County Hall hotel refurbishment plans approved

Plans to convert Derbyshire County Council's Grade II listed headquarters into a hotel have been approved, despite question marks over its funding.

The scheme, budgeted at £132m, would see County Hall in Matlock turned into a 100-room hotel, 50 homes built on the current staff car park and a new five-storey council office constructed in the grounds.

The Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting on Tuesday heard the scheme had "significant viability challenges" and it would need to be funded by private investment.

Stephen Reed, deputy county council leader, said they were "still looking" at the overall plan, but proceeding with the applications was the best way to keep options open.

Much of the scheme had been formulated by the previous Conservative county council administration.

The current Reform authority had said the building was in "desperate need of repair" and was costing the council "many millions of pounds every year to work inside it".

Independent assessors Keppie Massie detailed in the district council report that the entire project was "unviable", with a residual land value of minus £13.19m, even with no provision for affordable homes.

But according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service the meeting heard the affordable housing issue could be reviewed at a later date.

An agent representing the county council said applications to the National Lottery and East Midlands Combined County Authority would be made to help develop the scheme.

Reed said: "We had concerns from the beginning, we have challenged it and changed it and we need to ensure we get the best value for money and the best outcome for Derbyshire and the residents of Matlock and the best value for the Derbyshire and Matlock economy."

He said further changes may be needed in future, referencing the council's own highways department saying the scheme did not have enough parking spaces to cater for all the different uses, or the hotel in isolation.

A total of 110 spaces are to be retained out of the current 597, with the overall change in vehicle movements between the current uses and proposed combined changes would be 723 extra trips per day – 2,048 up from 1,324.

Chris Dale, district council development manager, said the housing parts of the project would help "subsidise" the "not profitable" hotel conversion.

He confirmed that, as a whole, the scheme was not financially able to provide affordable housing and wholly relied on outside funding to go ahead.

The meeting also heard plans for Local Government Reorganisation, which would have replaced district councils but yesterday were confirmed to have been paused, had created uncertainty about the future of the council presence in Matlock.

Colin Sinclair, a consultant working on behalf of the county council, said: "We are here to secure the long-term future of these Grade II listed buildings through the sensitive restoration, public access and the creation of sustainable new uses which are capable of funding the ongoing and future maintenance and stewardship of these important heritage assets.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure the future of one of Derbyshire's most important heritage assets and to create a sustainable and unique destination for Matlock. "

He said the scheme would take five to six years to complete, create 800 temporary construction jobs and "benefit the county for decades to come".

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