Derbyshire County Council is to contact landowners for the area surrounding the route of a new road proposed in Ashbourne in the coming weeks as work to develop the plans progress.

The preferred route was chosen to help tackle congestion in the town following a public consultation exercise after up to 12,000 vehicles were found to be using main routes in the town each day. Almost half (46%) of traffic using the A515 was found to be through traffic – with somewhere other than Ashbourne as its end destination.

Starting on the A52 Mayfield Road, the preferred route would take traffic slightly further away from the town centre, joining the A515 Buxton Road close to Sandybrook Hall.

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As work to develop the proposals enters the next phase, we are requesting access to pockets of land so that ground investigations and survey work can be carried out.

Information gathered will be used to help engineers come up with the best design for the road – proposed as a single carriageway with separate provision for pedestrians and cyclists – and put together plans to minimise any disruption to wildlife and nature. All the information will used to inform a future planning application.

Councillor Carolyn Renwick, our Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, said: "Residents and businesses in Ashbourne have been calling for a new road for a long time to ease traffic congestion and cut journey times, with the cost of traffic delays in the town estimated by independent consultants in 2017 to be worth £1.5 million.

"There's still a lot of work to be done, but this latest phase in the process will take us a step further towards submitting a planning application and getting a more accurate estimate of costs so that options for funding can be investigated in the future."