ELVASTON CASTLE WILL NOT BE A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT By Excalibur

Now that at least some of the truth has been revealed by Highgate Sanctuary regarding its intentions for Elvaston Castle, it seems that my pals in the Friends of Elvaston (FOE) have been pretty spot-on when it comes to predicting what has now come to pass. For those who didn’t manage to read the articles in both Thursday and Friday’s edition of the Derby Telegraph the other week, or read the glossy coloured brochure issued with the Thursday edition, here is a general summary.

The first thing that becomes apparent is that what Highgate states in its brochure, is different to what it says in the paper. The brochure declares that public access to the Local Nature Reserve will be unaffected, the interview with Tanya Spilsbury (Highgate’s MD), states that it will go for the golf course or courses.

Here then, is what has been announced;

The Castle, once it becomes a restored hotel, will be off limits to visitors to the Park, unless they want to spend money in the bar or restaurant. The courtyard area and terraces will be for paying hotel guests only. The Paddock car park for disabled people is to be taken over for the hotel, the Paddock itself, to the north of the courtyard where the re-enactments sometimes take place, is to have extensive hotel buildings erected. The display area at the side of the courtyard is to be taken up with this new build, and this will extend towards the lake. The Stables are to become café and craft shops.

The whole of the pasture land is to be taken for the golf courses. The Local Nature Reserve, 14 hectares in size (35 acres), is to be taken for golf. The area known as Clover Close, over at the Thulston edge of the Park, and containing fine examples of medieval ridge and furrow ploughing, is to be used as a golf ‘practice area’.

Home Farm is to be used as a golf club house.

The Kitchen Gardens, consisting partly of the Old English Garden, are to be taken for the hotel.

A road is to be built from the B5010, (The old A6), straight down the South or London Road Drive, straight through the Golden gates, along to the Crown Yew bush, where it then turns right and sweeps round past the back of the Italian Garden and joins the Drive Lodge Road which runs past the Castle door.

Many of these things had, prior to the disclosures in the paper, been denied by both Derbyshire County Council and Highgate Sanctuary.

Here is the Friends interpretation of the plans.

Everything that we said would happen is set to come true if Derbyshire County Council and Highgate Sanctuary wins this battle. The entire Parkland area of the Estate will be taken for golf. Bridle paths, Greenways and footpaths will be dangerous areas for riders cyclists and walkers, children and the disabled. Everywhere one looks will be large bumps and mounds with copper beech trees and gorse bushes growing from them, yellow flags, sand pits and greens. The people playing golf will most probably take the attitude that anyone who is just trying to enjoy the Park is an interloper. This will be based upon the fact that they will have paid forty or fifty pounds for a days’ golf.

The road system is going to be the most problematical part of all. Not only will it be dangerous, and take away the freedom for our children to roam and play in safety, it will also cause devastation to the wildlife which uses the Park as habitat. The road is mooted as being a single track, one way route, with a speed limit of 20mph. Apart from the fact that this will be impossible to police, it is also impracticable. What is apparently being claimed is that Highgate Sanctuary is not building a new road, merely reopening an existing one, (it follows the path of the 19th century coach drive). This has to be the most shallow and pathetic excuse and perhaps heralds the sort of future we might expect for the area if we are unfortunate enough to lose the battle. The ridiculously absurd notion that a coach and horses approaching across a private estate where the staff know what to expect cannot possibly equate to 21st century cars and possibly service lorries driving through an area where children and families are walking and playing. In any case, the scale of these incursions looks set to be large. What is proposed is a nightmare scenario which is completely unacceptable.

The road is to go through the Golden Gates. The pillars to this are crumbling and cracked and it is unlikely that they will stand up to the vibration from moving traffic. There is nothing to say that after a short period of time these might be removed altogether. The pathway on the Castle side is probably about the same width that it was when it was a carriage drive. In order to make it safer for both traffic and pedestrians, trees and shrubs will have to be uprooted to widen it. Further to this, there is more potential for danger where this road adjoins the Drive Lodge roadway, where the latter comes in from the lane past the Park, because the Thatched Cottage and Kitchen Gardens are to be used as residential areas for hotel staff there could be vehicles at times coming from five directions at once.

The road goes past the Castle Door, through the Courtyard, around the back of the old Working Farm Museum, joining up with the Church Drive. As this will be turned from a cul-de-sac with Church visitors parking at the end, it will now become a thoroughfare for vehicles. To accommodate Church visitors a car park is to be built in the trees. The road will then have to pass back round onto the present service road. It is here that the biggest traffic problem will become apparent. A 120 bedroom hotel, a gymnasium, conference and wedding facilities, together with multiple golf uses, is going to generate an enormous amount of traffic. Add to this the afternoons when there is a cricket match; this traffic cannot exit onto the lane via the present service road. There is a blind bend only a few yards up the road to the left and it would surely be ridiculous to treat this as access/egress under the circumstances. Therefore, the safest way will be to make the way out back up the South Drive. This obviously means that the road will have to be much wider than a single track.

As well as this, the area at the side of the South Drive, between that and the village of Thulston, and known as Clover Close, is to be turned into a golf ‘practise area’. We believe that this is a revival of the floodlit driving range. This will be a nightmare scenario for everyone. There will be a clubhouse and service buildings and constant golf activity starting from early morning and going on all day. There will have to be an access spur road from the South Drive. Further to this, the roads will have to be lit for safety reasons, the ensuing light pollution will be very unwelcome to both the local residents and also the wildlife, amongst which are sometimes some rare visitors both avian and mammal.

Home Farm is also to become a golf club house. Bedford Drive, the original unmetalled road, now a bridal/footpath is, The Friends believe, due to become the access road to Home Farm which will also have service buildings, and the usual paraphernalia associated with such a place. The reason that we are certain that Bedford Drive is to be used for access, rather than continuing the road past the Paddock and over the bridge at the end of the lake is because a few months ago, claiming that they were diseased, the County Council chopped down some sycamore trees and some young oaks which were growing alongside Bedford Drive. Curiously, the disease had spread through the tree population in the shape of passing bays along the road. Observers we put in to check the trees found that although some of the sycamores had mild fungal attacks, some had no signs of disease at all. Woodman, spare that tree, is obviously not a consideration when a country park takes second place to golf facilities. It also explains why the County Council spent £8,500 in one week in July, scrapping most of the Museum artefacts that were stored there, in order to clear the area. Priceless parts of our heritage to some of us – rubbish getting in the way of big business to others.

It has been suggested that the children’s play area could be moved onto the caravan site and Fox Covert car park could be closed. We know that the caravan site owners have been looking to expand for some time. We think that this is set to coincide with Highgate Sanctuary’s takeover. The Fox (main) Covert car park will be closed, the children’s play area will be moved onto a part of the present caravan site, the caravan site capacity will be vastly increased and what is at present a pleasant little hideaway will become something akin to sites in places such as Cleethorpes as it spreads out onto the Showground.

Where will the car park go, we hear you ask? To the area in front of the Golden Gates, we think. As there is talk of a car park charge of £10 per day per car, this will be the only place to park for non-hotel users, in other words, the vast majority of visitors. Families who at present enjoy family picnics on the Showground will have to lug their equipment all the way from the Golden gates car park, dodging golf, Church and hotel traffic as they go.

Taxpayer’s money, which Derbyshire County Council claims to be so short of that it has to dispose of Elvaston Castle Country Park, has been used to carry out a garden restoration survey. What a cynical exercise by the County Council that has been and it still has the bare-faced cheek to continue with the fiasco of a Heritage Lottery Bid for which the garden consultation was carried out. £25,000 of public money was spent to engage the services of Lanarca Ltd., to carry out a consultation of public preferences for a £10 million bid for Lottery Funding to restore the listed gardens designed by William Barron, only for it to be announced as soon as it is finished that it is intended that a road be driven through and around them! That the public should be treated with such utter and total contempt by Derbyshire County Council and Highgate Sanctuary proves that they care nothing for the people who provide them with their livelihoods. Perhaps the time is rapidly approaching when this will backfire on them in a big way. We can live in hope!

There you have it then. There are two ways to go. Support your local Friends of Elvaston group and help to defeat the Derbyshire County Council’s disposal of Elvaston Castle Country Park, or do nothing and lose the following;

Elvaston Castle Country Park, to roads, light, traffic and noise pollution, the loss of a beautiful public open space, Local Nature Reserve, visual and recreational amenity and possible pollution of the river system from golf herbicide and pesticide residues.

Now is the time for action; The County Council is attempting to rush through the final signing of a lease with Highgate Sanctuary by December. The Friends have engaged the services of a top London Barrister who specialises in Land Matters and are appealing for funds to help pay for the case against DCC. Encouragingly, the barrister believes that the Friends have a good chance of winning a Judicial Review. If you wish to make a donation directly, the fund is through an account with the Derbyshire Building Society. The details are;

Anyone handing cheques, cash, postal or other orders over the counter, only need the Reference No: 331174608.

Alternatively, cheques, postal orders etc can be made out to the Friends of Elvaston and posted to;

The Friends of Elvaston
Unit 19, Shaftesbury Street South
Derby
DE23 8YH.

The Friends say that the Building Society Account Number, with its eight zeros, has prompted a little curiosity but is perfectly in order. It is part of the Building Society’s banking clearance system. Do what you can to help them – they are working very hard to save Elvaston Castle Country Park. They are probably the last chance any of us have to stop Derbyshire County Council from disposing of it. When the lease expires it will be the next Millenium and the Park as we have all known and loved it, will no longer exist anyway.

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