution and the associated detrimental effects on people’s mental health of all the aforementioned.
The Council also supports the issuing of an area TPO. A Tree Preservation Order is an order made by a local planning authority in England to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands. In this case, where protection is needed rapidly for disparate trees, an area TPO would be the correct type to use and could be made on grounds of amenity- the screening from traffic noise, visibility and pollution that the trees as a group provide to the residents of Breadsall, Little Eaton and elsewhere.
The Council is aware of the proposed mitigations including new planting said to be effectively mature after fifteen years but does not consider this sufficient for the losses described above.
Yours sincerely,
Miss E Holgate
Clerk/RFO, Breadsall Parish Council
clerk@breadsallparishcouncil.org.uk