Second shadow on mills’ heritage status
... AND IT WAS GOVERNMENT MINISTER WHO PUSHED PLAN THROUGH
A SECOND scheme putting Derbyshire’s World Heritage Site status at risk is a housing estate which was approved by a Government minister. Whitehouse Farm, comprising 118 homes, was approved In July 2020 by Robert Jenrick, then the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government.
This was counter to the wishes of the local borough council and campaigners. It was also a month after the approval of the other scheme putting the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site at risk of losing its status, The Landmark apartment tower in Derby.
A SECOND scheme which risks the loss of Unesco World Heritage Site status for Derwent Valley Mills is a housing estate on the outskirts of Belper which was approved by a Government minister.
The plans for 118 homes at Whitehouse Farm were approved last July by Robert Jenrick, who was then Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government.
This was against the wishes of the local borough council and campaigners.
It was also a month after the approval of the other scheme putting the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site at risk of losing its lofty status, The Landmark apartment tower in Derby.
Cllr Tony Harper, cabinet member for regeneration and community safety on Amber Valley Borough Council, confirmed that Whitehouse Farm was the second application putting the site at risk of losing its status.
Derby City Council had previously been unable to confirm what the second site was, in addition to the 17-storey Landmark building in Phoenix Street.
Cllr Harper said it will be “tough” for Derby and Amber Valley to retain the area’s world heritage status but the potential loss would not happen “overnight”.
The Derwent Valley Mills is one of the few areas of the UK to have a designated heritage status from Unesco – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
It was granted World Heritage status in 2002 due to its extensive industrial history as the renowned birthplace of the modern factory system.
However, approved housing in fields near Belper at Whitehouse Farm and the 17-storey apartment block in Derby city centre are said to have put the area’s World Heritage status at risk, with this said to be more likely after Liverpool was stripped of its title.
Cllr Harper, shedding light on the precarious situation at last week’s full council meeting, said: “As to whether Unesco will remove the Derwent Valley World Heritage status, that is in their hands – the hands of representatives from countries around the world, who will hopefully visit the area before they make their decision.
“We know it will be tough to retain the status, especially when Liverpool spent £5.5 billion on development, which I believe included historic buildings, and still lost its status following a secret ballot at a meeting in China.
“But it didn’t happen overnight. They were given many warnings and alerts. We are very early in this process.”
Cllr Harper said the council was not able to have a “blanket development ban on heritage sites”, and that public benefit would always be weighed alongside potential harm to sites in the protected zones.
He said: “The borough council remains strongly committed to protecting the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.”
The Derwent Valley Mills area runs 15 miles from Matlock Bath and Cromford in the north, through Belper, Milford and Darley Abbey into the City of Derby.
The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Partnership has been tasked to file a special State of Conservation report to the Government for the first time in its history following concerns about the site raised by UN culture experts Unesco.
Its concerns are linked to two planning decisions made within or close to the Derwent Valley Mills area in recent times. First were the plans approved in June 2020 by Derby City Council after two years for a 17-storey apartment block containing 200 apartments called The Landmark, on a car park off Phoenix Street in the city centre. This was against the recommendations of the authority’s officers and a series of technical reviews from ICOMOS, a cultural and heritage organisation acting as an adviser to Unesco, which concluded the development “should not proceed”.
It had also approved the plans, also despite officers recommendations, the year before, and these were sent off for Government-requested statements from Unesco. Meanwhile, in July last year, plans were approved by a former Secretary of State for local government, Robert Jenrick, for 118 homes at Whitehouse Farm, off Belper Lane in an area north-west of Belper known as Mount Pleasant. Amber Valley had refused plans for 118 homes at Whitehouse Farm in September 2017 and the developer, Wheeldon Brothers Ltd, came back the following month with plans for 65 homes instead. However, by March 2018, the council had still not decided on the 65-home plans and filed appeals both for 65 homes and for 118 homes on the site.
At an appeal inquiry for Whitehouse Farm site, the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Partnership had said: “Incremental development in the highly sensitive ‘relic’ landscape, such as the development, would set a precedent which would open up the world heritage site to minor but cumulative damage and could also weaken the protection for all WHSs in England and Wales.”
Two years later, Mr Jenrick revealed that he had allowed the appeals, bypassing Amber Valley’s refusal and non-determination.
He ruled that the Government’s aim to “boost” the supply of housing was a major consideration which outweighed the “limited” impact on the countryside and Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Buffer Zone in which the Whitehouse Farm site sits.
Mr Jenrick said the council “may be able to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing” - and as such may not automatically have to approve more homes – but the Secretary of State felt the Government’s housing aims outweighed this, too.
This had caused the then leader and deputy leader of the borough council, Cllr Chris Emmas-Williams and Cllr Ben Bellamy to write to Unesco.
They wrote: “I no longer feel that the World Heritage Site is under adequate protection, and I am fearful that further proposed applications for housing in these rare areas will seize upon this decision as precedent to allow them to incrementally destroy this landscape. I have no confidence, following this decision, that the UK government is fulfilling its commitment to Unesco to preserve and protect the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
“I sadly am now compelled to urge you to consider highlighting the attack the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site is under, and perhaps affording the site the protection of the public gaze, putting the site in on the ‘in danger’ list.”
Councillors and campaigners also fear that lack of action to repair or maintain the Belper Mill complex poses a risk to the area’s world heritage status - of which the mill complex is a core cog.
Plans were submitted more than three years ago to turn the mill complex into 117 apartments with a range of other facilities, but they have yet to progress and heritage experts say the building continues to degrade.
In July this year, before Liverpool had been stripped of its world heritage status, John Layton, chairman of the Belper North Mill Trust, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service feared the Derwent Valley Mills were on the same track.
Cllr Kevin Buttery, borough council leader, had told the LDRS: “Whatever decisions Unesco makes in the future, our heritage and buildings will remain, it will just be the plaque which will be lost. Only time will tell as to the economic impact of such loss of status.”
The council remains strongly committed to protecting the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
Cllr Tony Harper