Councillor Nadine Peatfield, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for City Centre, Regeneration, Culture and Tourism, looks back on the year and ahead to 2024.
When re-elected in May, I made it clear that Derby’s city centre was a priority for this administration, and for me as Cabinet Member.
I got to work straight away, and in the last seven months, so much has happened.
A dedicated Cabinet Member for the city centre – a first for Derby – and the soon-to-be-launched City Centre Task Force, has shown how serious we are about transforming our tired city centre into a modern and thriving high street, bringing pride back to the city centre. Bringing together expertise from businesses, organisations, cultural partners and residents to deliver short-term solutions for the city centre. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact which this will have.
Work continues on the refurbishment of the Market Hall, one of our most historic and prominent buildings. Early in to my new role, I reviewed the market offer, bringing in national experts to ensure we get the offer right. In the autumn, a pivotal moment for the project saw us invite creatives, makers and traders to register their interest in making the Market Hall the home of their businesses; a fantastic opportunity for both established and up and coming businesses to be part of a modern central hub while benefiting from Derby’s rich history and heritage.
The new Market Hall is due to reopen in spring 2025 – a big year for the city, when Derby will finally get a large-scale city centre venue, offering fresh food, stalls, street food, events and workshop space.
Becketwell continues to progress
The Becketwell Performance Venue site is progressing rapidly on time and on budget and teams will soon be fitting additional steel beams to create the roof, ready for the concrete pour in early 2024. The new 3,500 capacity venue is set to host over 200 cultural and commercial events each year and attract an additional 250,000 visitors to Derby, create over 200 new local jobs, and increase levels of investment into the city. This is a brilliant example of where we have been able to combine our city centre regeneration plans, with enhancing the city’s cultural offer.
Also around Becketwell are the recently opened Condor apartments and Springwell Square, a new public square for the city, which I was delighted to attend the official opening of in September. The site has created high quality city centre living, providing more choice for people to live and boosting the city centre economy.
I’m thrilled too that we have been able to successfully negotiate with Government to redirect the £20m Levelling Up Fund award from the unviable Project Assemble towards restoring the Guildhall and supporting Derby Theatre to refurbish their beloved theatre. Under our proposals, these two cultural assets will be refurbished to enhance the city’s vibrant cultural offer.
Driving an ambitious transformation of our city centre
Trying to drive an ambitious transformation of our city centre in a financially challenging climate is not easy and partnership working is vital. Since taking on my cabinet role I’ve been meeting, networking and working with business partners and investors across the country, finding innovative ways to bring investment and change to Derby. We have been able to award a council loan to St James’s St project and to Great Northern Classics, in order to unlock employment, footfall, visitors and the re-purposing of tired buildings.
All of these key regeneration projects support our vision for Derby to become a place where people want to visit and spend time. I’m confident we can deliver a Derby to be proud of, where more people; residents and visitors will want to spend time, enjoying a wider cultural, shopping and leisure choice - we know that’s what our citizens want from their city centre, and our administration is determined to deliver.
Despite the financial challenges which Local Authorities across the country are facing, our commitment to culture remains. This was evidenced in our Medium-Term Financial Plan which not only delivered the best Christmas offer which Derby has had in years, but also protected funding to Derby Museums.
Going into 2024, we will be prioritising that our museums remain affordable and accessible, and that our cultural offer is protected for the city. We will also continue to build on our award-winning public-private partnership models, to make sure we continue to deliver for Derby. We have an excellent year ahead, with some great events coming to our city and I can’t wait to share what we have in store for residents.