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Derby HEART (Heritage & Environmental Association for Residents & Traders)
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July 2008 The ring-road fight is still on....Derby HEART (Heritage and Environmental Association for Residents & Traders) has been set up for people who share our concerns about Derby City Council's plans to build major new roads in the centre of the City.
The Council's name for this whole project is 'Connecting Derby'. However, for many residents, especially those living on either side of the proposed roads, Derby is likely to become disconnected.
This road building programme will bring about the demolition of many buildings that are important to Derby's historical and architectural heritage. Derby HEART is opposed to this continued destruction, whether it is due to road building plans or for so-called "redevelopment", or simple neglect.
Although set up with the aforementioned aims, Derby HEART intend to fight to protect the City of Derby from all proposals that have a detrimental effect on our heritage and environment.
This web-site is intended to form a focus for comment, news, advice and action.
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PUBLIC INQUIRY April 2007
<== See page for details.
As can be seen from the the Programme, the Derby HEART Committee has worked long and hard to review the City Council's case for the proposed Inner Ring Road completion and will be presenting evidence over the two weeks of the Inquiry.
The Inquiry Programme can be viewed on this page.
All members of the public are very welcome to attend any of the sessions, indeed we are encouraging public attendance to show strength of feelings against this irreversible and retrograde change to our City.
We would also be grateful for any offers of assistance over the Inquiry; notetakers are particularly welcomed! If you would like to help, please contact Penny DeAbreu, Derby 603909.
Email: polka.dot@ntlworld.com
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WHAT ARE DERBY HEART DOING ABOUT THE ROAD?
Derby HEART have been very busy behind the scenes trying to find out what Derby City Council (DCC) and the Department for Transport (DfT) have been doing with regard to the Connecting Derby road scheme.
There have been many reports that the road is definitely going ahead. The reality is that there are many more procedural steps before the road can be built, These include
1) High Court Appeals against the Secretary of State's decisions to permit the proposals for Five Lamps and the Seven Stars,
2) A Public Inquiry into the city wide Compulsory Purchase Order and Side Road Order for the road.
3) After these statutory hurdles the road scheme has to go through two more stages of approval at the Department for Transport before the money is made available.
4) Derby HEART has engaged solicitors to prepare for a possible Judicial Review of the methods used to assess and approve the whole scheme.
5) We are also developing another legal challenge because we do not believe that the road proposal has met current Strategic Environmental Assessment regulations.
Getting the information to be able to make sensible comments and objections has been very difficult; we are still waiting for a reply to questions that were first asked back in April 2006. Simple questions such as "what is the definition of a public transport scheme?" remain unanswered after 2 months. This might not seem very important, but the inner ring road scheme was sold to the government as a public transport scheme, and this designation allows other funding streams to be accessed.
At the moment there is a true cost of almost £40m for just over 1 mile of new road between Stafford Street and Bradshaw Way, plus a new inbound bus lane along Friar Gate. Not surprisingly, funding for such an over budget and massively delayed scheme is a major problem for Derby City Council and local taxpayers.
Originally, the whole scheme was to be funded by central government; now local people are going to suffer cuts in services or tax increases to pay for the new road. Funding sources now being used to pay for the road include;
£1m that was to pay for a park and ride service;
£2m that was to pay for a new bus station;
£3.5m that should have paid for small but important transport improvements such as cycle paths has been taken for road building,
Also millions of pounds worth of land in the city centre (which DCC do not know the value of) is being given cost free towards the project.
Department for Transport economists do not believe that the road will improve air quality and have stated that "the bus priority measures could increase bus patronage, but shorter car journey times will encourage car use". Is that a public transport scheme?
Derby HEART are doing what they can to ensure that this road-building scheme is properly assessed in a legal, open and honest way. Come to the Flower Pot Public House on King Street, at 19.30 on Tuesdays to join HEART's regular weekly meeting and find out more. The situation is changing all the time!!
THE FIGHT GOES ON!
12th Dec.06
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CONNECTING DERBY PLANNING CONTROL COMMITTEE MEETING 3rd FEB, 05
Derby HEART has spent many hours, weeks and months examining the proposals for Connecting Derby. We concluded they were fatally flawed and presented a case to that effect at Derby City Council's Planning Control Committee Meeting on 3rd February at the Gateway Centre.
Derby HEART had obtained the services of London barrister Philip Petchey and our local consultant Peter Steer to speak for us.
Dr Joan D'Arcy strongly presented the heritage case on behalf of .
the Derbyshire Archaeological Society,
Despite much applause from the large public gallery, these arguments against Connecting Derby seemed to have little effect on the Committee. Note that the procedure of Planning Control Committee Meetings does not require detailed or full answers to the public questions and does not provide any further opportunity for the speakers to query any inadequate answers given by the Council's Officers and consultants. Many of our questions and concerns remained unanswered.
The Councillors, however, are free to enter into full debate. Unfortunately, Cllrs Bolton. Baxter, Rehman (Lab), Liversage, Smalley (Con) and Marshall (Lib Dem) asked no questions at all and voted for the scheme. Cllr Chera (Lab) also did not question and did not vote.
Cllr Wynn (Lab) asked some questions but then said he felt the "silent majority" were for the scheme and voted for it.
Only Cllr Travis (Lib Dem) was moved by the threats to our heritage and challenged the inconsistencies and contradictions in the Officers' case and voted against the scheme, saying she thought it would not benefit cyclists and pedestrians and that the short-term nature of it did not justify the loss of heritage.
Derby HEART will now present its petition against the scheme to the Council, to the Government Office of the East Midlands and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. We are confident there will be a public inquiry and our barrister thinks we have a good case. A public inquiry will allow us much more freedom to put our questions and obtain straight answers.
Mounting our case at the public inquiry will be both expensive and hard work.
WE WILL CONTINUE THE FIGHT BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP.
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HEART MEMBERS PROSECUTED!
HEART Members Richard Butler and Trevor Lloyd-Davies have been prosecuted by Derby City Council for displaying anti-Connecting Derby banners on their properties.
LATEST: Trevor Lloyd-Davies's case was heard at the Derby Magistrates Court on Monday 22nd Nov.04. Following the successful prosecution of HEART member Richard Butler, Trevor took legal advice to plead guilty and was given a Conditional Discharge.
<<== Click on "HEART Members Prosecuted!" for details.
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CONNECTING DERBY - PLANNING APPLICATION WITHDRAWN!!
The Planning Applications for Phases 2, 3A and 3B of Connecting Derby were published in the Derby Evening Telegraph on Saturday 11th July 2004. Following extensive scrutiny of the Applications' Environmental Statement by HEART, a large number of errors and omissions amounting to some 67 pages were found to be missing. HEART advised the city planners of these errors and the council decided the planning applications must be withdrawn pending the drafting of a revised and corrected environmental statement. Extensive front-page coverage was given to this in the Derby Evening Telegraph, 25th Aug. 04. Councillor Lucy Care, Cabinet Member for Planning, Transportation and Environment, said: "It's encouraging that there are people in Derby with sufficient interest in what's going on to read these documents carefully."
As soon as we are aware of the issue of a new Planning Application, we will advise HEART Members.
<<== Click on "A Catalogue of Errors" to read the Derby Evening Telegraph report.
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RIVERLIGHTS
<<== Click on "Riverlights" to read our concerns about this latest Planning Decision.
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FIVE LAMPS / KING ST PUBLIC CONSULTATION
JULY 2008 The Inspector recommended againt the 5 Lamps scheme which is now out of the plans.
The Derby City Council have agreed that the proposals to redevelop the Five Lamps junction should be considered as part of the Connecting Derby Project, Phase 3B, which involves the building of a major new road behind the Seven Stars Pub in King St.
This will isolate the Seven Stars on a large traffic island and the new road will destroy remains of the site of the old King St Marble Works. This is a site of local and national significance.
Road widening proposals at Five Lamps would have threatened property and would destroy the architectural integrity and appearance of this important element of Derby's heritage.
The City Council have prepared various options for the interconnecting roads to this new highway. The Council did hold a few public consultation meetings to enable the public to view their proposals and comment.
As usual, these "consultations" have reported to the Planning Committee on the choice of their options presented and ignored those who would choose to have no change and no destruction of our heritage.
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PHASE 2 PLANNING APPLICATION ON HOLD
The Phase 2 (Ford St/Friar Gate) Planning Application was heard by the City Council Planning Control Committee Meeting on 20th MARCH 2003. Derby HEART had submitted our legal objection that the Environmental Impact Assessment for Phase 2 should not ignore the cumulative effects of Phase 3 and other planned developments. The City Council decided to approve Phase 2 but not to proceed further until they had obtained their own legal advice on Derby HEART's objection.
When this legal advice arrived it CONFIRMED DERBY HEART'S OBJECTION. The City Council then decided to WITHDRAW THE PLANNING APPLICATION FOR PHASE 2!
The Council are, of course, still proceding with this unwelcome and unwarranted scheme, but must now submit a Planning Application for Phases 2 and 3A together.
There are still massive concerns about the extra traffic (and consequent extra pollution), generated by the various bits of "Connecting Derby", Westfields Main Centre, Riverlights, Cityscape, Friargate Goods Yard, etc. In view of the agreed legal requirement to consider cumulative effects, Derby HEART wrote to the City Council seeking clarification that the new Planning Application for Phases 2 and 3A would include Phase 3B (proposed new road behind the Seven Stars pub, King St). To read the Council's reply:
<<== Click on "Letter from J. Guest 22 July 2003" to read confirmation of withdrawal of Phase 2, intention to treat Phase 3B as a separate Planning Application and new offers of public consultation.
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<<== Click on "Links to Government Policy Documents" to review Goverment Planning Policy Requirements.
<<== Add your comments to the Derby HEART Guestbook.
If you wish to become a member of Derby HEART, please complete a Membership Form:
<== Click on "How do I join Derby HEART?"
Membership is FREE! Please remember to enter your email address if you wish to receive direct email notification of news and activities.
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