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ELVASTON CASTLE WILL NOT BE A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT
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 the Derby
Telegraph, or read the glossy coloured brochure, 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.
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