Last week we reported on the poor state of the recent Rushup repairs following the end of April rain. What we predicted would happen happened, as you can see in the photos here.
Derbyshire County Council (DCC) have since been in touch wishing to respond to our article. In summary they claim that the repairs were a temporary measure to ensure safety over the Easter period and are not part of the trial repairs along the route.
Here’s their statement:
A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We’ve started a series of trial repairs on Chapelgate between the Rushup Edge road and the gate on to the moor.
“These works are not yet complete and are continuing during May.
“In addition to this work, we needed to consider safety over the Easter period when the area was likely to be busy and so a quick and temporary fix using loose stone was put in place to improve safety on sections which hadn’t yet been repaired as part of the trial.
“Despite the route being closed, people are still using it and so temporary measures were put in place to provide some protection. This wasn’t intended as a permanent solution.
“Unfortunately, the route was subjected to heavy rain some days later which washed the loose stone away.
“The trial repairs are being carried out in consultation with the Peak District National Park Authority in a simple and constructive way that will preserve this unique route.
“Any loose stone is being removed and set aside for later use. This stone will be used to infill low sections, where there is likely to be a trip hazard and this material will be sat on a concrete mix to ensure that it doesn’t move.
“We revised our plans following a public consultation in 2018. The consultation received 545 responses and we’d like to take this opportunity to again thank everyone who took part.
“The overwhelming response was that people didn’t want to see the route repaired to a high standard that would spoil the character of the route but instead repaired to a standard that allowed horse-riders to use the route.
“We’ll no longer be building the cross-drains previously proposed or using large volumes of imported stone. But we’ll use pieces of gritstone slab to help even out the surface where infilling with smaller material would be impractical. This technique will reduce the risk of water washing out sections of the surface and retain the natural appeal of the route.
“This work is expected to be completed by the end of May 2019 and inspected over the coming months to see whether this technique has been successful.
“If the repairs are successful, we will return to the site to complete any remaining sections during late summer and also address the significant wet area further along the route. We will also be liaising with Natural England as this area lies within a Site of Special Scientific Interest.”
We appreciate DCC pro-actively reaching out to us with a formal response and are happy to give them a right to reply. DCC have offered to provide comment for future articles about Rushup. We have a number of questions following this statement and will follow up with DCC.
