CASTLEWARD

A £100m development including shops, homes and public spaces for Derby has moved a step closer. The city council has unveiled details of the Castleward project, centred on land between the city centre and railway station.

A council regeneration fund of £10m, with £18m of private funding, will go towards the first part of the scheme, due to start in 2012. Money from the fund will go towards buying up land in the area.

Parts of the 30-acre site, currently occupied by industrial units and car parks, are still in private hands. Other areas have been acquired by the East Midlands Development Agency, which is being wound down, and government plans for its assets have not been confirmed. Phase 1 of the scheme include a pedestrian-friendly boulevard, about 70 homes, 2,500 square metres of commercial space, community facilities and a central square.

It is hoped 860 jobs could be created or safeguarded. City council leader Councillor Harvey Jennings said, "Castleward will replace a 30-acre brownfield area of the city with a sustainable community of something like 800 homes, including extensive affordable housing, schools and community spaces. It will provide a fantastic lift for the city and embodies our ambition to continue to invest in Derby."

He added the £10m of initial council investment would be recouped through land sales, to be reinvested in the project. The first round of project funding will be considered by Derby City Council's Cabinet on 15 March. Urban renewal and regeneration specialist Compendium Living, which is developing the plans, will submit detailed proposals in the near future. (Source: BBC News, Mar/11)

Derby City Council chief executive Adam Wilkinson revealed that the first phase of work was due to start in spring 2012 on the pedestrian boulevard linking Derby train station with the city centre. The city council also announced it will use part of its £10m regeneration fund to buy land it needs for work to begin. The first phase of development will be on land owned by the council and the East Midlands Development Agency, purchased with money from the Homes and Communities Agency. As well as the boulevard, the scheme will include more than 25,000 of business space, community facilities and a new central square.

The completed scheme will also boast a nursery school and primary school, community facilities, local shops and improved links to Bass Recreation Ground. Work on transforming the whole Castleward site is expected to take more than a decade to complete. As well as helping kick-start the Castleward project, the council announced that its regeneration fund would finance five different projects. The £10 million fund is designed to create more than 200,000 sq ft of new office space, 500 skilled jobs and help attract £75 million of private sector investment. The council says that the first phase of work funded is expected to create 101,000 sq ft of new offices and 26,000 sq ft of refurbished office space. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Mar/11)

Plans are being drawn up to build more than 5,000 new homes in Derby city centre which would mean a four-fold increase in housing in the city centre, from about 1,500 homes currently to more than 6,500 in a few years' time. Under the plans, the city's Castleward area alone, bordered by Traffic Street, Derby railway station and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, would see housing increase by a massive 1,400%, from 200 homes currently to an "urban village" containing 3,000 new homes, civic squares and a new primary school.

John Cadwallader, chief executive of Derby Cityscape, said the main departure from the original estimate was the proposed regeneration of Castleward, which would act as a "gateway" to the city centre from the railway station. "It will mean building, in the main, on existing car park sites. There's an awful lot of open, undeveloped space," said Mr Cadwallader.

The council documents have also revealed that up to 250 new riverside homes are being earmarked for Meadow Road, a site currently occupied by the Evening Telegraph offices and the Trent Barton bus depot, although neither firm has indicated any intention to relocate. Mr Cadwallader said, "We are not in the business of moving vibrant businesses and facilities out of the city centre. But in the event that the DET or Trent wanted to be elsewhere, then the appropriate use for that site would be for a residential development."