£1 BILLION INVESTMENT 2

Derby is under-achieving as a "wet destination" according to Cityscape chief executive John Cadwallader. He does not mean that there is a lack of swimming pools in the city, he is referring to Derby being a place where people know that they can find great entertainment on a rainy day. Derby does have its assets, Pickford's House museum; the Silk Mill, Derby's Museum of Industry and History; and Derby Museum and Art Gallery, to name but three. But are these enough to entice tourists to Derby on their days off? The opening hours of Derby's museums indicate a certain lack of vision in this area. They are generally open between 10am and 5pm, except on Mondays, when they open at 11am. But on Sundays and Bank Holidays, when you would have expected the leisure market was at its height, they open for only three hours between 2pm and 5pm.

Even the council's Tourist Information Centre in the Market Place is open only between 10.30am and 2.30pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Councillor Paul West, the city council's cabinet member for leisure and cultural services, said, "We need to keep looking at these things on an ongoing basis. We want to offer the best entertainment and best facilities we can when they're needed and where they're wanted. But with regard to the Tourist Information Centre, we have an information point outside, a screen which people can use 24 hours a day." Mr West said that the council was currently involved in a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to help enhance Derby's enviable status as a gateway to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

The Derwent Valley, between the Silk Mill in Derby and Masson Mill in Matlock Bath, was granted World Heritage status in 2001, putting it in the same category as the Taj Mahal in India and the great pyramids of Giza in Egypt. If the latest bid is successful, the council must decide whether it wants to spend the money bringing the grade I-listed St Helen's House in King Street back into use or improve the Silk Mill museum. "The World Heritage Site is a much under-used jewel in our crown," said Mr West. "And we want to develop that more." Consultants are also to be used to investigate the money-making potential of the World Heritage Site in a £50,000 brief funded by the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership.

The Derwent Valley theme is where Mr Cadwallader's "wet destination" actually takes on its literal sense, in the form of the River Derwent which runs through it. The river is seen as Derby's single greatest asset. Not many cities can boast such an asset, certainly not as part of a World Heritage Site. But it is felt that this asset is also one of the city's most under-sold commodities. "There are few reasons for people to visit the river and, consequently, it plays little part in the life of the city centre," states the master plan document. This is something that Cityscape wants to change.

One of the key changes is the proposed full-scale redevelopment of the north bank of the river. Where you currently have an old gyratory feeder road to the A52, Darwin Place car park, council flats complex Exeter House, the Royal Standard pub, a disused garage forecourt and a few businesses, Cityscape proposes a major new performance arts venue, a conference centre and a four-star hotel. Derby Playhouse was considering the feasibility of moving from the Eagle Centre to a riverside location. Michael Hall, chairman of the Playhouse, said, "We'd love to create a front-of-house area that overlooks the river. There are lots of arguments why we should move."

But he said that the estimated £30m-£40m cost of a new theatre complex was a significant factor, which was totally reliant on major funding from the Arts Council. If the vision was achieved, Mr Hall sees sense in sharing facilities with a relocated Assembly Rooms. Derby's north bank would then take on the same cultural role as London's south bank. Although this idea has not been ruled out, the Cityscape master plan envisages a conference centre next to the performance arts venue, which would attract so-called business tourists to the city. And, to provide both conference-goers and theatre-goers with their much-needed overnight accommodation, a four-star riverside hotel is planned. This would be located on the site between the Royal Standard in Derwent Street and Balloon & Party Ideas.

Mr Cadwallader believes that the hotel will be one of the first "deliverable" plans on the north bank. But he said, "It'll be something between one and two years before we're looking to say to anyone they've got to move out." Exeter House residents have already been informed of the potential need to relocate them by Derby Homes, which manages the council's housing stock. The Exeter Arms in Exeter Place is a listed building and would be saved from demolition under the plans. It would, in fact, take a central position between the hotel and the theatre, and the offices planned for the site of Darwin Place car park. Bar and cafe culture becomes the focus of more leisure proposals within the Cityscape master plan.

The £83m Riverlights complex, due to be built on the site of Derby's bus station, is designed partly to attract people in the evenings. Its planned European-style piazza, bars and restaurants would also act as a draw to theatre-goers on the north bank once one of three planned footbridges over the river is built. Other bridges are suggested between Stuart Street and Cathedral Green, and between Meadow Road and Bass's recreation ground, in addition to the exisitng footbridge near the Evening Telegraph offices. Maurice Burgess, leader of Derby City Council, said, "I want to see a lot of development on the river. I like the concept of people living around the river rather than it being a peripheral thing."

The renamed St George's area, the area around Sadler Gate, which includes new courtyard developments and niche shopping alleys, would also be the focus of an evening bar and cafe area. Although many people in Derby complain that the city centre is already overrun with bars, the intention is to create areas which attract an older age range than the youth-dominated city centre does at present. "We don't give people enough reason to come into the city centre, particularly in the evenings," said Mr Cadwallader. To this end, Eagle Centre joint owner Westfield is already looking at plans to build a 3,000-seat multi-screen cinema in the city centre. Current proposals, which are also included in the master plan, suggest that the cinema will be built above the Eagle Centre market.

And few people will be surprised to see the Quad centre forming a major part of the master plan. The planned £9.8m visual arts centre is set to include two cinema screens for the Metro arts cinema, gallery space for Q-Arts and a number of units for creative industries. Korean War veterans and members of the Derbyshire Association for the Blind know only too well that the council has proposed to build the centre on the site of the sensory garden named in memory of the former Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Sir Peter Hilton. The garden, in Corporation Street, which contains the Korean War Memorial, is set to be rebuilt elsewhere, but many ex-servicemen and their supporters are fighting the proposals, claiming that there are plenty of other sites in the city that could have been chosen.

The council claimed that 17 sites had been investigated and only one was suitable. At a meeting of the Derby and District Ex-services Association, veterans fighting to save a Derby war memorial formed a committee to discuss the issue with members of the city council. The association's chairman, Gordon Bannister, Derbyshire Royal British Legion chairman Bernard Page, chairman of the Derby Burma Star Association Harry Mycroft, and two members of the Derby and Burton branch of the British Korean Veterans' Association, who are yet to be named, were nominated to sit on the committee. But Keith Challis, chairman of the Derby and Burton branch of the British Korean Veterans' Association, said, "If Cityscape has identified so many sites for development and has effectively treated Derby as a blank canvas, then why on earth can't they find somewhere else for Quad?"

Mr Burgess said, "The financing of Quad is dependent on input from the council and the council's major input was the land. It also depends on time-constrained money from the European Union, which means that, if we don't have a site sorted out soon, the whole thing flops. Most of the sites we looked at were not in the council's ownership and to buy them would have ruled the project out because the money wasn't there." Mr Burgess said that the council had to remain bold in its aim to completely revitalise the city centre, even in the face of public opposition. Mr Cadwallader said, "We feel Derby should be a wet destination for people visiting the Peak District. If it's raining, there should be places in Derby where people can come and spend their time and money."

The spaces between and around buildings have received as much attention as the buildings in the Cityscape masterplan. Modern developers have realised that although they may not be great money spinners, public open spaces are key to people's happiness and quality of life. Public open spaces include parks and grassed areas, squares and piazzas and also the streets that we walk along. The masterplan proposes the creation of a more defined "high street" along Queen Street, Iron Gate, the Corn Market and St Peter's Street. This will be achieved with improved lighting, signs and seating along the route. The theory is that people will be drawn towards the historical northern end of the city centre despite the Eagle Centre redevelopment in the south.

The major redevelopment of the Castle Ward area will include a new public square off a main boulevard, addressing the aim to provide a gateway to the centre from the train station. The riverside Cathedral Green and Bass's recreation ground are both seen as under-used assets. Both will be improved under the masterplan proposals. The Market Place will also be made more attractive, potentially including a new Sir Peter Hilton Memorial Garden, should the council decide to relocate it near to Quad. Another public open space will spring up if the council relocates from Corporation Street to Duckworth Square. Its car park would be turned into a garden or square. Much of the additional public open spaces suggested by Cityscape will be made possible by the land made available from the mass of surface level car parks which will no longer be required. This is particularly the case in the Castle Ward area. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

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