Belper Civic Forum

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.

Members may nominate other members to be officers and committee members of the Belper Civic Forum Executive Committee for the elections that will take place at the AGM on 1st April 2008. Nominations must be sent to the secretary no later than 14 days before that date. You need the consent of the nominee and a seconder. A Nomination form is available to enable you to do this. The form lists all the positions that need to be filled. You may also wish to refer to the Constitution.

Herbert Strutt School

On 3 Dec there was an open meeting of those interested in the Strutt School project. This was to be followed up by a meeting on 8 Feb of those wanting to join the Steering Group for this project or take on specific jobs. See calendar. There has been a lot of activity on this project; for instance on the feasibility brief, discussions with potential users and other interested parties have taken place. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and the Citizens Advice Bureau have both authorised us to make public their expression of interest in joining the project and possibly taking space in the building.

Planning Applications monitoring -

We do our best to keep an eye on applications going through, but if you notice something in your area or of particular interest or concern please get in touch.

Meadows Edge

We presented the Civic Forum’s alternative vision for the Meadows Edge site to a well-attended public meeting. This was enthusiastically received and following this endorsement we have made the presentation to the council officers who are preparing the council’s Development Brief. We are keen to play a part in this and we are in the process of preparing the Civic Forum’s own vision for publication and distribution. Watch this space!

Youth Group News

Youth group members heard in November that their application for funding to make a BCF film was not successful. The idea has not been completely abandoned - we are looking for other funding sources at the moment.

In December Harry Symonds, a Belper School sixth former and a BCF youth group member, enabled Sarah Laman and Pippa Mansel to go to Belper School and do a presentation about BCF’s alternative ideas for Meadows Edge. Over 30 sixth formers took part and they went on to look at the scale of existing buildings in comparison to possible future large buildings on the site.

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.

As part of the process of consulting the people of Belper about what they want to do with the Meadows Edge site off Derwent Street, we produced a leaflet called “Belper at the Crossroads”.

And now (for your convenience) we have a handy PDF formated version of it :  Belper at the Crossroad PDF

To view the file, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed - which you can get for free from here : Adobe Acrobat Reader Download Page.

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).

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Tesco organised an initial event to inform the public about its ideas for developments in Belper on the Meadows Edge. This event was held on 26th and 27th July at the Nailer’s Football Club. The club is away from the town centre and not everyone would have realised the event was taking place.

The Belper Civic Forum organised an “exit poll” of the people who attended. People were asked if they were in favour of Tesco’s proposals as presented at the event. 220 people were asked of whom 196 lived in Belper and Milford. 68% were against, 20% were for and 12% were either undecided or did not answer.