Belper Civic ForumThe Civic Society of Belper and Milford in Derbyshire

DERWENT VALLEY MILLS PARTNERSHIP RESPONSE

TO TESCO PUBLICATION ‘A VISION FOR BELPER’

This statement has been produced in response to the current information made available to the public by Tesco. It is not a consultation response to the Development Brief for the area centred on Derwent Street, currently being developed by Amber Valley Borough Council; neither is it a response to a planning application by Tesco, as no such application has, as yet, been submitted. It is intended that this document will help the general public understand the DVMP position over the present proposals being publicised by Tesco and their agents.

Tesco have said:

·         to develop the land west of the A6 at Belper it is necessary to create a new access road as the Derwent Street access is inadequate for the scale of development they are proposing.

·         to fund a new access road, which could become a relief road for the part of the A6 which runs through Belper town centre, they need to create a store at the very top end of the size of stores they develop, i.e. 80,000 square feet.

·         to create the new access road they need to demolish Pyms Solicitors, and its garden, and radically increase the impact of highway intersections upon the conservation area.

 The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Partnership response is that:

• Derwent Street could be used to provide access to a more modest redevelopment more in scale with the historic town centre. AVBC Local Plan Policy ER1C which deals with the redevelopment of the land does not require the creation of a new access road per se.
• The disbenefits of the creation of the new road as proposed are significantly in excess of potential benefits.  The development  would result in very considerable damage to the Belper Conservation Area and, more particularly, the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. In summary the principal concerns are:

o        the demolition of Pyms, which is a building dating from 1792 built by the Strutts and used by them as an administrative base and which is a physical attribute of the “Outstanding Universal Values” for which the DVMWHS was placed on the World Heritage List.

o        the loss of important historic townscape at The Triangle.

o        the imposition of a very large building on the historic town and grossly out of scale with it.

o        a considerable impact on one of the key monitoring views for the DVMWHS – the view of the historic town and meadow landscape across the valley from Chevin Road.

o        the lack of evidence to provide reassurances regarding the continued sustainability of traditional retail businesses that provide suitable viable uses for buildings within the Conservation Area and World Heritage Site, and the risk that vacant properties would result in a serious reverse of the prize winning £2m town centre conservation led regeneration programme operated with HLF funding, between 2004 and 2008.

• The Partnership recognises that Amber Valley Borough Council has designated part of the site for retail use and believes it is possible to provide a smaller store which would not impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site.

The Partnership will reconsider its response when further information is made available and/or at the planning application stage.

As the planning authority which will be dealing with any applications relating to the development, Amber Valley Borough Council abstained from the partnership discussion on this paper and the decision to release it to the public. It has also clarified that in these circumstances, it cannot support any collective response by the Partnership, as this could prejudice the proper consideration of any future planning applications relating to the land.