£200m city scheme approved

Derby city councillors have voted unanimously in favour of the major £200m Becket Well scheme in Derby city centre, with developers St James Securities being given the green light for its proposals.

Becket Well is the city's regeneration priority, following 30 years of blight which has impacted negatively on the wider area.

Plans submitted include 224 apartments over a maximum of ground plus 10 storeys, plus a second smaller building of ground plus 4 storeys developed separately and fronting Green Lane and Victoria Street. It will also comprise a public square on the site of the current United Reformed Church.

With outline planning consented, the Leeds-based company will now start to work up plans for the phase one 11-storey apartment building, with a detailed reserved matters planning application set to be submitted in late Spring.

Work on the demolition of the former Debenhams building is currently underway, with construction work on the first phase of development set to commence in 2020.

Commenting on the planning committee decision, Oliver Quarmby, managing director of St James Securities, said:

“We’re obviously delighted at the outcome; a unanimous decision is vindication of the scheme.

“We’ve been working for two years on the scheme and to get a decision like that from the planning committee is superb – takes the scheme from being ambition and aspiration to reality and that’s where we’ll go tomorrow morning to take the scheme to the next level.”

Funding for the Becket Well project includes £8.1 million in Local Growth Fund investment from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership; the private sector-led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, and community and voluntary services which works to promote economic and jobs growth across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

St James Securities have completed many successful projects of this scale, including St Paul’s Place in Sheffield and the award-winning Round Foundry in Leeds.