Chesterfield Hotel plans won’t impact on views of Crooked Spire, council says

Chesterfield Borough Council and Prestige Hotels (Midlands) Ltd – which owns Chesterfield Hotel – have submitted an outline planning application to erect two buildings at the Malkin Street site after the prominent property is demolished.

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One of the buildings would be up to six storeys and the other would be up to four storeys.

Historic England raised concerns that the proposed six-storey building ‘could impinge in and detract from key views of the church’.

But a views analysis document compiled by the applicants seeks to address those concerns.

A borough council spokesperson said: “As a result of dialogue with the council’s planning team, further information and analysis of the outline proposals has been submitted for consideration.

“This is an outline planning application and as such there are no firm design specifics for the buildings at this time.

“Our proposal is designed to preserve important views of the Spire from key locations nearby.”

According to the application form, the two buildings would primarily be used as an office and a hotel.

Possible further uses to be considered include residential flats, retail, event space and food and drink establishments.

The Derbyshire Times previously asked the borough council to clarify exactly what would be in the two buildings.

The authority’s spokesperson said: “This is an application for outline planning permission for the development of the site – in principle – for a variety of potential uses as part of the wider regeneration plans for this part of the town centre.

“Therefore there is no specific detail about what will be in the two buildings and how they will operate, or any artist impressions, at this stage – this detail will come forward in a full planning application at a later date.”

Chesterfield Civic Society has said it supports the outline planning application – but a spokesperson for the organisation said they were ‘disappointed’ in the design and access statement submitted by the borough council’s architects.

They said the document ‘shows a lack of understanding of the history and topography of Chesterfield’ – and contains ‘some very poor English’.

The hotel building is expected to be demolised by early 2022.

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