Selling Buxton by the Pound? The Springs, Capital & Centric and the Future. 

An open letter to Glossop by Reform UK Derbyshire County Councillor Melandra Smith.

“High Peak Borough Council and Capital & Centric should go back to the drawing board. 

This is my conclusion, reached after reading the hundreds of objections to the proposed redevelopment of Buxton's Springs, together with detailed concerns raised by businesses, community organisations and professional consultees. 

Buxton needs regeneration. But that does not mean accepting any scheme, at any cost, just because the council and its chosen developer tell us it is a “once in a generation” opportunity. 

The proposal before the council's Development Control Committee would plonk 332 new homes, mostly private rental, on Buxton's 422-space car park, demolishing it and part of the Springs Shopping Centre. It would dramatically reduce town-centre parking and fundamentally alter the character of the town. 

There are simply too many serious questions still unanswered. 

And if the evidence shows that this scheme is not right for Buxton, there is nothing inevitable about pressing ahead. High Peak Borough Council chose to bring forward the development, chose Capital & Centric as its partner and chose the broad scale and direction of the proposals. 

It can also stop, rethink and choose to bring us something better. 

I am writing to the people of Glossop, Buxton's High Peak sister town, because most of the council's political leadership is rooted in or around your area. Ultimately, you have considerable influence over the councillors running the show. 

High Peak has just two Reform UK county councillors – myself and Jason Isherwood over in Etherow – and we are both fighting significant battles for our residents. Jason is campaigning to keep Glossop Tip open. For me, the focus is supporting my residents against what they feel is an unacceptable proposal to turn Buxton's publicly owned town-centre car park and shopping centre into a predominantly private rental development. 

After reading the hundreds of formal objections and responses from professional consultees, I believe the Development Control Committee has serious reasons to think twice before giving Capital & Centric the green light. 

Over 600 formal objections sit on High Peak Borough Council's planning portal – more than the total number of public consultees engaged before the proposals were submitted, and of course not all those consultees will have been objecting. 

Residents, businesses, community organisations and professional bodies have raised remarkably consistent concerns about parking, scale, heritage, housing, infrastructure, flooding, archaeology, transport and the economic future of the town. 

And some of the strongest concerns are not from residents at all. 

DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL SAYS THE PARKING CASE ISN'T MADE. 

DCC Highways recommends the application be deferred for further information. The development takes publicly accessible parking from 431 spaces to just 140 – a loss of 291 spaces – and the applicant has not demonstrated that displaced parking can be accommodated elsewhere. 

The developer's proposed Palace Road car park is clearly not the answer. It is a separate proposal, proposes demolishing woodland protected by a group TPO, and the council may never apply for it if the current applications get through. 

So the Development Control Committee is being asked to approve more than 330 homes while removing hundreds of parking spaces, without the Highway Authority being satisfied that the consequences have been resolved. 

For Buxton, where 82% of households own at least one car, this is serious. 

OTHERS HAVE QUESTIONS TOO. 

Waitrose, the anchor store in The Springs, has submitted a 27-page objection. While supporting regeneration in principle, it has grave doubts about whether its Buxton store would remain commercially and operationally viable. 

And Waitrose should not be brushed aside. A 2022 council study estimated around £10 million of spending per year, and the store acts as a vital anchor for town centre businesses. 

Derbyshire County Council's lead archaeologist says there isn't enough information to understand properly what could be destroyed beneath the site. 

The Lead Local Flood Authority wants confirmation that the Environment Agency is satisfied with the proposed drainage arrangements into the River Wye. 

Environmental Health requires extensive safeguards concerning contamination, noise, overheating, demolition and construction. 

Network Rail requires extensive protection measures and makes clear that the development must take account of the possibility of currently mothballed railway infrastructure being brought back into use. 

That matters when there is a serious case for eventually reinstating the railway between Buxton and Matlock, supported by 26 MPs and my successful summer motion to Derbyshire County Council. We should not be building over future opportunities. 

WHAT WILL THIS DEVELOPMENT DO TO BUXTON? 

Buxton is a unique historic Georgian and Victorian spa town, with Roman origins and an architectural and landscape heritage central to its identity. 

The Gardens Trust has raised concerns about views from The Slopes, a Grade II Registered Park and Garden, and says it has not been given enough evidence to assess the visual consequences properly. 

Buxton Civic Association has raised concerns about height, massing, materials, housing numbers, parking and heritage impact, as well as material changes from plans presented during earlier consultations. 

The question is simple: 

Is the best future for central Buxton to replace its large, well-used town-centre car park with a vast, predominantly rental residential development? 

WHAT PROBLEM IS THE HOUSING SOLVING? 

The scheme offers only 5% at reduced rent for local people – about 17 homes. It proposes 332 rental homes, while DCC has questioned the housing mix and highlighted the unusually high proportion of one-person dwellings. 

This comes against a backdrop in which 843 homes were completed in the Buxton Local Plan sub-area over the five years to 2024/25, while the 2021 Census recorded a decline in Buxton's population. 

So what problem is this particular development actually addressing? 

HOW DID WE GET HERE? 

High Peak Borough Council is Labour-controlled, and it chose Capital & Centric as development partner for this hugely valuable publicly owned town-centre site through a process whose detailed commercial information was considered confidentially. 

Looking at where Capital & Centric has collaborated with local councils before, there are several cases where councils have deliberately structured deals so that Capital & Centric ultimately owns or controls the completed development. 

Is that what Buxton wants? 

At the same time, Capital & Centric co-founder Tim Heatley has a long-standing and publicly documented relationship with Labour Mayor Andy Burnham through the Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity, where Heatley has been Chair and Burnham is the founding patron. 

None of this proves that anything improper has happened in Buxton, but residents are entitled to ask questions about transparency and public confidence.  

What safeguards were applied to the selection process? Were all relevant interests and relationships properly considered? How was Capital & Centric judged against alternative developers? And can the council demonstrate that this appointment was made solely on objective, competitive and commercial grounds? 

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE VOTE. 

The Development Control Committee must determine the application according to planning law and the evidence before it. 

But High Peak Borough Council is not just the planning authority in this case. It is also the applicant and promoter of the development. 

That distinction matters. 

If the council concludes that the strength of local opposition, the professional concerns raised by consultees and the wider evidence show that the scheme represents overdevelopment of a uniquely sensitive town-centre site, it is not powerless. 

It can reconsider the proposal. It can demand changes. It can withdraw the application and go back to the drawing board. 

And that is precisely what I believe it should do. 

Deputy Leader Damien Greenhalgh has described the Development Control Committee as an “independent” panel. Technically, planning committee members must indeed exercise independent judgement and determine applications on their individual merits. 

But councillors do not exist in a political vacuum. These are elected Labour councillors serving on a council whose leadership has publicly championed this development. 

And so they need to demonstrate that their judgement is genuinely independent. 

Ultimately, the question for the Development Control Committee is simple: 

Is this particular development, with this particular developer, in this particular location and at this particular scale, really what Buxton wants? 

I do not believe the answer, on the evidence currently before us, is yes. 

High Peak Borough Council and Capital & Centric should listen to the many concerns raised, step back from the current proposal and return to the drawing board. 

Buxton needs regeneration. 

But we deserve better than this. 

And the people of Glossop, to whom many of the councillors responsible for the direction of High Peak Borough Council are responsible, will naturally be watching to see what happens next.” 

IN RESPONSE HIGH PEAK BOROUGH COUNCIL SAID: 

“The Council’s leadership represents wards across the borough, including in Glossop, but their responsibilities as Executive Members extend across the whole of High Peak. Decisions about Council investment and resources are made on a borough-wide basis, and the Executive is committed to supporting the success of Buxton, as much as Glossop and other communities across the High Peak. 

“We can also confirm that Capital & Centric was appointed as the Council’s development partner following a formal and competitive procurement process. The company was selected on commercial grounds and was duly assessed by officers against other developers who submitted their own proposals. As this is a commercial undertaking, the details of their appointment must legally remain confidential. 

“We are pleased statutory consultees have had their say about the proposal through the planning process. We welcome their input alongside local stakeholder groups and residents who took the trouble to take part in the planning consultation. 

“All responses received will be formally considered by our Development Control Committee, whose members are legally required to exercise independent judgement and consider the application on its planning merits, having regard to planning policy, the development plan, material planning considerations and all relevant representations. Any councillor directly involved in this application to, including those serving on the Executive, will not be allowed to take part in deciding whether or not to grant planning consent.” 

IN RESPONSE HIGH PEAK BOROUGH COUNCILLOR, DAMIEN GREENHALGH, DEPUTY LEADER AND EXECUTIVE COUNCILLOR FOR REGENERATION, TOURISM AND LEISURE SAID: 

“Our ambitious plans for Buxton will add new homes, shops, public spaces and community facilities - adding to what’s already there and helping to revitalise the town centre. 

“Besides the usual negativity and scaremongering we’ve come to expect from Reform, it’s a bit rich for a Reform councillor in Buxton to complain about High Peak councillors making decisions outside the wards they represent, when her Reform DCC colleague from Bolsover is trying to close Glossop Tip against overwhelming local opposition.”