Calls for Buxton bypass '˜will be heard'

Talk of a relief road in the town goes back generations and an online petition calling for a new bypass has so far received more than 820 signatures.

Now Derbyshire County Council has said it will look at the issue later this year.

A spokesman said: “We’ll be carrying out a countywide review of projects this year as part of the Derbyshire Infrastructure Investment Plan and the calls for a Buxton bypass will be considered alongside a long list of projects.”

The issue has been brought back into the spotlight after the online petition was set-up on the Government website petition.parliament.uk entitled ‘Build a relief road for Buxton, Derbyshire’.

Elizabeth Thompson, 49, who created the petition, said she set it up to get people talking about the traffic issues in the town once again.

She said: “This is a major through route and is not suitable for the volume of traffic it serves.”

The council spokesman said the authority understands the ‘frustrations of motorists in the Buxton area and their calls for improved traffic flow’.

“We’re working with the Buxton Town Team and University of Derby on surveys to better understand travel in the town and see if there are improvements which we can introduce,” said the spokesman.

Meanwhile, High Peak MP Andrew Bingham said he could not ‘disagree with the idea of a relief road’.

He said: “I fully understand everyone’s concerns and would support any vision which would help ease traffic problems.

“It is the only northern entrance and exit to the town and has always been a problem. But with more cars on the road than ever before it is going to continue to be a problem.

“We are trying to fix things in the High Peak and are halfway there to a solution for the congestion in Glossop but we can’t expect a quick fix.

“I can remember my dad talking about a ring road for Buxton years ago but nothing has ever happened. In the late 1960s he went on a march to support the Chapel bypass but that took a further 20 years before it was built.

“I know how bad it can be on the A6, I’ve sat in it, we’ve all sat in it, but sadly these things take time and money and where would it go? Ownership of land would also have to be sorted out.”

People can view and sign the petition on the government’s Petitions Committee website at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/172149.