More than £42M has been awarded to help reduce congestion and improve road safety in Derby and to revitalise Loughborough town centre, the Department for Transport has announced.
Derby City Council is to receive £27M to complete work on the Connecting Derby scheme, while Leicestershire County Council has been awarded £16M to improve Loughborough town centre.
Transport minister, Paul Clark, said the £42.8M package was part of the Government’s commitment to deliver major transport improvements in the East Midlands.
The Connecting Derby scheme comprises a new section of dual carriageway to provide a more direct link around the city centre, and will incorporate improvements to help people who walk, cycle and use public transport, as well as extensive landscaping.
Councillor Lucy Care, cabinet member for planning and transportation at Derby, said she was ‘delighted and relieved to, finally, get the money approved’, so the inner ring road could be completed.
She said: ‘It’s not flyovers dividing Derby and the city centre. It’s going to be full of crossing points and be much friendlier for pedestrians, cyclists and buses. ‘Some of the residential streets which currently carry through-traffic will become quiet cul-de-sacs.’
The Loughborough Town Centre scheme proposals include completion of the Loughborough inner relief road, which aims to take thousands of vehicles away from the A6 between Derby Square and Baxter Gate.
The pedestrianisation of the town centre is also planned with other measures, including improving bus travel to and from the town centre through improving information systems, and providing high-quality transport waiting facilities. Clark said: ‘Loughborough’s town centre will be revitalised by removing traffic from the High Street, making the town centre a much more attractive and safer place for shoppers and workers.’
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