Call for council to buy crumbling grammar school
SITE SHOULD BE SECURED AS ‘LEGACY FOR COMMUNITY’
A CALL has been made for a council to buy a former Derbyshire school to stop it from falling further into disrepair.
The former Heanor Grammar School building in Mundy Street has been at the centre of varying development schemes over the years but it still remains vacant and is only becoming more dilapidated.
Now Heanor Town Council is calling on Amber Valley Borough Council to compulsory purchase the site from its current owner to safeguard its future.
The site, last used by Derby College, is owned by Derby firm Vale Property Limited. Vale bought the site for half a million pounds in 2016, land registry documents show.
In September 2018, the firm saw its plans to turn the Grade II-listed building into 24 apartments, the former science block into a further nine apartments, and to build 19 houses in the college grounds, promptly refused.
Councillor Paul Jones, leader of Heanor Town Council, said: “The site should be secured as a legacy for the community, and compulsory purchase could secure the massive potential of the site.
“We have asked the borough council to compulsory purchase the former grammar school.”
Mr Jones claimed that the current owner had “neglected the site” and seemed to have “walked away from it and left it rotting”.
No further proposal has been brought forward by the developer since the refusal of the 2018 planning application.
Mr Jones said: “The council has made it part of its future high streets bid (for £25 million to spend regenerating Heanor town centre).
“It has deteriorated and at the moment it is not the image we want for
Grammar School building has been empty since the town. We realise that there will have to be housing or business development on the site to make it viable for any developer, so that they can make a reasonable profit, but we would at least want some community use on the site.
“This could be a cinema or cyber cafe, but we need to be proactive rather than reactive.”
The building ran as Heanor Grammar School from 1912 until 1976. It ceased to be a school in 1976, when it became an annexe of the then South East Derbyshire College, before being taken over by Derby College in 2010.
It had been due to become a studio college but insufficient numbers led Derby College to pull the plug on the plan and the building closed in 2013. It has been vacant ever since.
Leonie George, spokesperson for the Heanor Grammar School Action Group, had said: “We cannot express how critical it is to ensure that the condition of this building is not allowed to deteriorate any further and an optimal solution is found for this building and the central role it can play in the future of Heanor.”
The borough council’s future high streets bid, due to be decided in the spring, aims to build either housing for seniors, one-to-two bed flats or town houses on the former school site.
It is also considering demolishing the “unattractive” former science block to the north of the college site.
The council wants to turn the main former college building into a business and community hub.
A spokesperson for the borough council said: “The council has not received such a request from the town council but, if it does, it would need to be satisfied that it is expedient to use compulsory purchase powers for this purpose and that there is a compelling case in the public interest.
“Such a power is intended as a last resort.”