High Peak Borough Council have released the following Press release concerning the progress of the proposed Buxton Spa Hotel Development:

Exciting plans to revitalise an iconic but empty building in the famous spa town of Buxton have taken an important step forward this week.

Back in 2003, High Peak Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council and a consortium of developers unveiled proposals to develop only the second genuine spa hotel in the UK in more than a century.

Planning permission was obtained and recently renewed for the transformation of The Crescent – a Grade I listed building – while, four years ago, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) awarded £12.5m towards total development costs of around £32m. The remainder of the cost was to be met by several partners, including High Peak Borough and Derbyshire County Councils plus the Regional Development Agency (emda) – and, of course, the developers are to bear the major share.

Then followed extensive negotiations over the many and complex legal issues necessary to establish necessary permissions and work methods to be used in carrying out essential ground investigations by a series of test drilling and careful archaeological investigations to establish the feasibility of the development. The results allowed the developers to start addressing various technical design issues and establish the precautions needed to prevent any risk of contamination of or disruption to the underground water source used by Nestle in its famous Buxton Water product.

The right to abstract water from the “source” was granted to the Buxton Mineral Water Company many years ago and the complex legal considerations were essential in order to protect not only the interests of Nestle (as current holders of the licence) but also those of the High Peak council taxpayer, as the borough derives significant income from the bottling contract and the town of Buxton bases its fame on the warm spring. Any work commenced without proper planning might have caused irreparable damage to what is one of only two thermal springs in the country.

The preliminaries being largely completed, it was then possible to complete the drafting of final legal conditions and High Peak Borough Council has confirmed signing of these agreements with Nestle is expected to be imminent.

This will enable the Buxton Crescent Hotel and Thermal Spa Company to award an enabling contract to prepare the interior of the building in readiness for the main redevelopment. The company was set up by the development consortium of the Trevor Osborne Property Group, CP Holdings and Danubius Hotels and the two Councils will be freehold owners in partnership. It is possible that site work will start this autumn.

The winding up of East Midlands Development Agency (emda) , announced as part of government plans to cut costs and move toward local decision-making, does affect that portion of the total shared public sector contributions expected from the agency. However, following discussions between the partners and other external agencies, the two Councils are confident that this will not prejudice the project and alternative funding will become available.

Tony Kemp, the Borough Council’s Executive Councillor for Regeneration, has commented: “While we have to deal with the fact that emda’s funding may no longer be available, that particular part of the funding package could never be fully confirmed until the project was “ready to roll”. My colleagues and I accept that the first duty of the Coalition Government is to tackle the national debt and that many projects – even ones as important to us as the Crescent – may have to be regarded as a lesser priority for the time being.”

“Despite this issue, the recent Emergency Budget did contain several measures that may offer us alternative funding sources. In our discussions with other partners they have confirmed their enthusiasm remains undiminished. In particular, we have been involved in very positive discussions with English Heritage, with whom we shall be meeting again very shortly to review the budgets and availability of funding. These discussions have recognised that the project’s success is fundamental to the well being of a Grade I listed building that would return to the very top of the Heritage “At Risk” Register if the project were not able to proceed. The Heritage Lottery Fund have also visited Buxton recently, both confirming their own funding and pledging to give any other help they can in order to take it forward.”

“And, as we would expect from an ardent supporter of the Crescent development, our newly elected MP Andrew Bingham is working hard to press our case for assistance at government level. He has raised the case with the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, who visited Buxton in his previous “shadow” role and was deeply impressed by what he saw of our local heritage projects.”

“We will keep the public informed as soon as we have more news on funding. The encouraging news is that despite the difficult times, the principal partners in the project remain fully committed and have reaffirmed that their funding is still secure”, he stressed.

The development package envisages:
A 79-bedroom, 5-star spa hotel incorporating the neighbouring Natural Baths
A state-of-the-art thermal, natural mineral water spa
Eight specialist shops
Refurbishment of a pump room as a high-quality café giving free access to the public to “take the waters”
A brand new visitor interpretation centre with integrated tourist information facilities for visitors to the High Peak.