'We have no freedom' - Angry residents living near A38 slam 'year-long' roadworks

In January, I moved to a much-loved Derbyshire town with hopes of getting away from the carousel of chaos, noise, and high-visibility jackets that seemingly blight every street in 'big cities'. I lived in Derby for three years while I was a student at the University of Derby, but I didn't own a car at the time - so I felt I didn't qualify to moan and groan about issues that didn't really affect me.

Belper seemed the perfect fit: a brilliant high street, plenty of shops and supermarkets and, above all else, great access to the A38 via roads which were seldom congested - I thought I'd struck gold. And while I had a good first few days exploring the town and the brilliant countryside, I soon found a temporary traffic light-shaped problem when I first tried to access the A38 at the Coxbench/Lower Kilburn slip road.

I access the slip via Belper Road and take a right turn onto the B6179 Derby Road at the Rawson Green junction, which then takes me through Lower Kilburn. Initially, the lights were situated near the Jet petrol station on Derby Road to allow what seemed to be pipeworks to take place on the northbound side of the road.

As the days, weeks, and eventually months passed by, the traffic lights slowly migrated north, towards the Rawson Green junction that connects Belper, the A38, Kilburn and Ripley. I remember thinking to myself, 'Surely that'll be it once they move pass the junction', as I rarely needed to take a left turn - but I was wrong.

We had a few weeks of being able to move around with free will, like cows being put out to pasture, but before we knew it we were back in the shed for winter. I remember coming down Belper Road a few weeks ago, naively thinking I could beat the rush hour traffic while heading to Derbion after work one night, and then I saw every motorist's worst nightmare - brake lights.

I found myself at the back of a queue near Northfield - a small residential road a few hundred yards from the traffic lights - wondering how long this next installment of the works would remain in place for. That was two months ago, and I don't think I've bothered with the A38 since.

Back in September, drivers were warned of the temporary lights after Severn Trent announced it would be carrying out repairs on a collapsed drainage pipe owned by a third party. Severn Trent workers delivering the £20 million Marehay to Kilburn transfer scheme - which caused the initial traffic lights on the B6179 Derby Road - paused their work to assist in the repair.

The pipe was discovered by Severn Trent’s teams as they were moving along Derby Road installing a new wastewater pipe. Not all water pipes are owned by Severn Trent and may have been installed for a variety of reasons.

The current four-way lights - five-way if you include the rarely used Prospect Road, which leads to offices - are causing major issues for residents caught in the thick of it, as well as people like myself who need to regularly pass through the area.

I decided to knock on some doors and see if the locals were as bothered by the restrictions as I was - and believe it or not, they were. James Loxley, 38, lives on Danesby Crescent, which joins Derby Road near the centre of the traffic lights. He says he’s spent "hours" waiting in and around the lights over the past few months and says he “cannot fathom” why it is taking so long.

“I don’t want to sound like Jeremy Clarkson, but it’s just typical roadworks taking so much longer than they should do. We had a few weeks where the works had been completed on the main road, and life was normal again, but now this, this is just a mess - I cannot fathom why it is taking so long.

“It’s also worth mentioning that it has brought out the worst in people on the roads. The amount of times people will not let me out at the end of my road and I’m waiting in excess of 10 minutes is a joke; I must've spent hours waiting here in the last few months. I think everyone is just angry as soon as they realise how atrocious it is.

“If I had to put up with this for another year, I’d probably sell my house. I’m not joking, it’s that bad. Of course, no one would buy it if they saw the circus taking place outside.”

Another local who lives in Lower Kilburn, Mark Forshaw, says it’s a nightmare, not just for motorists but for pedestrians as well - particularly the elderly. The 72-year-old said: “Thankfully, I’m quite mobile, although my age wouldn’t let you believe that.

“There’s a lot of elderly people in the area who rely on footpaths for exercise and to enable access to bus routes. It’s so dangerous on Belper Road, not all of the crossings are working and you need to be quick if you want to cross the road safely.

“I’ve spoken with one lady who says she has given up walking around and is ordering more taxis to prevent an accident, but a lot of the time, they don’t even want anything to do with it up here. I just hope whatever they’re doing, they get it done quickly and don’t come back again for a long time.”

Polly O'Keeffe, 62, who has lived near Brickyard Lane for more than a decade, added: “I’m glad you’ve come to speak to us; we are suffering more than you can imagine and we’ll probably have nothing to show for it when it’s all over. They’re doing waterworks, you say? Great. I doubt that takes a year to sort.

“I’m sure it’s necessary for whatever reason, but surely they could’ve gone about it differently. We had months of trouble when they dug up the main road and now things are worse than they ever were.

“We’ve had our freedom stripped from us. We live in the middle of a number of towns and I feel as though we are often forgotten.” Severn Trent has now apologised for the disruption caused in recent months, admitting the roadworks were in place "longer than first anticipated".

A spokesperson for Severn Trent said: “We’re sorry for the disruption our roadworks near the Rawson Green crossroads have caused. These have been installed at the crossroads to keep the local community safe, as we progress our £28 million investment improving waste network in Kilburn.

"The roadworks have been in place longer than we’d first anticipated, after essential work on the network was needed ahead of the project starting. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience, and the temporary traffic lights are due to be removed at the end of November.”

So with the end in sight, I best enjoy my detours along the A6 down to Derby over the next week or so while I can. And fingers crossed I will one day be able to enjoy a hassle free journey to the city without sobbing into my steering wheel to a soundtrack of Sarah Cox enthusiam.