Snake Pass is one of the most striking and storied routes in England and thankfully the recurring rumours of its indefinite closure to cars have been greatly exaggerated...or at least they have been overplayed slightly by the neat journalist trick of 'asking a question to which the answer is no'.
A recent BBC story sparked the Snake Pass debate once again by asking: 'Could famous road close to cars?'
Although it was a balanced article that outlined the past, present and concerns for the future of the beautiful route, as one local source said, 'it's the headline people remember'.
Snake Path links Sheffield and Manchester but it is paid for by Derbyshire County Council rather than from a central budget.
A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council told Highways: 'We have no plans to close Snake Pass but there are several major landslips on the road, which we are managing.
'We hope that the road remains stable, and will do everything we can to keep it open within the budgets that we have.
'It's for this reason we have highlighted the strategic importance of the road and sounded the alarm bell that with the currently limited highways grant money we get from Government, we are encouraging a proactive discussion about the investment needed to be able to fix any further major movement on the road.
'We have had conversations with the DfT over several years where we have put our case for extra funding for fixing landslips - as well as highways maintenance more generally.
'In Derbyshire we have over 200 landslips we are currently managing because of our geology and the hilly nature of the county- as well as 3,500 miles of roads and many miles of retaining walls and bridges to maintain too.
'We continue to urge both government and our new regional Mayor to work with us on specific additional funding for landslips, as well as for maintaining and improving our wider roads.'
Contributing to the BBC article, the Department for Transport (DfT) told reporters that it was 'not responsible for Snake Pass' and 'does not hold contingency funding for major repairs of this sort'.
Although there is the Bellwin scheme, which can allow funding to be released to councils for emergency or disaster repairs including for roads, where authorities incur costs from 'immediate action to safeguard life or property, or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience, in their area or among its inhabitants'.
The scheme is seen as a response to exceptional bad weather events, 'although the law does not rule out other types of incident'.
However, Derbyshire told Highways that it understands Bellwin is not available for landslips.
Highways has approached the DfT for comment.
Snake Pass is over 200 years old, with work starting in 1818. It has been used in music videos and films including Manchester band Inspiral Carpets video for This Is How It Feels, and the 2007 British drama film And When Did You Last See Your Father?, starring Colin Firth.
