DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL WITHDRAWS ITS £10 MILLION HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND BID

As headlined in the Derby Evening Telegraph of Saturday, March 9, and given further coverage on Monday, March 12, Derbyshire County Council (DCC) has withdrawn its £10 million grant bid from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The County Council had pledged to announce the result of its bid for funding in January, or, at the latest, February.

This deadline came and went and so the Friends of  Elvaston contacted the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), to find out exactly where the matter stood.

To our astonishment, we discovered that the DCC had withdrawn its application back in NOVEMBER! So, for three months, the Council had withheld from the entire community, the results of a matter which is very high on the register of public interest.

The reason which the DCC has given for its withdrawal is curious and deserves further scrutiny. According to the County Council, the HLF asked it for further details of its proposals for the Gardens which the authority claimed would cause it to incur significant costs. This, it stated, it is unwilling to do at what the authority describes as an ‘early stage in the possible development of Elvaston Castle and grounds,’ so it withdrew its bid.

The developer is quoted as supporting the Council’s bid withdrawal, claiming that it is going to be improved for resubmission. The Council has not ruled out resubmission but is unable to give a time frame.

The Friends of Elvaston would like to make it clear that we cannot support any action which takes away public ownership, and, access to, such an important place as Elvaston Castle Country Park. We submitted a 17 page dossier to the HLF in October, outlining our concerns about various aspects of the disposal plan and how it could affect the community. We have concluded that the HLF too, shares our concerns. We are particularly worried about the major road down the South Drive, which will be dangerous to families with toddlers, individuals and pets alike. The developer plans to run the road straight through the Golden Gates and the restored Gardens. This is a retrograde step as far as we are concerned and the resultant pollution from exhausts, artificial lighting and road drainage, threat to wildlife and public safety, not to mention the destruction of the beauty of the southern approach, must not happen.

Further to this we dispute what the County Council states about ‘early days’ as far as the possible development of Elvaston Castle and grounds is concerned.

The DCC has being attempting to off-load the Estate since 1999, eight years!

It is a matter of record that the DCC submitted a grant application to the HLF for funding to restore the internationally important gardens at Elvaston Castle Country Park in 2000. The HLF requested that the Council withdraw the bid and develop it further, by adding a conservation plan for the Gardens and an holistic management plan which encompassed the whole Estate. Hilary Taylor and her Associates were engaged to carry out  the work and this went ahead at a cost of £35,000, £21,400 of which was supplied by the HLF and the remainder by Derbyshire taxpayers. Although the plans were completed the DCC did not submit a further bid (which HLF had encouraged it to do following completion of the work), until last year.

We now know that the outcome has once again been unsuccessful. However, the DCC can hardly claim with any credibility that this is an early stage in the development, or that it was unaware of the costs and protocols involved with a resubmitted bid to the HLF.

When the Lanarca garden survey was being carried out for the DCC in 2005 (cost, £25,000), in the question and answer section of its website, one question featured asked what would happen if the DCC bid for HLF money was unsuccessful. The answer stated that the DCC had identified a significant sum of matched funding and that the development partner proposes a large cash contribution. Apart from emphasising the fact that in this event any restoration would be piecemeal, it also begs other questions. Why, if the DCC has a significant sum of money, has some of this not been spent on restoring the Castle and Estate in general and retaining it in public ownership?  Secondly, if such a sum is available, why did the Council not feel able to provide the funding needed to supply further information to the HLF?

In the Monday, March 12 article, two lovely little sisters from Darley Abbey, aged two and six, are pictured enjoying a walk in Elvaston Castle. It is interesting that although both Darley and Markeaton Parks are on their doorstep in that part of the City, their parents chose to bring them to Elvaston Park. Is it the vast amount of space? The surroundings? The Castle and the buildings? All we know is that it is a very much loved public open space which is cherished by many people and we must guard its future.

The Friends Of Elvaston has recently lodged a further 17 page report to the Heritage Lottery Fund in London, outlining the deep concern and reservations of the membership regarding both the legal and technical aspects of the Derbyshire County Council's disposal plans for Elvaston Castle Country Park. This is the most recent of several previous representations which we have made to the Fund Managers there over Elvaston Castle. There are various areas of the scheme which have attracted particular attention, not least of which is both the County Council's and the developer's stated intention to turn the South Drive into an access road, with all the dangers that this would present, (despite the fact that it is not included in the tenure map on the Council's web site),  and to develop Clover Close, an important medieval ridge and furrow ploughing survivor, into a golf practise area.  As well as this, we are also strongly opposed to any development of the Local Nature Reserve for golf purposes, and also to the use of Home Farm, named in Hilary Taylor's (£35,000) Conservation Plan as being an important range of farm buildings because of its completeness, and recommended for listing. These and many other topics for concern have been highlighted to the management of the Heritage Lottery Fund. We will of course keep our web site up-to-date with any developments regarding this.

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