Derbyshire County Council's regeneration could be halted under Reform's plans

The multi-million pound regeneration of County Hall could hit the bricks under Reform’s plans to “audit the crap” out of DCC.

The county council, under the previous Conservative administration, submitted a flurry of planning applications for its sprawling County Hall headquarters in the former Smedley’s Hydro spa complex in Matlock.

If approved by Derbyshire Dales District Council, the overall £132 million masterplan, to be funded by private developers, would:

• Convert County Hall into a 100-bedroom hotel
• Convert the north block into flats and shops
• Build 50 houses in the grounds
• Build a new smaller headquarters in the grounds

This week, the applications to turn the north block, across from County Hall in Smedley Street, into 45 flats and eight shops, and separately to turn County Hall into a 100-bedroom hotel and demolish link bridges over Smedley Street were formally validated and made available for public consultation.

An application for the 50 houses and a new headquarters in the grounds has already been submitted in March and public consultation has now expired.

The scheme is aimed at downsizing council office space from a 2,000-staff ageing and outdated facility to a 500-staff energy-efficient replacement and handing off repair and decarbonisation costs running into the tens of millions of pounds.

However, since Reform UK has now taken control of the council following the local elections – winning 42 of 64 seats – this regeneration may now hit the bricks.

Reform UK has committed to reassessing all financial spending and all committed contracts to find any extra money and cease un-needed expenditure.

The council, under the Conservatives, had already agreed to give consultants up to £4.24 million to carry forward the entire scheme, including overseeing the planning applications, and procuring a “master developer” to take it on and finance it.

Reform’s Derbyshire Dales branch, which saw two members successfully become county councillors, made clear its opposition to the County Hall regeneration scheme in the weeks before the elections.

Interim chairman Jeremy Ruse, who came in second in the Ashbourne South seat behind Conservative Steve Bull, had dubbed the project “crazy”.

On the County Hall scheme he had written, on behalf of the Derbyshire Dales Reform branch: “This is crazy at a time when everyone across Derbyshire is being hit by increased council tax, business rates and a cost of living crisis as never seen before.

“People must come before new comfy offices and gambling your money on redevelopment.

“We will audit the crap out of the council and scrutinise the contracts they have made and planned.

“If we find anything untoward we will be transparent and you will know about it.”

Cllr Alan Graves, who was appointed Reform’s county council leader and will formally take leadership of the authority next week, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We need to discuss this as a group and we haven’t had the opportunity yet. 

“We have growing pains of being a baby to an adult in a very short period of time and once we have sorted all of those growing pains out then we will be able to give you a proper steer on what we feel about it.”

Cllr Graves, who is also a Derby city councillor, said nothing could be confirmed or denied about the project yet because “we haven’t had the chance yet to discuss it”.

The planned hotel conversion is expected to create 130 full-time jobs, boost the Derbyshire economy by £147 million and the Matlock economy by £56 million, along with £1.2 million a year in extra council tax.

Reports published by the authority last year detailed the potential cost of each scheme, with the new eco-friendly council office for 500 employees potentially costing £34 million, the hotel conversion costing £72 million and the creation of homes in a block on the site costing £26 million – a total of £132 million.

Developers and private companies would be funding the schemes, but the council had budgeted last year to spend £20 million over three years on the overall project.

The council had said the cost of maintenance (£57 million), a repairs backlog (£56 million) and the price of decarbonising County Hall (£59 million) totalled £172 million.

In its hotel application, the county council said 100 parking spaces would be allocated for the redevelopment, with 100 rooms covering 16,750 square metres.

Meanwhile, the winter gardens glasshouse would be brought back into use as a wedding venue, two two-storey bridges over Smedley Street would be demolished, the covered veranda to either side of the County Hall entrance steps and an adjacent office extension would be demolished, and the former stable block would also be demolished.

The council details that the historic council chamber and committee rooms will likely be converted back to their original functions for banqueting and events and the winter gardens will be revitalised to create a dancing and events space once again.

It said in its replacement office block plan that the current chamber would be “booked by the council as needed” from the future owners – with no facility to be built in its new office building.