Everything I say here is based on the premise “It is up to us to ensure what is built on the Meadows Edge site is the best possible for Belper”

The latest News

13th June
REPARATION OF DRAFT SUPPLEMENTARY PLANNING DOCUMENT

Well the report is out and I have read it, all 206 sides of A4. Not something I would recommend to anybody, I now have a lot more respect for the people at Amber Valley who have had to read through our letters, emails, etc and write the responses. Well what does it say I can here you all asking, a one sentence summer would go:

The document stands with many minor modifications and clarifications but no substantial changes.

Amber Valley assuming they accept the changes can now go forward to the planning stage with Tesco putting forward its proposals. The changes that were accepted mostly clarify the history and the surrounding environment and make points about the value of the existing buildings and the surroundings. One clarification I hadn’t picked up results from one interpretation of the report as being in favour of a new road. Clearly it is not allowed to be in favour of such a decision it must remain neutral and allow the planning process to decide the need or otherwise for a road.

The changes that were rejected were mostly expressing, in one form or another, our fears about scale, design, traffic, flooding, history or the environment, mostly the items that will be covered in detail in the planning application. The ten minute slot allocated in Monday nights council meeting points to them expecting to accept the modifications proposed.

I have learnt a number of things I didn’t know about the history of Belper. Yes, I like most of us now am an incomer and although I have taken a great interest in the town I am a novice when it comes to the history. A short list of newly learn things about Belper:

• The Thornton’s factory is known as the Castle
• Parts of it starting life as the Empire Theatre Hall and Cinema
• Gracie Fields sang there
• It was also Belper’s first cinema
• The Brettles Factory was a Grammar School

Personally I hope we can now all get on with the next step because I hate the long time it takes to get anything like this done and dusted.

8th May 2009
Informal meeting with Tesco PR

Two of us had a surprise meeting with a PR representative of Tesco today. Sadly he let very little out of the bag but there is one little nugget (later). However we did have two hours with him and the message is very clear. The sequence of upcoming events is as follows:

• Amber Valley Planning Brief due in the next few weeks
• Tesco Exhibition and initial plan release late June
• Planning application before Christmas
• Planning Application result from Amber Valley (target 13 weeks)

The dates can slip, if the Planning Brief is not what is expected or if we react very badly to the proposal and Tesco decide to reconsider the plan. So the earliest we can possibly know what will finally happen is March next year and that assumes all goes to plan and no appeals, etc. So it rumbles on and on, these things take forever!

Update 21st May 2009The Planning Brief will not go to committee until mid-June so the release of the initial plans will not occur until July some time. As I said above the dates can and have already slipped.

However, as I said above we will have a first release of the plans in June. What we say then is our best chance at changing the final outcome. What we are shown in June will not be the final plan but the first step towards the planning application and the real horse trading, if any, will take place between June and November.

So what was let slip, oh nothing much just that not all the buildings on site will be demolished and as was said many times in the discussion nothing is for sure until the planning application is granted and all the contracts are finalised. Just like buying a house it isn’t over until it’s over.

11th March 2009
Belper Civic Forum put out new version of leaflet

Our vision - Belper at the crossroads 2

Before I start to explore this document I need to declare my position; since I last wrote I have got to know some of the member of Belper Civic Forum (BCF for short) and in at least one case discovered a friend is a member. I am not a member of BCF and will not be becoming one. If I think they are wrong I will say so, however, I do have more of an understanding of the thinking behind their position. I must also say I am very much in favour of the redevelopment of this area but it must work for the town and not be like every other development in recent years and just bring more homes and offices.

Previously I have said the original document by Belper Civic Forum was one of the better discussions of the problem, setting out the pros and cons quite evenly, this time I‘m not so sure. Before you could draw some clear ideas and conclusions from the document, now .... well it is a lot woollier, a lot less decisive.

If you are to understand what I am about to say you need a copy of the “our vision - Belper at the crossroads 2” leaflet. Currently despite the leaflet encouraging you to go to the BCF web site you will be wasting your time the site is moribund and the leaflet is not available and is not even mentioned! So I have scanned it, sorry for the quality but I do not have access to an original.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

PLEASE NOTE: Belper Civic Forum I will remove these links once you have it available on your site and I will link to your official copy of the leaflet.

What are the big ideas?

• No demolition of Pyms, the Methodist Chapel or Unity Mill.
• No Tesco, at least not a big super store.
• The bypass has gone or has it?
• A new flood relief canal has been added.
• A raised Promenade has been added.
• Three new open areas.

So let us consider the big ideas first, the myriad of little ideas we might come back to later.

No demolition!

Personally I would go much further no building fronting on Bridge Street or on the town end of Derwent Street needs to be demolished. The only building of any significance that might be under threat is the Dance School and that should be replaced if demolition is necessary.

No Tesco Superstore

You the people of Belper seem from everything I am told to be slightly against the building of new super store. This seems to be the position that almost every town is discovering when people are asked what they want. However, the reality of your shopping habits tells a differing story and BCF say the space exists to the south of Derwent Street roughly where I originally suggested.

This picture is of the area named on the leaflet as Thornton‘s Yard and is also where I think BCF is talking about the space existing for the supermarket. So at a guess we have to choose between the two options.

Remember Morrisons is so successful that it has applied for and been granted planning permission to be extended the store by twenty percent and I would guess it will still be over performing once it is extended. The car park and the surrounding area is hell at weekends and not a lot better Monday to Friday — gridlock is common.

• Without the super store what incentive do Tesco have to build?
• Who else could pay for the construction?
• Where has the new library gone?

I will leave those questions for you to answer, one caveat don‘t think of local government they have no money, national government has taken it all!

What will Tesco do if they cannot build a new super store, i.e. planning permission is refused? Well if I was Tesco I would build a group of smaller units with a common theme and car park. They are much more likely to get planning permission if the scale of the development fits the town. They could then sublet the space to themselves and other stores, with which they did not compete, i.e. open Tesco White Goods, Tesco Booze, Tesco Clothes and Tesco Food. If they do this the total floor space might just be greater but the buildings would be smaller.

The Bypass has gone or has it?

What a load of cr....., sorry but “When is a street not a road?” I ask you. I think I get it but what a terrible way to express the idea. If the same volume of traffic flows through the difference is semantics, there is no practical difference. The form of the road, street, bypass, relief road, bypass is what is important not what it is called. The traffic flow through the town has to be carried and it has to be carried in a safe and reliable manner and personally I still favour a one way system not dissimilar to Nottingham Road. Despite what the county might try to tell you the A6 up through Belper is a major commuter route which at peak times exceeds its capacity and it is getting busier.

If Bridge Street and the new buildings are to be successful they need bigger pavements, car parking and access without people feeling endangered, cut-off or intimidated. According to BCF the northern section of the relief road is optional. Let‘s not beat about the bush, the northern section of the new road is needed now, before the build starts and before the next ten years growth of homes in this valley!

A new flood relief canal has been added.

First let‘s think about a rule that will probably be placed on any development that includes this sort of idea by the Department of the Environment.

RULE: Water flow rates at the river bridge and at Hopping Mill will be required to remain at current nominal levels, i.e. the rate at which the water comes into the meadow and leaves the meadow must remain the same. Otherwise you just pass the problem to someone else who will have the flood instead.

So what is the advantage of digging a flood relief canal?

Flood relief canals can serve two purposes without breaking the rule.

1. They can act as a reservoir which will effectively slow down the speed at which the river level rises and falls. This can mean the peak water level is reduced. The dams in north Derbyshire are already meant to do this and we all know what happened to the people who live in the cottages on Wyvern Lane that got flooded because water management was not as good as it should have been. Incidentally these houses are inclined to get flooded at about the same time as the meadow so holding water back at the river bridge is not an option.
2. Flood relief canals can also help drain areas that have been flooded more quickly. This means that say a hockey pitch that was under water for two weeks previously might be drained in a few days. However, it would still have been flooded and the draining can only be done once the main flood has passed.

The bund (raised walkway) built from the spoil from the canal might stop flash floods. However, as the ground is porous it would simply slow down any large flood by a few hours as the water simply soaks through underground. If the canal had not done enough to stop the flash flood it would simply pass the problem down river to someone else!

The wetlands mentioned are simply parts of the meadow which have been lowered so that they remain wet most of the time. This has been done at Duffield and is very good for wildlife and can be very beautiful but both the canal and the wetland will need to be maintained or they will simply silt up and revert back to a meadow. The meadow is so flat simply because the slow moving flood water when it is over the meadow drops silt and the silt slowly fills the dips and hollows.

I guess you are wondering about the picture to the left, it's a section of the retaining wall at the top end of the meadow, the yellow bit is dry stone walling above ground level, the red bit is the retaining wall below ground level and the blue stone is about 12 inches tall. I calculate the water level to be around eight feet below the level of the meadow at this point. A long way to dig down for both the canal and the wetlands. I'm not sure of the sense or practicality of digging out that much!

Finally, just a thought if these changes are to be effective they need to deal with many hundreds if not thousands of cubic meters of water. (Your green wheelie bin holds about one cubic meter) Who is going to pay for the work?

If you want an idea of the volume involved just think of between one and six feet, an average of say eighteen inches, of water over the whole of the meadow.

A raised Promenade has been added.

This is possibly a big advantage but there are so many ways the advantages could be destroyed. It would act as a ‘dividing line’ and a ‘barrier’ between the meadow and the development. If it is to be built it must not be allowed to encroach onto the meadow and it must link up with enjoyable, pretty paths to the rest of the town not some dirty ally. The construction must be from the same rough hewn stone that is used to retain much of the existing road, river and railway infrastructure in the area. Finally, it needs to provide ample access to the meadow.

If the change in level is made with one retaining wall it is likely to be more than twenty foot high, approaching the height of a two story house. On balance I think a grassy bank would be better.

Three new open areas.

Brettles Court — (pictured above) this is currently the car park for the DeBradelei shops. So approximately thirty replacement car parking spaces needed.

Thornton‘s Yard — This sounds nice; it‘s in scale with the town keeps existing brick buildings and provides a new shopping courtyard, however it requires more new car parking spaces for both workers and shoppers, possibly as many as fifty cars will need to be parked.

The picture above is the best I could get without trespassing or putting myself in danger but it does show today reality of the “Thorntons‘s Yard”. The building will never look pretty they will need to wear the scars of there heritage with pride, but that I like a bit of honesty.

Unity Square — Fabulous a new public meeting place whatever that means but again the space around the Unity Mill is currently used as car parking so more spaces required.

Further, the existing “unused” Thornton‘s car park on Dewent Street and Derwent Street it‘s self are adding seventy or more car parking spaces to the town today and these will need to be replaced just to maintain the number of available spaced.

Government policy is that local authority car parking has to be paid for, not free. Offices and shops that have dedicated car parking are by government policy being restricted at the planning stage and possible taxed by the parking space once in use.

So where are and who pays for the new car parking spaces in the BCF plan?

While I am talking about car parks multi-story car parks are quite often bad but underground car parks are even worse! Do we want underground car parks?

The Key Issues

The leaflet raises several real points in the Key Issues that will not necessarily be linked with the site development and must be resolved for the future of Belper. So let‘s consider each key issue in turn:

Key Issue 1 — Local landmarks and conservation

I cannot argue with a no demolition policy after all it‘s what I have already proposed. As for the meadows read the words “could”, what do we want? Should any plan be tied together as a whole? Again who pays?

Key Issue 2 — Trains, busses, cars and pedestrians working together

The new travel interchange is a great idea but the train run infrequently and the frequency cannot easily be raised, the existing car park is over subscribed and will be reduced in size, probably halved, and if I read the sketchy outline correctly the Lion Garage will be removed, if so it needs to be replaced, where?

The whole of this issue is about increasing the number of people in the area but reducing the requirement for parking and car travel! Can this achieved?

Key Issue 3 — Retail

Despite everything said by us there is clearly a need for more shops and I think that probably means a supermarket of some type. Maybe we should loose the Somerfield store which is owned by the Co-Op and have a larger Tesco Store. We may have to loose Somerfield because of the competition rules, so if demolished the loss might be a blessing to the centre of town by allowing a new square and access to the transport interchange. Can we, should we swap a new Tesco for Somerfield?

Key Issue 4 — Tourism

I‘m all for tourism but the suggested arrival point does nothing for the existing town centre and is not connected to the transport interchange. A new square at Somerfield would be a better choice to support the centre and provide access from public transport. Can we have a new square with a cafe to replace Somerfield?

Key Issue 5 — Sustainable development

Every issue in this section would be improved by increasing local employment. So no development unless it reduces the numbers of people travelling to work would seem like a very good idea. All road development should discourage through traffic but not by introducing the sleeping policeman type traffic calming solutions. Can we please have some small industrial units to encourage local businesses to grow?

Finally, why has the library disappeared?

Frank

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