DERBY TODAY

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
 

Ramada is building 40 more of its Encore hotels across the country over the next five years and has picked Pride Park to be among the first of the new hotels to be developed. The company has submitted detailed plans for a 112-bedroom, five-storey hotel to the city council. The Ramada Encore hotel will be built as part of the Point at Pride Park and will be mid-range, in the same "quality economy" bracket as the Hampton, with rooms at both hotels aimed at around £70 a night.

The £50m Pride Park scheme covers 12 acres of land on the former Bombardier bogie and signalling works. The joint venture between Derby's Cedar House Investments and Lancashire-based Woodford Land will be one of the biggest developments on Pride Park and will have homes, offices and shops. There are Ramada Encore hotels in Milton Keynes, Walsall, Bournemouth, Swansea, York and London but Ramcore Operations Ltd wants to extend the chain across the country.

Managing director Ewan Campbell said, "We wanted to build at Pride Park because it is a booming area and business is strong there. It obviously helps business when the local football club is doing well, although we had decided we wanted to build on this site before then." The company is confident it will gain planning permission because Derby City Council has approved outline plans, which included a hotel, for the Point development.

David Osbourne of Riverlights Ltd, which is in charge of the Riverlights development, said he was confident there would be enough business for all the hotels. He said, "My view is that Derby is seriously under-provided for in terms of hotels and therefore we have no concerns at all about another hotel of that nature opening." Chris Carlisle of Cedar House Investments added, "The recent announcements at Riverlights show there is a need for quality hotel provision in Derby and in the city as a whole the feedback we are getting is that there is ongoing demand." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jul/07)

The development, called City Gate House, is set to be built behind the Joseph Wright Sixth Form Centre on the site of Cathedral Road Clinic. The clinic which is currently housed in temporary buildings will be moved. Cedar House Investments is behind the City Gate House plan, which it says will be four storeys of office space with two shops on the ground floor. A planning application has been submitted and, if approved, it is hoped building work could start this September or October.

Chris Carlisle, managing director of Cedar House Investments, said, "Located on the edge of the city's speciality retail core and business district, City Gate House is set to be the most exciting scheme Derby has seen for some time. The Cathedral Road area is currently the most dynamic in the area." he hopes Derby businesses wanting to expand will be interested in the new offices, as well as companies from outside the city looking to relocate to Derby.

Russell Rigby, director of Rigby and Co which will act as agent for City Gate House, together with Capital Business, added, "City Gate House demonstrates a real confidence in the northern part of the city centre as a vibrant and exciting place to do business." The contemporary design of the building has also been praised by John Forkin, director of Marketing Derby, an organisation set up to promote the city. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, May/07)

A monorail system is one of several options being considered by Derby City Council as it makes plans for dealing with more traffic in the city centre over the next 15 years. The council has applied for a £160,000 government grant to look at ways to stop the city becoming gridlocked. Martin Repton, the council's cabinet member for planning and transport, said, "In ten years time we're going to see at least a 50% increase and we need to do something now. The £160,000 will pay for staff who can look in depth at coming up with solutions for coping with the traffic we know is going to hit us in the coming years."

Cllr Repton added, "The monorail might be something for 15 years time. It wouldn't be a replacement for cars but it would be an alternative that people could use which is environmentally friendly, cost-effective and cheap. You'd have one rail running about 10-15ft off the ground. It's a continuous loop to different areas of Derby. It goes at 20mph and there are little pods, each able to hold 4-6 people. It's continually moving and uses smart card technology to get one of the pods to come off the loop to pick you up and then rejoin the loop."

In the meantime, Cllr Repton is looking at extending schemes to convince people to leave their cars at home when travelling into the city centre. He said, "We want to look at park-and-ride and using more money for bus routes. Car park charges went up about a year ago and part of that money was spent on the Darley Abbey bus service, an improved service to Littleover and another for Chaddesden and Spondon. So if we do use some of the money for increasing car parking and the provision of bus services in the city, that might be one aspect."

Despite spending £30m on improvements to the inner ring road over the next three years, Cllr Repton said it's only a short term measure. He said, "Connecting Derby is for now, the transport innovation fund is for schemes in the next 5-10 years and the monorail is 10-15 years down the line. We need to encourage people to look at other forms of transport but for people to do that, it's got to be cheap, clean, safe and available." (Source: BBC News)

Plans have been revealed for the derelict Prince's supermarket, in Bold Lane. In the first phase, the building would be demolished and in its place would be six or seven shops and cafe bars with 24 flats above. This would mean four new buildings, with shops at the front and the cafe bars behind. In between these buildings would be alleyways leading to a second phase of the development which would include more cafes and bars. In addition to the four main buildings in the first phase there would be a fifth building, which would include an underground car park.

One of the key purposes of the transformation of Prince's Supermarket is to provide a catalyst for the creation of Sadler Square behind. The alleyways in phase one would ultimately link with more narrow streets, designed to lead shoppers through the area between Bold Lane and the Cathedral. Cityscape said the "backland" part of the city would be redeveloped to provide space for hidden gems in the form of small cafes and shops. It would also open up the view of the Cathedral and provide a new shopping district to provide a balance to the Westfield Derby centre. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, May/07)

The £12m redevelopment of the old Prince's site, in Bold Lane, is on hold for several months while planning permission is finalised. Developer Blueprint has warned that construction on the site, which is scheduled to begin in August, may be further delayed if the credit crunch worsens. The company began demolition on the site last month to make way for shops, cafes, restaurants, and 25 flats with eco-friendly roof gardens but this stopped because it needed planning permission to partially knock down a wall which the old supermarket shares with two protected buildings.

The council resolved to grant Blueprint planning permission to partially knock the wall down and create a walkway between the new site and the Edwardian buildings but the terms of this agreement have not been finalised. Peter Connolly, Blueprint's project director, said the demolition, which was due to finish this month, could be delayed until Christmas. He said, "We had started the demolition but had to suspend it pending these further agreements being signed. As soon as we've got that we will complete the demolition works and look to start on site in about August next year." Mr Connolly said the credit crunch could cause further delays.

He said, "The economy has had an effect on how easy it would be to fill the units. We are committed to getting the demolition works finished. Once that is done we will go back to our board and discuss the next step. At the moment, consumer confidence in Derby is still relatively buoyant but if it the economy continues on a downward slope we may think about delaying the project until the situation improves. The project would not be shelved, it would just be a case of asking whether we should build at that time." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Oct/08)

The city council originally said the roadworks on the inner ring road would be lifted over Christmas, but the work will be continuing due to "unusually poor ground conditions". The council failed to realise it was winter. Traders are furious about the decision as they believe it will affect Christmas trade in the city centre. Mike Matthews, who owns McDonald's restaurants in St Peter's Street, Markeaton Island and the Meteor Centre said, "Whatever direction you come into Derby from, you are faced with roadworks. It will definitely affect Christmas trade."

A spokeswoman for the Derbyshire Chamber and Business Link said, "It is possible that the roadworks will put people off coming into Derby at Christmas. We would urge people to support local traders." Even if you manage to negotiate the roadworks, there is still the search for bus stops due to the bus station closure and trying to find a particular shop, which may have relocated or closed as part of the Eagle Centre redevelopment. Traders in Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and Birmingham, will be delighted though. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

<<< Prev