ST HELEN'S HOUSE

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The council is offering a long lease of up to 299 years for St Helen's House to "bring the property back into beneficial use". Interested parties have until April 21 to submit proposals. The St Helen's House Trust is currently producing a feasibility study into possible future uses, including making it into a venue for adult education classes, conferences, concerts and plays.

Peter Steer, of the trust, said, "We're progressing with our plans. We'll be asking the city council for all the details and pursuing the matter." Councillor Dave Roberts, deputy leader of the city council and cabinet member for personnel, performance management and economic development, said, "This is the fallback position. We want the trust to be successful but, if they aren't, it would be irresponsible for the council not to have contingency plans."

He added, "Whoever ends up with St Helen's House will be very strictly governed by the rules that apply to Grade I-listed buildings. We'd need a developer who were certain could develop it in a way which would save the fabric of the house and, if possible, keep it for the people of Derby into the future. It's going to be an extremely expensive building to take on. But, if someone does, it will save the city council a lot of money. It costs £50,000 a year just to keep it wind and water-tight." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/06)

We have a developer who wants to repair and restore St Helen's House, and no doubt he is well-qualified to do it. At first glance, this seems to be good news, but Richard Blunt said he wished to restore the house and turn it into a hotel but he is curiously quiet about his plans for the chapel and the other buildings. So what do the people of Derby gain? Well, we shall get a beautifully-restored building. But who will use it? Not Derby people.

And what do we lose? Access to the best building in Derby. Mr Blunt's hint that "the public would be able to have a look round the building by appointment" is no guarantee of access. And, what hotelier would be happy to have such visits? We lose adult education. For 30 years, St Helen's House had been a lively hub of adult education - anything from Tai Chi to theology, classes for sign language, lace-making and Latin. We have studied gardening, geology and German.

The list goes on. We lose rehabilitation for people recovering from illness. We lose education for older people who want to gain qualifications to enable them to get back to work after redundancy, child-rearing or illness. Compare this with the firm intention of the St Helen's House Trust. We gain a beautifully restored house with access for all. We gain facilities for clubs and societies to rehearse and produce plays, musicals and concerts. We gain facilities for indoor sports.

We gain classrooms for all the varied recreational and practical subjects that Derby people have supported for many years. The St Helen's House Trust intends to provide all this and does not, as is so often implied, require the city council to provide enormous sums of money to pay for it. Let's go with the Trust and, for once, retain a notable Derby landmark. Janet Hodgson

St Helen's House could be sold to a private developer. At a meeting of Derby City Council's cabinet, councillors agreed to put on hold a proposal by St Helen's House Trust to buy the property while they considered applications from two private developers. The council will now set up a panel to make a recommendation to the cabinet on which of the two developers should become the preferred bidder. However, the trust's proposal could still go ahead if the private developers' plans, for a luxury hotel or private mansion home, do not work out.

The other people bidding for the house are renovation experts Richard Blunt, a developer from Leicestershire, and Chek Whyte, a former Ilkeston builder. Mr Blunt wants to turn the house into a luxury boutique hotel, while Mr Whyte plans to restore the building to its original use as a private mansion home. The council had agreed to pay the trust up to £50,000 of the cost of any feasibility studies if it was not successful in buying the house. However, at the meeting, councillors agreed to pay the trust the £18,000 the study by Locum cost, but not to fund any more of its research. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Sep/06)

One of the contenders to buy St Helen's House is disqualified from being a company director. Chek Whyte has been banned from being a company director since he was deemed "unfit" to do so in 1999. He was given a 10-year ban by Nottingham County Court after an order wound up his building firm, Union Brothers, based in Gotham, Nottinghamshire. Mr Whyte said his ban came about because poor paperwork led to him being unable to prove a £200,000 debt by another company.

Neil White, a spokesman for Companies House, the Government body which keeps registers of companies and directors of UK firms, said, "I can confirm that Mr Whyte was disqualified from December 20, 1999, to December 19, 2009, under section six of the Company Directors Disqualification Act. Section six to eight of the act is disqualification for unfitness to act as a company director." Disqualification orders prevent people from being a director of a company, being a manager of a company's property, managing a company, or being a liquidator or administrator of a company.

The orders do not prevent ownership of companies, and there is no suggestion that Mr Whyte has breached the order. Mr Whyte recently revealed he is in talks with Derby Cityscape over plans to spend another £30m building more apartments in the city. Councillor Richard Smalley, cabinet member for buildings of heritage and importance, said, "We are aware of the situation." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Nov/06)

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