Issue - meetings

The Scrutiny & Elections Officer explained the various documents that had been presented to Members as part of the review.

The Director of Economic Development, Dragonfly Development Limited (DDL), presented a review of Clowne Town Centre Regeneration Framework, acknowledging the Committee’s original review plan to take each town area in turn.  The Framework had originally been commissioned in autumn 2015, and had highlighted a range of public and private interventions that could be made to improve the town centre.

As agreed with Committee, officers had produced a scorecard analysing progress against the various elements of the Framework including in surrounding villages and hamlets.  On reflection, the Framework document hadn’t guided development to a great extent within the area.  Many elements remained undelivered as the document had been aspirational in nature requiring additional buy-in from Town and Parish Councils to engage in the development plans themselves.  Where funding had not been in place, many ideas had been difficult to deliver.

It was noted that the previous Regeneration Frameworks, to some extent, also sat outside a wider strategy for development and there was not a bank of costed projects ready to put forward to support the area.  While the intention of the Frameworks had been to lever investment, the lack of costed projects had made them almost impossible to deliver.  As there was insufficient evidence base within the document, additional research was now being commissioned in order to evidence and cost the projects that could regenerate the town centre.

Of the six core delivery objectives, only one had been completed, with two objectives (4 & 5) in progress but still requiring significant work.  Objectives 1 and 2 required the Clowne Garden Village scheme to progress.  Objective 6 was no longer viable.

Of the Stepping Stone projects, none had progressed.  The officer noted that pedestrianisation of Mill Street had been trialled during the pandemic but local shop owners had not seen any benefits for the approach and were not keen for it to become a permanent arrangement.  While work had taken place on highway improvements, any subsequent work by utility companies had not replicated the surfacing, which had not enabled the works to improve the aesthetics of the highway on Mill Street to have the intended success.  It was also noted that the retail offer within Clowne required improvement to create a greater mix.

In reference to the appendix outlining progress within the surrounding villages and hamlets, the officer noted the following:

• Barlborough – a number of improved walking links, but further work was required in support of objectives 1-3.
• Creswell – 3 out of 5 objectives were either delivered or in progress, with the Heritage and Wellbeing Centre nearly completed, improved tourism through links with the Community Rail Partnership and redevelopment of the Station Hotel.
• Whitwell – improvements around the station due to engagement with the Community Rail Partnership, renovation of the former Co-op building in to flats, and redevelopment of the colliery site expected which will provide housing and a country park area.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48