The full business case

Derby City Council submitted the full business case to Government on 26 March, which detailed how it would tackle and reduce city roadside NO2 emissions.

The full business case put forward a traffic and network management solution to tackle the one area of exceedance identified on Stafford Street, in response to prescribed limits determined by EU legislation.

It included several junction design changes and a significant modernisation of the Council’s urban traffic management system:

• Changes to the junctions at either end of Stafford Street to limit traffic flow at the exceedance point.
• Changes to improve capacity at the Ashbourne Road / Uttoxeter Old Road junction and on Friar Gate to help provide alternative route choices.
• Traffic management measures to support the use of alternative routes, such as Uttoxeter Old Road.
• Enhancement of the city’s Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) system, to enable more dynamic management of traffic flows, with emissions reduction and air quality objectives prioritised alongside the need to manage the network, particularly at peak periods and when incidents occurred on the network.
• Improvements to the local highway network, including re-waterproofing and resurfacing a bridge over a former railway line, to ensure medium-term network availability, resilience and reliability. 

The traffic management measures outlined in the business case were approved by the Secretary of State on 13 May 2019, and a ministerial direction issued.

We welcomed the outcome of the Ministerial Decision and approval of the traffic management scheme. We remain fully committed to meeting our legal duty to reduce roadside NO­2 emissions at sites of exceedance. 

Procurement work occurred to implement the plans laid out in the business case, and minor physical road changes took take place.

Monitoring of Stafford Street will continue from implementation to 2025.