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A HAVEN OR A NIGHTMARE?
Derby City Council‘s gross
negligence in failing to safeguard the environs
of the city for the residents that it supposedly
represents goes beyond criminal irresponsibility.
The city has become a target for an unquantified
number of developers of various types, each one
seeking to maximise the profits from its
endeavours. These companies are not to blame for
the failure of Derby’s political
representatives. They are, after all, merely
pursuing commercial targets and contracts
wherever they can be found (or engineered) in
order to protect their interests.
Their single-minded and tenacious qualities are,
in some ways, to be admired. By such enterprise
they are guaranteeing their survival and a future
for their various organisations. It is more than
a pity that Derby City Council’s planners
cannot display similar qualities. The example set
by these companies highlights and underlines the
failure of the various councillors and officers
of Derby City Council who purport to represent
the electorate and the city in which they live
and work, and who should be safeguarding
it’s future, but sadly, no longer do so.
Even though some of these representatives have
arrived in the position of power that they are in
by default, the people have still entrusted to
them the care of this city and the well-being of
it’s inhabitants. Most people would consider
this to be a great honour, and the very least
that they would do to acknowledge this accolade
would be to listen to the will of the people
responsible for paying them their not
inconsiderable salaries and expenses.
The idea of taking on such a challenging job in
the first place is that through skill, ingenuity
and perhaps the pooling of knowledge with others
of a similar persuasion, the problems involved
and encountered in the day to day running of the
city can be overcome and that life in that place
can be made easier for it’s populace. In the
case of Derby, all that the controlling
administration can seemingly do in order to solve
a problem is to create an even bigger one.
Shortage of funds does not seem to be as much of
a problem as shortage of imagination in these
cases.
What we do have is the return of
‘Danegeld’ with a slight twist to it.
Nowadays it seems to be along the lines of
‘we’ll give you all this if you will
build us this bit here', and so on. What will
happen however, when all the family silver has
been pawned, including the 30 pieces that have
been accepted by the present uninspired and worn
out crew? What will they do when everything has
been sold to developers, when not just the city
centre but everywhere else is covered in concrete
and littered with opportunities that were
squandered, not just once or twice, but time
after time?
What Derby needs is a proper balance of shopping
and recreational facilities which can easily be
accessed and are attractive to both retailers and
the general public, together with all the
essential services and a properly integrated
transport system that takes account of all the
different requirements of the city and it’s
people. We don’t need any more offices,
bars, casinos and warehouse units, certainly not
just anywhere just because some developer is
willing to throw in the cash when it suits them.
Such a situation has just occurred at Spondon,
where a ribbon development of warehouse units is
taking place despite the number of similar
buildings which stand empty and waiting to be let
all over the city. Proof that these buildings are
speculative is the fact that they are ‘for
sale or to let’, and have been built
therefore without there being a specific need for
them.
Derby City Council ignores it’s
responsibilities at it’s peril. If it washes
it’s hands now, regarding Riverlights, the
Roundhouse, the lack of parking facilities at the
football ground, the lack of any public parking
facilities at all at Derby City Council Planning
Department, Roman House Friargate, or any of the
other areas of neglect and mismanagement
beginning to spring up like the leaks in a
hosepipe, then the whole place will become a
stagnant backwater where life for it’s
inhabitants will be dreary and monotonous and the
last people on earth that they will want to see
or hear from will be their local councillor.
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