An update on the long-awaited Chesterfield-Staveley bypass has been issued – with the Department for Transport giving nearly £200 million to boost transport across the East Midlands.
The funding – comprising several different sources – has been given to East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) from the Department for Transport and is for the year 2025/26.
It includes a new pot of money specifically for Mayoral Combined Authorities: an extra £66m, on top of last year's commitments, which pushes the transport budget for next year to nearly £200m.
This will allow EMCCA to invest in creating better connections between cities, towns and rural areas with the aim of making it easier and cheaper to travel around the whole region.
It will further support major network improvement schemes and look to improve the reliability of bus services. It will also help to move to fully zero emission bus fleets and support the development of and connectivity to the region's growth zones.
More money will also go towards highway surface improvements – a local authority responsibility – so they can fill potholes and improve roads.
This announcement comes as the Chesterfield-Staveley Regeneration Route - a £166m project aiming to reduce congestion, create new jobs and open up a growth corridor for businesses - remains in limbo.
As part of these plans, a 3.7 mile bypass has been earmarked to run from the roundabout at Sainsbury’s supermarket, on the A619 in Chesterfield, to the Heritage Green Estate – before finishing at Hall Lane in Staveley. The plans, however, were paused in late 2023 by Derbyshire County Council (DCC) - as the authority awaited confirmation of any Government funding for the scheme.
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