Prioritise repairing Snake Pass over building new roads - Yorkshire Post Letters

The difficulty Derbyshire County Council (DCC) is having in repairing the A57 at Snake Pass is a symptom of a national road investment strategy which is no longer suitable for the times we are in.

The landslips the road suffers from are set to get worse as climate change and a general shift towards heavier vehicles put extra pressures on it. Estimates suggest that long term repairs could cost hundreds of millions of pounds. More detailed studies may reduce these but they could easily exceed DCC’s annual budgets for both repairs (currently £37m) and new road projects (£70m). Obviously some of the county’s budget is vitally needed to maintain all its other roads.

Travellers between Sheffield and Manchester are obviously very keen to see the road properly repaired because it is an important link between them. Their respective regional authorities are supportive of DCC’s efforts.

Yet the Government is still planning to invest in a huge road-building programme designed to increase traffic capacity, notably including expanding junctions at the A38 through Derby. Estimates have shown the economic benefits of that scheme to be barely above its costs, despite undervaluing its environmental damage. How can it be justified when we cannot afford either ever-increasing traffic during a climate emergency or the costs of repairing the roads we already have?