Planners have agreed to the launch of a new waterside commercial and retail centre with a restaurant and cafe near to a Derbyshire town as part of ongoing improvements to the area’s canal and region.
Chesterfield Borough Council planning committee unanimously approved the Derbyshire County Council planning application for the building of the mixed-use Staveley Town Basin centre with car parking, landscaping and related works at the Staveley Basin Development area, on Hall Lane, at Staveley.
A borough council spokesman stated: “The proposal to develop a facility adjacent to the basin has the potential to attract visitors who can then use the canal corridor whether that be on foot, cycle, horse or boat. This has significant health and well being opportunities.
“The proposed building will provide a complementary community use in a cafe and associated facilities so as not to discourage any particular user.
“There will be no negative impacts on the various routes which pass through the site.”
The 2.4 hectare site – which was a former coal working area – will be in the Staveley Basin Development area between Eckington Road and Ireland Close which is a hub along Chesterfield Canal with a lock next to Staveley Town centre.
Construction of the canal basin with an access road, a slipway, a canal lock and a bridge was approved in 2010, and restoration of the canal from Eckington Road to Hague Lane towards Renishaw was approved in 2021.
The latest approved development for the two-storey, 855sq metre centre is part of the Government-funded £25.2m Staveley Town Deal regeneration project and the centre will include office space, a workshop and commercial units for small businesses, and a restaurant and cafe unit.
A total of 11 units have been proposed for the centre each with kitchen and toilet facilities with a new, and a 40 metre footway is planned along Hall Lane.
The car park at the site will have 50 spaces as well as six parent and child spaces, six spaces for those with disabilities, and eight electric vehicle charging spaces, as well as 36 covered cycle racks with access available from Eckington Road over the lock bridge.
An existing track will also be widened to between seven and eight metres from Eckington Road to the canal lock bridge.
Cllr Barry Bingham told the planning committee meeting he welcomed the development and especially the new footpath along Hall Lane.
He said: “I think it’s a good development. It’s a good scheme and it’s long overdue for the footpath along Hall Lane. But I do have to say that stretch of road down there is quite dangerous, especially for pedestrians.
“Particularly, in the past walking along Hall Lane and serving the schools down Staveley, so a footpath is most welcome – so I will be supporting this development.”
The applicant’s scheme includes nine mooring walkways with water and electric supply hook-up points, a planned short Trans Pennine Trail diversion, and they have also been advised to provide horse hitching rails.
One member of the public raised concerns about the location of the towpath, the drainage system, mooring pontoons, the disposal of waste, and the loss of a location to crane boats in and out of the water.
Chesterfield Borough Council stated that no action was necessary to alter the planned towpath, solutions have been identified as appropriate to deal with drainage, and a flood risk assessment has demonstrated the proposal is acceptable.
The council also stated that the moorings will not be residential, and that Derbyshire County Council has a plan for the disposal of waste, and a boat ramp is available on the opposite side of the basin to crane boats.
An ecology and biodiversity report also indicated that even though the current grassland will be lost further grassland will be created so any losses will be compensated.
In addition, the Derbyshire County Council highways authority, the Coal Authority and Yorkshire Water have raised no objections to the development which has been welcomed by the Chesterfield Canal Trust.
An Artist Impression Of The Moorings At The Planned Staveley Town Basin Centre, Courtesy Of Chesterfield Borough Council.
