Disused Derbyshire ironworks site to be restored – offering new jobs and homes

The historic and disused site had been home to one of the giants of UK industry, the Butterley Iron Works.

Amber Valley Borough Council’s planning committee unanimously approved an application from local entrepreneur Tim Godkin and London firm Aquarius Estates Ltd to build 80 homes and bring a raft of listed warehouse buildings back into use with new businesses.

Councillors and the developers said the application provided the opportunity to repair and make use of the former ironworks.

Rae Gee, a borough council officer, said the site presents a current health and safety risk and has been at centre of arson and anti-social behaviour.

Known locally as the Butterley Works, the site originally functioned as a mining operation and smelting site, before being restructured to form an engineering, brick-making and aggregates business.

It ran for 219 years and produced materials for the construction of St Pancras Station in London, pontoons for D-Day preparations and bomb casings during World War Two.

Ms Gee said providing affordable homes was not possible due to the cost of bringing the site back into use and repairing heritage assets, such as the former blast wall.

She said these benefits outweigh the negative impact of a lack of affordable homes, which the borough would typically expect to be provided.

Cllr David Williams, who represents the area for Ripley Town Council, said he supported the development of the site for use by businesses but had qualms over the homes portion of the application.

He said the proposed layout of the homes would “destroy” and “ruin” the landscape of the heritage assets.

Cllr Williams said the site, which had been at “the forefront of technology,” should look to do so again under the new proposed use, with electric car charging points and wind turbines.

Chris Walmsley, agent for the applicant, said the site has been derelict for 20 years. He said the site is heavily contaminated due to its previous use and the cost of repairing heritage buildings is also very high. He said the homes are being pitched to support those costs.

Butterley Limited had owned the site and it dropped into the hands of receivers. Proposals to reuse the site have so far been unsuccessful.

“To bring forward the reuse of this site is crucial for its restoration,” Mr Walmsley said.

He said: “This is probably the last and only opportunity to secure the future of the industrial heritage remaining at the site.”

Cllr Tony Holmes said the site has been completely derelict for 10 years, not 20 and said the “neglected” blast wall would cost nearly half a million to repair, but backed the reuse of a brownfield site.

Ms Gee said “the blast wall has been neglected and significant work is needed to repair the heritage asset”.

She said repairs would be secured through the planning application and legally binding Section 106 agreement with regular inspections and mandatory sign offs at every step. This deal would be drawn up over the next 12 months and if an agreement is not reached the planning application would be brought back for councillors to make another decision

Cllr Ashton said the blast wall and disused former Cromford Canal tunnel, which is beneath the site, are of “vast historical value”.

The plans had included conversions of historic but disused listed buildings to form wine bars, restaurants, a care home, shops, a swimming pool, soft play area, dance studio and gym.

These uses have been scaled back to limit the amount of shops which could open on the site.

Instead, much of the proposed uses would be for commercial business, industrial purposes, storage and distribution.

A number of units instead of being listed as cafes, shops, pubs, takeaways, a cinema, or dance halls would be “sui generis” – building uses which do not fit into a certain class but are unique.

This includes potential uses for a theatre, bedsits, petrol stations, nightclubs, launderettes, taxi businesses, amusement centres, casinos, scrap yards and data centres.