Chesterfield Cycle Campaign

See below a statement received today from Chesterfield Borough Council;

Strategic Walking and Cycling Route between Park Road and Derby Road
This area is owned by Thornfield. It is proposed to be a new urban park, containing a new central skate park facility for the town and a new cycleway and footpath link running through to Park Road along the line of the former railway track, providing through access for pedestrians and cyclists from Derby Road/Lordsmill Street to Queens Park and beyond to the Hipper Valley cycle route. This was part of the original masterplan for the former Bryan.........

Donkins site approved by the Council back in 2003. The plan was that the urban park would be provided as part of phase 1 of the redevelopment of the Donkins site, along with the construction of the B&Q Warehouse and the first office building on the business park. Once complete and landscaped the urban park is to be adopted by the Borough Council to maintain and the footpaths/cycleways adopted by the County Council as highway authority.

However, whilst the B&Q and office building have been completed, the urban park has remained incomplete. This has been due to protracted negotiations over the proposed lighting scheme for the urban park and the footpath network. This matter has remained unresolved over the summer this year, meanwhile Thornfield has left the urban park unfinished and not sought to prevent public access.

Thornfield has now brought contractors in to finish the urban park. In the last two weeks they have been removing stones and other debris and laying topsoil. This will be followed by landscaping and finishing the footpaths/cycleways. The installation of the lighting scheme will take place in the new year. Not withstanding the onset of bad weather conditions, I am hopeful that all of the work will be finished by the end of February 2010 and we can finally open the walking and cycling route, subject of course to the County Council’s agreement on the lighting scheme and the adoption of the footpaths/cycleways.

I hope you will see that the Council is doing everything it can to get a speedy conclusion to this unsatisfactory situation.

16th December 2009