Update – 27th March 2024
Chesterfield Borough Council has updated the Public Path Diversion Order following consultation with Derbyshire County Council. This means that the consultation will now run to 30th April 2024.
To see the revised Order, click here.
20th February 2024
When the canal is restored at Hartington in the next two years, the existing footpaths will need to be realigned to tie in with the canal towpath and the new bridge across the canal for the Trans-Pennine Trail. You can read more details about this project by clicking here and see the photographs as works progress by clicking here.
The map above, taken from the Derbyshire County Council’s Mapping Portal, shows the existing Rights of Way in the area.
The Trust needs consent to move these formal Public Rights of Way. Such consent is granted via a Public Path Diversion Order.
The Order will formally close some elements of the paths and divert others.
All of the diversions and closures are in line with the existing planning consent, click here, granted in April 2021. The principles of the changes were consulted on with relevant stakeholder groups during the planning application, and this process will be repeated during the advertising of the Order.
Please note that this Order is for permanent changes to the Public Rights of Way, it is not the same as temporary closures or diversions during construction. These will be advertised when needed.
The Order still shows HS2. This is because it is based on the existing planning consent, granted in April 2021.
The eastern leg of HS2 was cancelled in November 2021 and in October 2023, the Prime Minister cancelled HS2 north of Birmingham. However, the land remains legally safeguarded until the government confirms which sections will be needed for other purposes. This safeguarding is due to be removed ‘by Summer 2024’.
To remove HS2 from the planning consent (which will remove the railway bridge and the additional lock west of the railway), the Trust will be applying to vary the existing planning consent. We are in discussions with Chesterfield Borough Council as to the best way to do this and the application should be made in the near future.
The application to vary the consent will revise the footpath arrangement around the railway crossing and north of the canal, with most of the footpaths remaining very close to the current alignment, but with the levels altered and the paths improved and widened.
Once this consent is granted, a new Public Path Diversion Order will be applied.
This Public Path Diversion Order is required to realign the footpath over the new TPT bridge that will be constructed this summer (2024). Without it, the contractors cannot remove the ramp supporting the existing footpath.
We did consider doing an Order that only addressed this path, but it is simpler for the Council to prepare the Order as currently advertised and then do a second Order later.
For general queries, please email contact@chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk.
All responses to the consultation must be directed to Chesterfield Borough Council by 29th March, planning@chesterfield.gov.uk.
To see the Derbyshire County Council plans, click here.
To see the Chesterfield Canal Trust plans, click here.