Wind Turbine Generators

These are very exciting times for the people of Derby and the future of the city centre. After many years of very little investment in the city, the Government has set the ball rolling on planning major development projects and vast improvements to the city centre’s infrastructure to mark the start of rejuvenating the whole area.

In April 2003, Derby Cityscape Ltd was established as the urban regeneration company for Derby and created plans for the city including, a new Further Education college, significant expansion of the Eagle Centre, housing developments by the riverside, and proposals for Connecting Derby – which represents major investment into improving transport links into and out of the city centre.

 

The Masterplan was created and unveiled in 2005 and work has been progressing on the plans ever since, but 5 years on - how far have the developments come?

 

Achievements

 

1. The Westfield Centre, created as a result of a £340m extension to the old Eagles Shopping Centre, was opened by Tess Daly in October 2007. It has over 150 shops, a large cinema and many places to eat. In 2008 the centre received over 23 million visitors.

 

2. In September 2008, Derby celebrated the opening of QUAD, the city’s new centre for Contemporary Art and Film comprising of an art gallery, cinema, cafe bar and workshop. Since then the venue has been visited by over 223,000 people.

 

3. In February 2009 the iconic Cathedral bridge was finished which went on to win the Small Civil Engineering Project 2009 award at the British Constructing Industry awards.

 

4. June 2009 marked the opening of the Jury’s Inn hotel situated in the heart of the city’s vibrant Cathedral Quarter. The smart, clean and contemporary looking hotel has 213 bedrooms as well as 5 rooms for business meetings.

 

5. In September 2009, The Roundhouse opened its doors to thousands of Derby College students as the sensitively-restored building became the College’s flagship site. Recognition of these efforts came in the form of the coveted Heritage Award and also the Project of the Year award at the Constructing Excellence EM Regional Awards 2009.

 

6. £22 million has already been invested in upgrading the platforms and renewing the canopies at Derby’s bustling railway station.

 

7. Cathedral Green has been given a much needed facelift via complete re-landscaping of the area. It is now an attractive public space situated on the banks of the river Derwent, with the Cathedral as a backdrop.

 

Developments Planned for 2010

 

Riverlights Complex - £100million will be invested into creating a riverside complex which will comprise of a state-of-the-art bus station, 2 hotels (Holiday Inn and Hilton Hampton) as well as shops and restaurants. The bus station is expected to be operational in the first half of this year.

 

St Helen’s Street - £22million is set aside for the development of an eco-friendly housing project which will eventually provide 180 family homes comprising of a mix of affordable housing and private sales. Phase 1 will see the development of 40 one and two bedroom houses and is expected to be complete in July 2010.

 

Derby Railway Station Gateway – This multi-million pound regeneration program for the railway station is broken down into 2 schemes. The first is for a transport interchange at the station forecourt to make the integration between different modes of transport more efficient and reduce traffic congestion. £1.75m of the £1.8m funding for this has now been approved by EMDA and ERDF, and the balance will be met by Derby City Council.

The second scheme will see the refurbishment of a derelict building next to the station to be used for employment space. The £1.3m funding for this scheme has already been secured from EMDA, Network Rail and The Railway Heritage Trust. The commencement of work on both schemes is planned for summer 2010.

 

Friar Gate Square – Planning permission for this £20million development has recently been obtained which will see the creation of two landmark office buildings providing 100,000sq ft of quality office space. A pedestrian link will also be provided to the historic Friar Gate railway bridge.

 

 

In The Pipeline

 

There are also at least 5 other projects to be scheduled in the following phase of Derby City’s regeneration which have all had planning permission approved.

These include a combination of city centre housing developments, further top quality office space at Cathedral Green, improvements to the traditional heritage and retail areas in Sadler Gate and a retail and office space complex on Cathedral road.

You can find more articles like this and lots more news and useful information about Derby in Activ Derby's online guide to the city. Visit http://www.activderby.com
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