‘Don’t raze Assembly Rooms without a plan’
OFFICERS URGE FOR THERE TO BE A REPLACEMENT IN MIND FIRST
dozens of objections, Derby city council planning officers are likely to recommend that the city’s Assembly Rooms should be demolished.
But in a report going to the next planning meeting, a condition precedent is also likely to be proposed that prevents demolition from going ahead until an alternative scheme has been given planning permission and a timescale for its construction.
Currently, there are no plans in place for a future use of the space in the Market Place if the Assembly Rooms is pulled down so it could be some time before anything happens.
A draft copy of a report on the issue, seen by the Derby Telegraph, says the condition precedent has already been agreed with the applicant, Derby City Council.
It reads: “No demolition works shall take place until a scheme for the comprehensive redevelopment 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.”
Multiple objections to the demolition had already led to the city council pushing back a decision on the planning application.
The next planning meeting is due to take place virtually on Thursday, February 11 and the papers will be published up to seven days before.
Since the proposal to demolish the prominent 43-year-old Market Place building was submitted in August, opposition to the plan has been growing – including from the council’s own conservation staff and a national petition with more than 1,300 names.
The Assembly Rooms has been closed since March 2014, following a fire in the plant room on top of the adjacent car park – which the council also wants to demolish.
The report recommending that demolition goes ahead, with the condition, also lists key objectors and those welcoming the plan to pull down the 1970s Brutalist-style building.
It concludes that the Assembly Rooms site is an “important component of the Market Place within the city centre conservation area” and acknowledges that the council has commissioned architects to assess the area for redevelopment.
The report also says the council has confirmed that Marketing Derby has had interest from investors and developers in the site as an opportunity for redevelopment and the planning authority “can take some assurance from the feasibility study that the council is committed to progressing an appropriate and sensitive replacement scheme”.
But the officer opinion is that there would be “significant harm to the character, appearance and function of the Market Place if permission were to be granted in isolation of any long-term redevelopment solution for this site”.
Proposed interim uses by the council, or “meanwhile uses”, after demolition are “not enough”, according to the report, which continues: “As such, a mechanism is needed to ensure that there are safeguards to ensure that a long-term development scheme is in place before the Assembly Rooms and its car park are demolished.
“It would also provide the time and opportunity for the council to explore further both the overall potential of the site and its archaeological potential in advance of any demolition works.
“Any redevelopment scheme to discharge this condition would be the subject of a separate application for planning permission, which would have all the necessary consultation, publicity, assessment and committee scrutiny.”
Various plans for the venue have been put forward over the past few years, which include demolishing and building a new one in its place and, more recently, the current council administration had decided to refurbish it at a cost of £23 million.
But the plug was pulled on that plan earlier this year when it was realised that the work would cost in the region of £33.5 million instead.
Last July, the council announced it was planning to build an alternative performance venue, holding 3,500 people and costing £43 million, in the Becketwell area of the city, and wanted to demolish the Assembly Rooms within the next 18 months.
The application to demolish the building has resulted in comments of objection from a number of prominent architects because it is an example of the Brutalist style designed by Casson Conder. BrutalDESPITE ism is a style that emerged in the 1950s and grew out of the early-20th century modernist movement.
Brutalist buildings are characterised by their massive, monolithic and blocky appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of poured concrete.
The council’s conservation and urban design team has been unmoved in its opinion and said it “maintains objection to proposals on heritage grounds”.
Derby Civic Society has also revealed that it intends to apply for the Assembly Rooms to have statutory listing, when a certificate of immunity expires next May.
The city council would not comment on the draft report seen by the Derby Telegraph.
A spokesman said: “The planning application remains under consideration and no recommendation has been made yet. It is currently anticipated that the application will be reported to a planning committee meeting at the first opportunity.”