Campaign group submits bid for Chesterfield’s Tapton House – and pledges to turn listed building into community hub

Since May, Chesterfield Borough Council have been encouraging offers to buy or rent Tapton House. The council said this move, backed by the Chesterfield Civic Society, was the best way to secure the future of the empty Grade II listed building.

The council have maintained the site since 2018, but it was made available for sale on a long leasehold basis for a term of 999 years – at a fixed peppercorn ground rent – or to let on a new commercial lease.

The Friends of Tapton House have campaigned against the potential sale of the property. They said they wanted to ensure that public access to the grounds was not restricted, and felt the property should be used for the benefit of residents, rather than becoming a private business.

With the deadline for offers having passed, the FOTH have confirmed that they submitted a bid to rent Tapton House from the council. Di Treece, one of the organisers, said they wanted to turn Tapton House into a multi-purpose community hub.

“We’ve put a lot of time, energy and effort into this – once the bid went in we all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“The plans are pretty much as we’ve said before. It won’t be one, standalone thing – it‘ll be multi-purpose. We envisage a cafe and some of the 17 workable rooms being let for courses and conferences, activities for schoolchildren or arts and crafts people. We could set up adult education lessons too, and it would be fantastic as a wedding venue.

“It’s mind-boggling because there are so many rooms and there’s such a lot that can be done with them. We’ve spoken to people who rent office spaces and got an idea of what they pay, and maybe if we can go under that amount, we can get people swapping their offices for Tapton House.

“We’ve got the bare bones of a lot of ideas, and they’ll need padding out a bit, but we’re not wanting to jinx anything. We’ve got as far as we need to get, and then we’ll look into things in more detail if we find out we’ve won the bid.”

Di said that, under their plans, public access to all of the grounds would be maintained. She added that, if their bid was unsuccessful, they would continue to oppose the sale of the building to a private buyer – who may try to limit access for Chesterfield residents.

“It is a lovely building, and it would be nice if anyone and everyone could make use of it. It’s just an empty shell of what it was when it was part of the school and college, and it could suit so many different things.

“It’s something of an enforced pause for the group – it’s just a case of sitting and waiting. I don’t expect it will be a quick decision, and you don’t really want it to be, because it has to be considered in depth to make sure they get the right tenant or buyer.

“Once the decision is made by the council, we will know which of the options are open to us. If we get it, we know where we want to take it.

“If somebody else wants to buy it and chop up all of the gardens, we will carry on in the same way we have been, and try to keep public access to the grounds. You can’t imagine the house with fences up, or even hedges as a boundary – it wouldn’t look right.”

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The group has stressed that their petition against the sale of Tapton House to a private buyer, which can be found here, is still running – having reached over 2000 signatures. This has already been submitted to the council, and will be debated at a Full Council Meeting in October.

Di added: “We just hope the councillors haven’t already got somebody in mind, and that they go into it with an open mind. It does seem like the councillors who are aware of the public feeling are those who aren’t in the cabinet and aren’t involved in the decision-making.”