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NEWS UPDATE
 There has been little activity on this site
for some time, mainly due to the fact that Derbyshire
County Council has made no further announcements about
Elvaston Castle until recently, when a revealing letter
from its Chief Executive was published in the Opinion
page of the Derby Evening Telegraph (DET Opinion, 'No
sale, no fees and no threat', Wednesday, June 17, 2009).
In it, Nick Hodgson reveals something not previously
publicly announced (except at one minority group
meeting), when he discloses that the Council proposes to
lease the ENTIRE Elvaston Estate to Highgate Sanctuary,
but to then LEASE BACK the Gardens, according to the
Council for the purposes of maintaining public access and
for maintenance.
Mr.
Hodgson also claims in his letter that 'Elvaston Castle
is not for sale and public access is not and has never
been under threat.' This is not the case because when the
Council placed the Estate on the open property market in
1999 it was marketed as being either freehold or
leasehold. Clearly, if it had been sold freehold then
public access could have permanently disappeared at that
point.
His
comment that the Council has always been open and honest
is therefore confounded by the facts of the matter.
The
statement that there will be no entry fee to the Park
makes no mention of the Gardens.
We
know that the 'charitable trust' which he mentions that
the Council is intending to set up is to be chosen from
(to quote the Council in 2006);
a combination
of recommendation/nomination/advertising for people with
the appropriate skills/interest/proven ability with
initial appointments/recommendations by the Council.
It is
included in Council minutes that the developer
would be represented on the trust.
We
feel that this is irregular to say the least and begs the
obvious question, why lease the Gardens out to the
developer in the first place, surely it would have been
less of a burden on the public purse to have left the
Gardens out of the equation altogether?
Involving
the developer in this way, in which it sits on the board
of a charitable trust which administers the Gardens
(having leased the Gardens back to the Council) and
whereby public money is used to finance maintenance to
those gardens seems an odd decision to make. Furthermore,
it is questionable as to whether the public could then be
excluded anyway, being as it would be public money
financing the trust, so the Council's claim that leasing
back the Gardens would ensure public access seems a
little shallow in that respect. As well as this it means
that the developer would become a major beneficiary of
this arrangement, in that taxpayer's money would be
guaranteeing that the hotel surroundings would be greatly
enhancing its status. If it is prepared to go to these
lengths to dispose of the Elvaston Estate, the Council's
claim that it cannot afford to run the Estate has a
hollow ring to it!
There
is also the question of the 15 year 'no sale' clause in
the public funding paid out by English Heritage. If there
is no intention by the Council to dispose of the Estate
and it merely has the intention of leasing it
out for 150 years, why should English Heritage need to
insert a 'no sale' clause of any duration?
Mr. Hodgson claims that the Council would be happy to
make it a 150 year clause. If that was really the case we
do not think that it should have been too much trouble
for a local authority such as Derbyshire County Council
to have made the amendment - perhaps it could do so now?
Fortunately for us, we are not holding our breath on the
matter!
The
new Conservative administration at Matlock now has the
opportunity to reverse the damage caused by years of
neglect (the minimum of a decade!) by its predecessors.
It is unthinkable that a rapid U turn to the policy of
disposing of Elvaston Castle Country Park could not now
be initiated. Firstly, a new public consultation should
take place, properly carried out, with all the FACTS
clearly available. The Friends of Elvaston already knows
what the public verdict will be. So does the Council. All
we are asking for is openness and transparency, nothing
more, nothing less, no lies, no trickery. If the public
demands that the Estate is lost to a hotel and golfing
complex to the exclusion of all other users then we will
accept that decision and stand down our campaign...
Otherwise, we will continue the fight, for as long as it
takes.
Furthermore,
and we don't know how to say this any more clearly, Mr.
Hodgson's statement that the Council is NOT disposing of
Elvaston Castle and Country Park, that it is NOT for sale
and that public access is NOT and has never been under
threat (his emphasis!) is merely juggling with words. A
150 year lease to a private real estate development
company, or any other company come to that matter, means
that no one from the community, the Council, or anyone
else with a current interest will be around to measure
the outcome of what the disposal means in real terms.
Elvaston Castle and Country Park could well have
disappeared altogether and those of us who use and enjoy
it now and who don't want to see it drastically altered
or to disappear from public use most certainly will have
done.
Please
make a note of our new meeting venue for the second
Wednesday in every month. We will now be meeting at the
Moon Hotel, Station Road, Spondon, in the lounge, at
7:30pm. Anyone who is interested in the situation with
Elvaston Castle and the work of the Friends of Elvaston
is welcome to come and talk to us, ask questions, put
forward any (constructive) suggestions they may have. Our
next meeting is Wednesday, May 13th. We look forward to
meeting you there.
The
Friends FLAG Group (Friends League of Affiliated Groups),
currently stands at 109 named
groups, organisations and associations which completely
support the Friends campaign to keep Elvaston Castle
Country Park in public ownership and to prevent it from
being turned into an hotel and golfing complex at the
hands of developers and a County Council which appears
disinterested in the views and opinions of the Park's
many stakeholders.
Countless
numbers of people enjoy the Estate and it isn't just used
for recreation and education by those who enjoy good
health, but also by those who care for the less able
bodied, people who are mentally or physically disabled,
or recovering from serious illness. Many of these
unfortunate people are taken to Elvaston Castle and its
peaceful and welcoming surroundings in order to aid their
recovery, and to give them and the people caring for them
some much needed respite from normal daily routine.
We
can only make a plea for those ultimately charged with
the care of Elvaston Castle Country Park to listen to the
community, take heed of what that community has to say.
Some of our detractors (those with a vested interest),
would have people believe that the Friends of Elvaston is
a campaign of misinformation led by a small, out of touch
group which is helping to prevent Elvaston Castle from
being rescued from decay. Nothing could be further from
the truth and the dozens of testimonials from all the
organisations which support the Friends campaign proves
that very few are now being fooled by such vindictive
propaganda and that such base lies and deceptions being
preached about what a glowing future the current disposal
scheme means for the Park are falling on the stony ground
on which they belong.
The
fact of the matter is that (so far), 109 groups,
organisations and associations, from right across
society, are backing the campaign of the Friends of
Elvaston. This is something which cannot, should not be
ignored. Most are incensed by the actions of Derbyshire
County Council and what it is attempting to do. It is not
too late to reverse the disposal plans and to secure a
sustainable future for Elvaston Castle which is agreed by
ALL its users and these plans should not include anything
to do with hotels and golf courses.
We
would like to let everyone know that a website previously
left hanging in cyberspace, containing out of date
information and references to the campaign by the
Friends of Elvaston with which we did not agree and which
we made every effort to have removed or altered, but
which attempts were deliberately ignored, now has a new
and much more productive life ahead of it. We firmly
believe that those responsible for the original attempt
to sabotage our community effort in the hope that they
will gain some personal advantage from it will eventually
disappear too, which would be the best thing that could
happen for all concerned.
Now,
thanks to a charity that rescues moribund sites, combined
with the hard work and diligence of one man (thank you
Steve!), the site has been completely revamped and
updated and is now a sister site to this one. The site is
now truly a community site and contains details of groups
with the same aims as we have.
You
can find it at;
www.elvastoncastle.org.uk/
We
will continue with our attempts to present a united
community effort to prevent the loss of the Elvaston
Estate to any commercial venture, either by sale or
lease, and will do our utmost to present viable
alternatives to the County Council.
We
would like to say a big thank you to all those people who
supported our garden party on Saturday, July 5th. The
heavy and persistent rain which came down all
morning failed to dampen spirits and, as the advance
weather forecast had given us some warning of this, we
were able to to organise a switch to the Elvaston Village
Hall at the last minute. A notice to this effect was
placed at the nearby garden party address and stewards
were deployed to redirect anyone who may not have heard
or read about the changes. We had the usual superb
quality home made produce available, including an unusual
(but delicious) runner bean chutney, meat pasties,
pickles, jams, marmalade and bread, in fact, all manner
of sweets and savouries. The winners of the raffle and
Teddy Bear's holiday competition will be announced in due
course. The very respectable sum of £465 was raised for
our funds. We would also like to say a special thank you
to those people who made cash donations to our campaign.
We will continue the campaign on behalf of the community
and the membership of the Friends until the continued
public ownership of the Estate is secured.
The
glossy brochure handed out by Highgate Sanctuary both at
the Park and the County Show, followed by an article in
the Derby Evening Telegraph, is nothing but a smoke and
mirrors publicity stunt. All that it amounts to is an
expensively produced rehash which contains nothing new,
other than positive proof of what we have stated all
along - A ring road down the South Drive, through the
Golden Gates, right at the Crown Bush, down onto
Coronation Drive, left into the Castle and courtyards. To
create the link, a road built around the back of the
former Working Farm Museum. The loss of the Caravan Park;
The loss of the Riding Stables; The loss of the Cafeteria
in the Castle; The loss of public access; The loss of the
Local Nature Reserve; lots of misinformation - no mention
of the road to be built at Bedford Drive alongside the
Showground, to reach the clubhouse at Home Farm, no plan
of the golf courses, no sign of disabled parking, no sign
of the golf buggie tracks, nowhere to hire crash helmets
if you want to walk around the Park. In the newspaper
article the company, which has never traded, gives a
figure of £35 million for the development and claims for
the amount to be invested just keep going up and up!
Underscoring this tremendous effort is the fact that the
website address printed on the glossy brochure is
incorrect, taking the enquirer nowhere! of course, such a
glaring faux pas can easily be re-linked, but we
couldn't correct the damage done if such an inappropriate
and publicly detested scheme ever got the green light. If
you can't get the website address on your glossy brochure
correct, how are you going to manage a £35 million
contract?
The
company has never even submitted an Environmental Impact
Assessment which is a major undertaking and also an
essential prerequisite to any planning consideration. In
reading it one could gain the impression that Highgate
actually owns the Castle and Country Park - sorry, it
just isn't going to happen, but only if we ALL get up and
do something about it!
In
response to the above brochure the following letter has
appeared in the Derby Evening Telegraph of Friday, July
4, 2008.
Happy to say we
are here to stay
RE
Highgate Sanctuary Ltd plans and Elvaston Castle Riding
School, I have recently been very touched by the concerns
of locals and country park
visitors who, having read a recently produced colour
leaflet, thought it
inevitable that the riding school is going to close.
I am
happy to reassure them that, after 26 years here, we are
not planning
on leaving at all. The riding school and DIY Livery Yard
continues
successfully, amid plans made by various parties over the
last 10 years,
most of which have fallen by the wayside.
The
leaflet was not produced by my landlords (Derbyshire
County Council) and the wording sounds as if the whole
plan is just a matter for completion,
without any arguments.
There
is, of course, the very significant matter of them
managing to obtain
planning permission from both our local district council
and English
Heritage when they present their plans in the autumn.
I
would like to take this opportunity to remind, and urge,
the public and
ratepayers to keep an eye on these developments as they
progress. There is plenty of opportunity to complain
about these plans at every stage.
It is
therefore in every individual's interest to object to
these plans
wherever appropriate, because the public owns the park,
no-one else.
The
county council is only the park's guardian, on behalf of
all ratepayers,
so we need to voice our opinions – loudly!
The
park could easily be self-sufficient if it was managed in
a commercially
viable way.
The
county council announced it could not find £500,000 per
annum to
maintain it, but also stated the park receives in excess
of 750,000 visitors
per year. This is only 66p per visitor!
In
all of the previous areas were reopened, plus some new
ones, it would be completely feasible to maintain the
estate and find the £3m needed to repair the castle.
This
would remove the need to find external developers who
ultimately only have their profits to consider.
In summary, it's the old story — use it,
or lose it! In this case, act now!
Peter Coe,
Elvaston Castle Equestrian Centre.
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