The Assembly Rooms car park closes on the 30th September 2024 marking the beginning of the end of a decade long shambles. Its closure will herald the commencement of the demolition process, however even this is enshrouded in controversy and may be delayed.

After 3.5 years since the fire in March 2014, the Labour led Derby City Council approved, in October 2017, the feasibility study, for a 3,000 seat Music and Performance Venue together with an integrated 450 space multi-storey car park; this was planned to have been completed by the end of 2022.

A public consultation took place in November/December 2017 – 43% of respondents supported a Performance Venue, 28% for a refurbished Assembly Rooms.

By March 2018 the Council were in the process of establishing the project management, operator procurement and design team.

The Council elections in May 2018 saw the Tories take control. They had put forward a policy in their manifesto to scrap Labour’s Performance Venue plans and to refurbish the Assembly Rooms for £10m, including retaining the car park. It was planned to re-open by Autumn 2020

In the Derby News interview with the Tory group leader at the time, Cllr Matthew Holmes, he was asked:

Derby News: On the Assembly Rooms – have you done any form of survey that confirms that it can be re-opened successfully with just £10m funding and that the 4 years it has been closed hasn’t resulted in structural deterioration ?

Cllr Holmes:From Day 1, I believe that Labour decided that they didn’t want to re-open it.  If they wanted to have done that, they could have done it for around £7-£10m. The building hasn’t deteriorated, in my view, at all, since then?

Derby News: Are you a buildings expert?

Cllr Holmes: Council officers have not said that there is a problem with the building, today. I’m absolutely convinced that a maximum of £10m will bring it back into use. I think we could actually do some improvements, like, the front-facing sections which could bring in revenue.

By December 2018, the costs had escalated to £24m. In January 2020, this had further increased to £33.5m following detailed survey work. The project was stopped.

In the Council’s commissioned report from July 2020, “Assembly Rooms – Refurbishment Economic Viability Report” authored by Faithful & Gould, it concluded:

“The Council’s decision to stop the project is linked to the outcome of intrusive surveys which reveal inherent issues
the original 1970s design of the building which would have been uneconomical to address and would not have
added value.”

Prior to the public announcement that the Refurbishment project had stopped, St James Securities had already concluded that it was not going to succeed and developed its own independent plans for a Becketwell Performance Venue. These were submitted in early 2020 and made public in July 2020 – this was for a fixed price of £45.8m without a car park.

A planning application to demolish the Assembly Rooms was submitted, by Derby City Council, in August 2020. This was originally rejected as there were no plans for what would happen to that area, subsequently. It was finally approved, nearly 4 years later in April 2024, with a specific planning condition (Condition 3) that demolition could not start until there was a contracted scheme for its redevelopment in place.

“No demolition works shall take place until a scheme for the comprehensive re-development of the site has been submitted to
and approved in writing by the local planning authority and until that approved scheme is covered by a contract with an
approved timeframe for its implementation.”

Condition 3 to the Demolition planning application – ( local planning authority is Derby CIty Council)

A planning application was submitted in August 2024 for the discharge of Condition 3; it is currently in the consultation period which ends on the 7th October 2024. The plan is that demolition will start in “Autumn 2024”

At the time of writing, the only consultation response published is from Historic England; this questions whether the Council is actually complying with its own condition:

“Condition 3 requires that demolition can only commence once a comprehensive scheme for redevelopment is approved in writing by the City Council with a contract setting out a timeframe for delivery. We advise the City Council to consider if the
submitted Vision Statement matches the comprehensive redevelopment scheme required by your own condition. In our experience, a redevelopment scheme would provide more detail, covering building heights, final massing, relief of massing, and external treatments that reflect the character of the conservation area”

Derby City Council disagrees with Historic England’s interpretation and, despite confirming that the scheme is “indicative”, it is also considered to be “comprehensive”. There is a question over the extent to which the scheme, as opposed to the partners, has been contracted.

The new scheme has 3 locations in the footprint of the Assembly Rooms and the car park.

• Works – high quality new office space
• Made – “simple, open, building that combines cultural, creative and commercial leisure uses to create a vibrant destination for all.”
• Hotel

There are no plans for a car park.

Comment

The Council needs to learn lessons from the Becketwell urban regeneration project.

The above pictures are from the “Vision statement”, in the planning application, for the area and not a detailed contracted plan. It is unlikely that the Council appointed developers, VINCI UK Development Ltd & Ion Development Ltd, will build the hotel speculatively ; it will not be built until an operator comes on board bringing funding.

The original Becketwell planning application included a hotel. At present there is no scheme for this to be built pending a high-end operator coming forwards and funding being made available. This new scheme is also looking for a high-end/4* hotel; the question is whether there is sufficient demand for 2 such hotels, so close to each other, in Derby.

This hotel would also be immediately adjacent to the Premier Inn on Full Street.

It is important for the City to do something positive with the Assembly Rooms and whilst the existing car park is convenient it is sub-standard and not appropriate for a developing City Centre.

When viewed objectively, it is clear that:

• the plans, post-demolition are not comprehensive and not contracted, they are just ideas – it does not meet Condition 3
• closing the car park in September 2024 is premature – there will be a loss of revenue to the Council of around £0.5m pa
• if demolition does take place then there is a real risk that it will remain idle for years, much like Becketwell.

The Council should not waver from the principle of its Condition 3 and make sure that a genuinely executable plan is in place before demolition takes place and certainly before the car park is closed. The shambles continues…