The Staveley Town Deal is now in its fifth year, and you will no doubt be as pleased as I am to see so many of the projects now coming to fruition, and buildings taking shape across the Town Deal area.
In December we saw the formal opening of the new footbridge over the Chesterfield canal, and this was celebrated by pupils from the local primary school being the first to cycle across it. The Chesterfield Canal Trust continue to be a shining example of delivering these projects.
Together with the community they have been planting new trees along the canal and work on the towpath has begun. We anticipate that work on the new canal channel will begin over the summer.
Staying with the canal, the iconic new building at Staveley Waterside basin, now known as The Moorings, will become a landmark on the Staveley horizon. The combined office and retail centre is on target for completion at the end of April, and we look forward to seeing the first tenants moving in there shortly afterwards. This creates a new destination in Staveley with commercial space, a café, enhancing the canal offer for both visitors and residents.
Staveley 21 had its ground-breaking ceremony in December and many of you will have seen the work going ahead in the market square. I was surprised and impressed by the amount of underground drainage work that is being installed, and shortly the new Pavilion building will start to take shape. The shop front grant scheme is making a very positive impact on Barnfield Close. We anticipate that the town centre works will be completed by January 2026 at the latest.
The Construction Skills hub at Mastin Moor has been a resounding success with more than 40 students now attending the Hub. Learning on a live construction site helps ensure they not only have the skills but can also get the experience they need to access careers in the construction industry.
I am also pleased to see that the Hub will be expanding its offer to include degree level apprenticeships from September 2025.
The new DRIIVe rail innovation centre at Barrow Hill Roundhouse is due to commence on site shortly and should be completed later this year. The new facility will become a centre for rail careers training and rail related research. This will be a prominent facility for the expanding rail sector and aims to support around 270 trainees by its fifth year.
A short distance away work has started on the phase one refurbishment of Barrow Hill Memorial Hall. The aim is to restore this building for the local residents, providing a community Hub (cafe / pub / living room), health care centre in conjunction with the local primary care trust, and family facilities.
Overall, we have seen lots of great progress over the past twelve months with almost all projects either delivering for residents or in the construction phase and there is still a lot to look forward to.
You should be able to spot the Staveley Town Deal banners on an increasing number of site hoardings around the area. I hope that you are encouraged by the progress made in delivering these projects for you.