Palm Court Island in Allestree (at the junction of the A38 and the A6) has long been a dangerous place for cycles and pedestrians. This is made worse by the lack of suitable, safer, cycling alternatives for travelling from the north (e.g. Duffield) towards Derby City Centre.
In early 2026, there has been media attention and the Allestree Councillors have picked up on trying to get improvements to the junction for pedestrians. We’d also like to see any improvements also focus on the dangers to cyclists.
Above image shows collisions resulting in injury during the period of 2020-2024 with the red designating serious injury. The data can be explored in more detail at https://www.crashmap.co.uk/Search
The local issues have recently been highlighted in the Derby Telegraph and it is reported that the City Council has no immediate plans for improvement works. The Council justifies this by saying there have been no pedestrian injuries since 2021 (they conveniently forget to mention the two cyclist injuries in 2023 – one serious).
The above map shows some of the issues that cyclists encounter including:
- the need to cycle past slip roads where motor traffic is leaving the island at speed
- the high speed of traffic joining the island from the A38 encouraged by the wide sweeping corners.
- the double lanes on slip roads joining the island where, even if eye contact is made with the nearest lane of traffic, there is a risk of the farther lane having a fast car who isn’t aware of a cyclist on the island
Pedestrian issues are similar to those of cyclists but differ in that there is a separate pavement around the island so there is not the same issues of mixing cyclists and fast motor traffic. The issues with crossing the slip roads and the poor visibility apply to both cyclists and pedestrians
In many ways, the pedestrian dangers mean that the island can be unusable for those with mobility issues, those pushing prams and users of disability vehicles or wheelchairs as there is often a need to move swiftly across the unprotected slip road crossings.
It would be good to see improvements to the junction for both cyclists and pedestrians and people are encouraged to make representations to their representatives, particularly those in Allestree where the councillors are Ged Potter, Steve Hassall and Kieran Morgan-McGeehan.