Belper Civic Forum

 The Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has dismissed the appeal by Chevin Property against the decision of Amber Valley Borough Council not to allow redevelopment of the building. Chevin Property wanted to replace the building, which started life as a private school c.1830, by a three storey block containing 15 dwellings and build a further block of 4 dwellings.

The Belper Civic Forum campaigned  to protect this historic building within the World Heritage Site and are very pleased with the Inspector’s Report which makes very interesting reading and will provide useful information and precedent should similar applications arise again. For example, in response to the appellants case that decay to the building in recent years had reduced the opportunities for retention and repair the Inspector stated, “In my opinion this amounts to deliberate neglect”.

 The feasibility study on the future of the school building concluded that a mixed community and commercial use, as advocated by the Belper Civic Forum, was likely to be the best option from a financial point of view. It suggested that the scheme would be self financing provided the former car park was developed for housing. The Belper Civic Forum has responded to the associated consultation and our response can be viewed here.Response.The Forum met the County and Borough Councils on June 19th, in order to discuss its proposals and the way forward.

After a few months of consultation, discussion and general honing, Belper Civic Forum is proud to make available an alternative development brief for The Meadows Edge in downloadable form. Download it, read it and let the Forum know what you think…

Download the file using this link (the file is aproximately 7.7MB in size).

This file is in PDF format. You will need a viewer for the file that you can download and install for free:

• The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be Found Here (Aproximately 22.4MB in size).
• The “Foxit Reader” (for Windows) is a smaller and faster alternative that can be downloaded from here (Aproximately 2.1MB in size).

In order to provide more information about the Forum’s Herbert Strutt Project a special web page has been created. The future of the former school is proving to be a very hot topic in the town, over 1800 people have signed our petition to ask for it to be used for community purposes, in less than a month! In addition there is also a petition on the Prime Minister’s web site so that other people, such as former pupils, can make their opinions known. Go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Strutts-Belper/

The children and teachers finally left the old Herbert Strutt school building this morning. The story was covered by BBC East Midlands TV, including interviews with Belper Civic Forum about the future use of the site.  The Strutt School sub-group of the Forum decided this week to use the name “Strutts” for its project for the re-use of the building for mixed community and commercial use. A special web page is being prepared including an on-line petition. In the meantime volunteers will be out getting signatures in Belper on Saturdays March 1st and 8th. A further press release has been prepared that gives a lot more background to the issues.Press release 27th Feb o8

The Aleena Naylor show at 1000 today featured an interview with members of the BCF Strutt School Group about the future of the building. Statements were also provided by Derbyshire County Council and Amber Valley Borough Council.

After a period of consultation around Belper and very hard work by the Meadows Edge Sub-Group a detailed “Alternative Development Brief” was presented to forum members on 28th September.

The meeting gave members a chance to get a feel for the proposals. The aim to put forward a viable and sustainable alternative to other suggestions for the Meadows Edge site made so far - mostly by Tesco who are aiming to build a store (with associated roads and facilities) on the old Thorntons site off Derwent Street. There was plenty of enthusiasm for the brief presented by the sub-group, quite a few questions and a lively discussion.

The proposals being put forward by the forum will be made fully public at the Forum’s next open meeting on Monday 29th October at the Masonic Hall on Campbell Street in Belper from 7.30pm. There will be plenty of chances to comment on this issue that is crucial to the development of Belper.

Meanwhile, if you have any further question, queries or feedback - it’s worth looking at the “Belper At The Crossroads” leaflet for more information.

The open day held at Herbert Strutt School in Belper on Saturday 8th September seems to have been quite a success with at least 90 people coming to have a look round. Belper Today gave it some good coverage and plenty of comments on the potential future of the school have been gathered.

I had a wander around and found it a really amazing building - certainly early 20th century civic architecture on a great and impressive scale! I also took a few pictures - the best of which I’ve uploaded to Flickr , but here are one or two to be going on with :

The Belper Civic Forum is concerned about the forthcoming closure of the Herbert Strutt School. The Forum believe that this very attractive listed building that was given to the town, could be re-developed in an unsympathetic way and a valuable opportunity to create a community asset would be lost.

As part of the National Heritage Open Days Scheme, the Forum arranged an open day on Saturday 8th September at Strutt School which 90 people attended.

The school was opened in 1909 and given to the town of Belper by George Herbert Strutt (1884-1928). Alan Bates, Simon Groom and Timothy Dalton were among former pupils. It’s an exceptionally attractive stone building that forms a gateway to Belper in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

Amber Valley Borough Council is commissioning a feasibility study on the future of the building, this must be completed by 31st March. The study will consider redevelopment for residential use but should also consider the shared commercial and community use proposed by the Forum. Various organisations have expressed an interest in acquiring or using the building for commercial purposes and the Forum has met or been in discussions with some of these. It is the intention of the Borough Council that the proceeds from the sale of the site will all go to the Herbert Strutt Charity.

The Belper Civic Forum has now formed a “Strutt School Sub-Group” to take forward its own “Herbert Strutt Community Project”. The Group was formed at an open meeting for local people who had volunteered to help. The meeting took place on February 8th. A steering group of nine people and a working group of fourteen people were set up.

The Steering Group met on February 12th in the school itself, in the rooms rented to Derwent Brass, with their kind permission. An open letter expressing the concern about the building had been sent to County and District Councillors. The Group are also preparing:

• A press release for the BBC to coincide with the closure of the school on 27th February when a procession of children will take place between the old and new school sites.
• A proposal to Amber Valley Borough Council to purchase and redevelop the building for mixed Commercial and Community use.
• A petition, the text of which is as follows, “We the undersigned care about the future of the Herbert Strutt School building and urge that it be used as a community facility for Belper.“
• The completion of a survey of potential community users.

The petition will be launched soon and will include an internet option.

Members and local people may also express their concerns by raising questions at the next Local Community Forum (see calendar).