Derby City Council Leader reacts to delay on Market Place redevelopment

Plans to transform the Market Place and Duckworth Square have received a £5m boost. Image by Derby City Council.

Derby City Council’s leader has hit out after councillors delayed a decision on major plans to regenerate the city’s Market Place.

The council’s planning committee voted in favour of delaying a final decision on outline plans to replace Derby’s Assembly Rooms, which has stood empty for more than a decade.

The city council wants to transform the city centre Market Place by building a mixed-use building, Grade A office space, a four-star hotel with new public open space around it, after the former performance venue is demolished.

But concerns about the “bulky” design were raised during an important planning committee meeting on Thursday night (May 14th) when the application was being considered.

Five councillors, consisting of Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and Reform Derby, voted to defer a decision to a later meeting so more discussions about the design of the new building could take place between them and other parties.

However, four councillors – all from the city’s leading Labour group – voted to approve the major scheme.

Councillor Sue Bonser argued against the deferral, saying Derby residents want the council to “get on with it”.

Derby City Council leader Nadine Peatfield hit out over the decision on Friday morning (May 15th) – calling it “disgraceful politicking” that risked the city “stagnating”.

The Labour councillor posted on her Facebook page: “Once again, Tories, Lib Dems and Reform work together to frustrate progress on the Market Place development.

“This isn’t a power game, it is damaging confidence in our city and they risk losing millions of ££ of investment and our city stagnating as it did under the last Tory administration.”

Lucy Care, a Liberal Democrat councillor, told the meeting she felt the designs looked “bulky” and “unimaginative”.

She said: “We are missing an opportunity to have something that is more creative.”

At the end of the meeting, Conservative councillor and planning committee member Miles Pattison said he believed deferring the decision was in the best interests of Derby.

He said: “I see some councillors shaking their heads. This isn’t, from my perspective, about not liking what’s in front of us. I do like what is in front of us…..but this is about giving us the best opportunity to make this development the best it can be.”

The meeting heard that the next opportunity to decide on the planning application may not be until July.