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We must apologise for this long awaited update but obtaining information from the Derbyshire County Council (DCC) about anything to do with Elvaston Castle is like getting blood from the proverbial stone! Readers of this page will be aware that the piece below this one, taken from the pages of the Derby Evening Telegraph, highlights the difficulty in finding facts to which the public is rightfully entitled, from the DCC. The Council has stonewalled and blocked most of our enquiries, legitimate questions regarding its expenditure on the marketing of the Estate, the current value of the Estate and its built assets.

When the replies eventually came, one of them having taken almost 40 working days and easily breaking Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act, which states that answers to questions, or instances where the research necessary to do so incurs a charge, must be provided within 20 working days, revealed some astonishing facts. The Derbyshire County Council has spent around £100,000 at Elvaston Castle in the financial years 2005 - 6 and 2006 - 7. Just over 12% of this is listed as having been on public consultations, the rest on 'professional fees.' It is frustrating that the Council claims not to be able to afford the restoration and funding of the Estate and yet it can spend significant amounts of taxpayer's cash on professional fees. Obviously, the amount spent on public consultations was a complete waste of money as the Council has completely ignored the public response which has huge numbers of people rejecting any disposal of Elvaston Castle Country Park.

The reply from the County Council emphasised the fact that the authority is very reluctant to answer any more questions of this nature. Here are two passages from the email, signed by the Assistant County Secretary, Ms. Kay Riley;

You should be aware that the Council is considering which of your requests for information concerning Elvaston Castle and Country Park come within the ambit of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. If some of your requests come within the EIR provisions the Council is entitled to charge you for all information provided in response to those requests. However as we did not make you aware of this when you first submitted this request, if it is decided that this is an EIR request we will not charge you for the information we have already provided including the information given above.

And;

You should also be aware that in view of the number of requests you have made to the Council in the past few weeks requesting information about Elvaston the Council is recording the cost of responding to all your requests and if it is decided that these requests fall to be dealt with under the FOI Act the Council will consider whether to aggregate the cost of responding to those and any further requests you make.

This tiresome response is Derbyshire County Council's way of responding to an act designed to get rid of exactly this type of reluctance to pass on information to the people whose tax money keeps such secretive organizations in business. The number of requests to which the passage refers numbers three or four, hardly swamping the boat we would have thought. Our question asking for the current value of the Estate and its built assets was answered by the County Council with the 'historic cost' value of the Estate in the late nineteen sixties, £128,000, which; 'Is the value the Council is required under accountancy regulations to record.'

 Similarly, although the question was not asked under the Freedom of Information Act, a request for the minutes of meetings between the Derbyshire County Council and the Southern Derbyshire BME Consultative Forum, where Elvaston Castle was a topic for discussion, was turned down by the County Council which claims that;

Although the county council supports the BME forum, it is the BME communities themselves who in essence 'own' it. Therefore we would not make the minutes from the forum available, without prior agreement from BME forum members.

Whilst it is stated that the matter would be put to a future meeting for discussion we are far from satisfied with this withholding of public information and a report has been passed by us to the appropriate authorities regarding these and other complaints about the deliberate attempts to prevent the community from finding out what is being discussed, arranged and paid for, out of public money, in the attempt to dispose of Elvaston Castle Country Park to a private developer, something which the Friends and the community will not stand by and allow to happen without a fight.

The Friends of Elvaston Castle has accused Derbyshire County Council of withholding information to which it claims it is legally entitled. The group has been fighting to keep the Grade II-listed mansion and grounds open to the public after plans to sell them were announced eight years ago. Derbyshire County Council has owned the castle and country park since the late 1960s but has said it can no longer afford the maintenance costs. It has estimated that the 60-room castle needs repairs totalling £3m in addition to annual costs of £500,000. Developer Highgate Sanctuary was chosen to take on a 150-year lease for the castle and part of the grounds, which would be turned into a hotel and golf course, in June, 2006, but has yet to sign the lease.

In October, the Friends of Elvaston Castle wrote to the council and, using the Freedom of Information Act, asked how much money had been spent on the advertising, marketing and disposal of Elvaston Castle Country Park, including all public consultations in connection with the disposal, since 1999. The request was acknowledged by assistant county secretary Kay Riley on November 2 and forwarded to the council's access to information officer. But the group had not received a response by November 30, when the 20 working days allowed for feedback was up. The group sent two e-mails in the following weeks but still received no reply and says it believes the council is deliberately withholding the information.

A spokesman for the Friends of Elvaston Castle said, "We believe that the latest problems which we have encountered in obtaining information from the county council about the Elvaston Castle disposal only goes to highlight the long-standing lack of transparency which has dominated and overshadowed the matter from the beginning. If the disposal is as advantageous to taxpayers as the council alleges, then why avoid revealing the details to them? We can only take this to indicate that there is much which the council does not want made public about the amount of taxpayers' money it has already spent in disposing of Elvaston Castle Country Park."

A spokesman for Derbyshire County Council said, "There is no mystery surrounding the situation. It was simply a case of human error. We have had quite a number of requests from the Friends of Elvaston Castle in the past and this one slipped through the net. We apologise and are hoping to get the information to the group as soon as possible." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/08)

Thank you to the hundreds of people who attended the Friends Autumn coffee morning at Elvaston Village Hall on Saturday, November 10, it was an outstanding success and our best yet! We had bric-a-brac, tombola, Christmas decorations, lovely paintings and sketches by our local artist and, of course, the usual delicious and mouth-watering offerings from the ladies who make all the beautiful cakes, pastries and preserves. Our funds have benefited to the tune of £595!

The winner of the 'Name The Bear' competition was Mrs Val Sanders of Derby. Congratulations to her.

The car park ticket office at Elvaston Castle continues to be closed for much of the time, losing potential revenue which could go towards the costs of running the Estate. Furthermore, this isn't just an odd quiet weekday. Saturday, September 1st, Elvaston Steam Rally. The car park was bursting with vehicles, the ticket office was closed. We can express nothing but feelings of anger over such scandalous mismanagement as this, especially as the County Council is claiming that a shortage of funds is behind its disposal plan for the Park. We hope that everyone who reads this (and there are many of you), takes note of it.

If you wish to meet members of the Friends of Elvaston, or join in with our activities, we hold regular public meetings on the second Wednesday of the month, from 7:30pm onwards. Please feel free to come along to our new venue, The Nags Head pub, Borrowash, where we will do our best to make you feel welcome.

Congratulations are in order for Mrs Sandra Hull and her team for the great success of last Saturday's coffee morning (August 18). Lovely aromatic cups of coffee and tea were available, together with  jams, marmalade and preserves, including specials such as quince jelly, scones, chocolate cakes, strawberry splits, carrot cake, ginger and sweet fancies, cream teas and all manner of good things (as Mr Kipling might say!). Members of the public who attended said that they were very impressed with the way things were organized and wanted updates on how our campaign is going, taking away leaflets containing information on the present (very successful) state of the campaign. Some of those who attended and had not already joined us did so, swelling our membership even further. The sum taken was very respectable, £350 was raised for our funds. This sum will go to offset the high price of printing and legal advice. Mrs Hull wishes to express her sincere thanks to all those who contributed to this magnificent effort on behalf of the community and similar events are booked for later in the year.  The Friends as a group wish to thank all our allies and supporters for the contributions that they, too, made to the event.

The Friends have once again had leafleting teams handing out updates to those attending the County Show at Elvaston. Our presence there was appreciated by the many members of the public who showed their support for our campaign to save Elvaston Castle Country Park from becoming a private golf country club. Some people did not realise the threat to the future of Elvaston Castle and are outraged at discovering what is happening, promising to help in whatever way they can, by lending us professional help and expertise, a helping hand financially, or by donating goods for our sales. It is heartening to have this support reiterated in this way and proves how dear the Elvaston Estate is to each and every one of us.

There was much criticism of the state of the lane which was left ankle-deep in mud for its entire width, mostly by  the lorries entering and leaving the Show Ground and a plea that the organizers might be persuaded to lay down stone chippings, at least in the area used by contestants and exhibitors with heavy vehicles. The conditions follow prolonged bouts of torrential rain which have caused severe flooding in some parts of the country.

As usual, we are grateful to all those Friends and our supporters who turned out in inclement conditions to spread the word amongst the general public - Thank You!

Many thanks to all those people who contributed to our highly successful coffee morning and plant sale which took place on Saturday June 2. On what turned out a be a beautifully hot and sunny day, the attendance by members of the public was excellent.

We had a host of plants for sale, so numerous that we had to arrange many of them outside the doorway to the Village Hall, in fact, the Village Hall temporarily looked a little like one of the greenhouses at Kew! there was lavender, lillies, chrysanthemums, hebe, poppies, hollies, in fact, hosts of different species to choose from. People went away with arms and cars and boxes full of greenery. The bonus was that there was tea and coffee and a dazzling array of home made cakes, biscuits, jam and marmalade to choose from, with one or two large, scrumptious looking special chocolate cakes, as well as sponges and scones.

Naturally, these were snapped up as eagerly as the plants and the weather was so good that we were able to put tables and chairs outside for those who wanted to sit in the sun and eat and drink their purchases. A lovely time was had by all in what turned out to be a quintessentially English pastime. What could more perfect? Once again, a big thank you to everyone who contributed, whether by baking, serving, providing transport, or just turning up to support the event. The campaign funds are over £280 richer!

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