Councillors agree £1million spend on regeneration projects in Swadlincote town centre

Councillors have pushed forward plans to regenerate Swadlincote centre - a scheme which has been decades in the making.

At a South Derbyshire District Council meeting last week, councillors approved the overall spending of more than £1 million on key projects in Swadlincote town centre.

This includes the demolition of the indoor market site into a car park and event space; the demolition of two properties virtually opposite the indoor market on the corner of Midland Road and Civic Way for a further car park; and another car park a "pocket park" on the former Sabine's Yard area to the rear of the buildings.

Alongside this, several shop fronts on the Delph are going to be refurbished and the Delph area itself – currently ridden with potholes – is to be repaved with granite slabs by this October.

Most of the project is being paid for with business rates retained by the district council through a trial in which it kept 100 per cent of the cash gathered from local companies, instead of it going to central Government.

Kevin Stackhouse, the council's strategic director for corporate resources, said that this meant Swadlincote and South Derbyshire businesses were paying for the regeneration projects.

Part of the rates trial with the Government, which was discontinued, was that money retained by the council's involved was to be spent on economic regeneration – for the betterment of the businesses which had paid out.

However, the scheme is not without its literal pitfalls.

Steve Baker, the council's corporate asset manager, told the meeting that there was a mine shaft on the Bank House/Bretby View site.

The mine shaft, which is around 80 metres deep, will cost £100,000 to fill and cap.

However he said that this would "help future development on the site" and that "if and when we sell it we will get more for it."

He said the Bank House and Bretby View site has attracted anti-social behaviour and that the indoor market site had a "pigeon infestation".

Mr Baker said the authority was "trying to do our bit as a council to support the post-Covid recovery".

He said works to turn the Bank House/Bretby View site into a car park and to turn Sabines Yard, off Belmont Street, into a "pocket park" would be in a following phase of the regeneration, once funding is identified.

Mr Baker said the council would not need to submit a planning application for the works to resurface the Delph and was currently looking for a company to carry out the works.

He said the council aimed to submit a planning application for the indoor market works in April and would only take weeks to carry out, if approved.

The demolition works and most of the current planned project – minus the car park on Bank House and the pocket park – would be complete by October, he said.

Cllr Neil Tilley said he had been on the council for 16 years now and there had been talks of regenerating the town centre for that entire duration and was "really pleased" to see it coming forward.

He said there have been and are now focused on the east and west side of the town centre but that the "bit in the middle" now needs work.

Cllr Melanie Bridgen, leader of the Conservative Group, said: "It is an absolutely excellent project and I am pleased to see such an imaginative project coming forward, and we have a marvellous town centre already."

Cllr Amy Wheelton said the scheme represented "the start of a rejuvenation".

Of the indoor market project, she said: "The sooner you take the lid off, the better. I wouldn't want to walk through it in the dark."

She called for security barriers to be put up around the site when the works are carried out "to protect it from people who may want to use it for the wrong things".

Cllr Mick Mulgrew, said he had been on the council for 20 years and that: "Swadlincote is widely regarded as the centre of South Derbyshire, but she is a tired old lady now."

He said the Delph paving "has been a disgrace since day one" and that the regeneration project was "absolutely brilliant".

Cllr David Muller said the scheme was "great" and that "it will make the town centre even more viable".

Cllr Paul Dunn said there were a concerning number of empty shops in the town centre, including the former HSBC building and that he hoped this could be rectified as soon as possible.

Cllr Kevin Richards, Labour leader of the council, said this was in the hands of private landlords and the authority had "very little leverage".

The indoor market hall site would become a 33-space car park and outdoor events space, which would be called the "lightpark" by fixing lighting to the columns of the current structure, which would effectively just lose its roof and barriers.

Suggested events include food fairs, car boot sales, concerts, open air film screenings, silent raves, pop-up restaurants and a beer garden.

Planters would be put in place around the site and the route from Midland Road past the library to the bus station would be resurfaced and given improved lighting.

The Bank House/Bretby View site would become a 55-space car park and the trees on site would be retained.

Sabine's Yard, currently an area of fenced-off derelict land, would become a 17-space car park and a pocket park with a picnic lawn, wildflower orchard and a "play on the way" arrangement of play equipment.