TANYA SPILSBURY

Heading a multi-million pound project to transform Elvaston Castle, Tanya Spilsbury is confident she is up to the challenge. From running a one-woman business, the Building Consultancy, which gives relatively small-scale advice to people hoping to carry out listed building projects, she will now concentrate her efforts on a far bigger project. Apart from seeking funding for the £18m restoration of the building, securing a hotel operator and applying for planning permission, she must also get to grips with perhaps most difficult task of all, getting the backing of people in Derbyshire.

It is the first time she has been involved in a project of this nature or scale and protesters fighting the county council's actions have expressed concerns about handing over responsibility for Elvaston to Mrs Spilsbury's newly-formed property development company, Highgate Sanctuary. After starting out as a management consultant, Mrs Spilsbury trained as a development surveyor and worked on the £20m extension to the terminal three check-in area at Heathrow Airport. Mrs Spilsbury worked as part of a team overseeing the moving of airlines into temporary accommodation and then back into the new extension, negotiating their leases and liaising between the design and construction teams.

But her passion for historic properties was stimulated when she started renovating listed buildings to live in which, she said, inspired her to pursue academic studies in the subject and influenced her subsequent career moves. She said, "I built up quite a lot of experience and I decided I wanted to concentrate on conservation, because I had a strong interest in historic buildings." Mrs Spilsbury, who lives in London but grew up in Derbyshire, studied for a diploma in building conservation and later completed a PhD in the same subject at the University of Nottingham.

She then set up her own consultancy and became a board member of Maintain Our Heritage, a non-profit-making company which aims to insure historic buildings are maintained properly. Through that organisation, she has recently given advice on the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site. World Heritage Site status was awarded to the Derwent Valley corridor in December 2001, in recognition of its importance as "the cradle of the Industrial Revolution". Mrs Spilsbury formed Highgate Sanctuary, which she runs on her own, to bid for the Elvaston Castle project and was appointed in November 2004 as Derbyshire County Council's preferred partner to restore the estate.

She will work with Norseman Holdings, which is run by her father and brothers, Brian and Duncan Ashby, Derek Latham Architects, Ray Fernie Design and David Hemstock Associates, all Derbyshire-based. The county council, which has been responsible for Elvaston for more than 30 years, offered the 99-year-lease because it said it could no longer afford to restore or maintain the estate. In 2004, 630,000 people paid the car park fee, 80p on weekdays and £1.40 at weekends, to visit Elvaston and enjoy walks around the country park. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)