A Lovely New Building for Derby!

I'm being ironic with the title, of course.  This structure, an office building, the latest to be built in our fair city, overlooks or - more accurately - looms over the Friargate Conservation Area with its Georgian Houses and mature plane trees. I'm reminded of  a cartoon of  many years ago in which an architect was drawing a matchbox that was perched on top of his drawing board and his colleague was asking to borrow it when he had finished with it!

Well, yet another unlovely building, to me anyway,  that we will be stuck with for many years to come, along with the awful Westfield Centre and the new bus station, with, no doubt, more to come.

Official Riverside Vandalism

I have just been to the river gardens in Derby to see what was going on there. In the event, I was dismayed to see a huge section of riverside between the end of the steps and the concrete bridge closed off by a hoarding and inside this a scene of total devastation - with some fine trees (see photo - taken in 2005)  and former wildlife habitat destroyed. I was further  perturbed when I realised that this, to my mind totally unnecessary work, is being done at public expense, while at the same time the City Council has closed the Silk Mill Museum, axed the Natural History Dept. at the Museum and Art Gallery and savagely cut the Parks Dept.

The photo below shows the state of the riverside, looking the opposite way to the top picture, taken on 1st Sept, 2011. The large willow tree stood just beyond the abutment on the right.

UPDATE: I have learned that the  work along the river is connected with the installation of a hydro-electric scheme. This is another case of a seemingly green initiative which is at the expense of other aspects of the environment. I am now on Twitter: @BillGrange

End of Natural Science At Derby Museum

This is the text of a letter I have recently sent to the Derby Telegraph:

Natural Science Cut at the Museum

I am dismayed at the news that Nick Moyes, former Keeper of Natural History at Derby Museum has had his post deleted. I was Nick’s senior colleague in a two-person natural history section at the museum from 1985 until I retired in 2006. Following my retirement, I was very sad that my former post wasn’t re-instated (the salary, since increased, being used to fund a purely administrative post), leaving Nick on his own to deal with a vast subject embracing both biology and geology. Now the natural science section has been removed completely! I gather, however, that three archaeologists will remain in post.

Natural science in the Museum was of supreme importance, not only in putting human history in context but in portraying ecological and environmental problems, of which we have many in Derby and the surrounding region! It is vital that young people are informed of these, as well as them gaining the great enjoyment which comes from engaging in the natural world. Nick and I were very much into ‘outreach’ providing talks and activities and special exhibitions - not to mention the award-winning Derbyshire Nature Gallery.

Without any natural science specialist at the museum it will be a severely depleted and narrow service. I also worry that the natural history collections which need specialist knowledge for their care and documentation will now be at risk.

On top of this the Museum has now lost one its most talented and enthusiastic curators in its entire history. Back in the 1980s he was the first person to get to grips with computers when they were introduced to the Museum. Since then, he has developed his computer skills to an extremely high level, especially in his development of the Derbyshire biological records data-bank and Flora project, both of which have already proved to be of immense benefit in wildlife conservation.

Nick also played a huge part in devising the geology section of the Nature Gallery and, indeed, he has an immense knowledge of geology. Outside the Museum, Nick was a prime mover behind The Sanctuary bird reserve at Pride Park and, of course, the Peregrine Project at the Cathedral, which involved him abseiling down the tower to erect the nesting platform and cameras and setting up and managing the web-site. The latter is regarded as one of the best ‘nest-cams’ in the world! This project would not exist were it not for Nick’s innovative approach to museum outreach. Derby Museum ’s name is now bandied about across the globe via the web cams and blog and several people from a number of different countries have come to see both the peregrines and the museum as a result.

Nick really has had a raw deal with and his extraordinary talents and commitment not recognised by those who make the decisions. He was a great asset to both to the museum service and to the wider City Council. We can only wish him the best of luck in finding further work to suit his considerable abilities and knowledge.

All in all, the decision to abolish the natural history section is lamentable and short-sighted. Perhaps, though, in looking at the City Council’s poor record in environmental matters, it fits in very well with its ethos!

More Views Ruined

A few more pictures showing how the monstrous new Jury's (Labelled 'Jurys' on the building) Inn is ruining more views around the City...

Looking north from Exeter Bridge -
the classic view of the Silk Mill and the
Tower of St. Mary's utterly trashed!
















North Parade, with the hotel appearing above
the rooftops of the early 19th century terrace

To add insult to injury, two of the rare weeping ash trees near the new hotel have been felled. According the City Tree Officer, the first one was removed because of an infection of Gannoderma, (a bracket fungus), the second one because it lay at the site of a lay-by on the access road for the hotel, now being built. The tree officer said he wasn't able to make a case for its retention as this too had another fungal infection (how convenient!). The developers wanted to remove the remaining two weeping ash, but the tree officer did manage to persuade the hotel owners to save these - but for how long?

The view along Darley Grove to the cathedral tower has also been completely ruined by Derby's latest carbuncle - stand by for pictures of this.

Another View Ruined

I am dismayed that yet another new and poorly designed building is rearing its ugly head in our fair city. This time it's the Jury's hotel which lies between Pugin's masterpiece of St. Mary's Church and the magnificent late medieval tower of the Cathedral. Ironically, the hotel is very close to the site of the old St. Alkmund's, an early Victorian church, noted for its soaring spire and demolished (by another philistine council) in the 1960s to make way for the horrible inner ring road.

My dismay was intensified recently when I realised that the new hotel totally ruins the view of the Cathedral from North Parade to the north of the city centre.
























'Before and after' photos of North Parade, Derby, showing how the view of the Cathedral tower has now been blocked by the new Jury's Hotel. I hope that the tree in the foreground, one of three bordering the former playground of the now vanished St. Mary's School, is safe from future 'development'.

Another tree goes!

The latest tree to be felled as part of Derby City Council's blitz on greenery in the city centre is a 150 year old London Plane at the junction of Friargate and Stafford street. It is yet another victim of the ill-conceived 'Connecting Derby' ring road, which is scheduled to start building in spring of this year. The tree was an integral part of a Victorian planting scheme carried out at a time when trees were more highly valued by the local authority than now.

What a pity that such a fine tree has been destroyed to make way for an out-dated and unnecessary road, which has caused so much damage elsewhere to our already sorely mangled old town.

PICTURES: The tree in 2006 and reduced to a stump in January 2009

A Woodland Destroyed

Another sad loss to Derby's green fabric has occurred in the last week or so - the destruction of the wood next to the ancient Seven Stars pub on King Street, just north of the city centre.

As well as providing a nice touch of greenery, the woodland was a vital habitat for bird species in this built-up part of the city. These include blackbird, wren robin and collared dove and, in recent years, I have heard (the nationally declining) song thrush singing there.

The area was thoroughly surveyed for its flora in 1999, when a total of 53 plant species were recorded, including typical woodland species such as hedge woundwort and common avens, plus the relatively uncommon hairy bindweed.

The importance of the site for biodiversity was recognised by it being listed in the City Council's Wildlife Sites Register. However, it was some years ago deleted from the list, presumably because it rather inconveniently lay in the path of a proposed new road, part of the so-called 'Connecting Derby' road scheme

Two weeks ago, contractors working for Derby City council moved in to fell the woodland, ahead of the road scheme, which they hope to start in spring of 2009, angering many people, including myself! Although conservationists lost the battle to stop the road, the City Council had stated that the part of the wood not taken up by the road would be managed for nature conservation. Now we learn that the intention is that the 'periphery of this area is to be planted with trees and shrubs with the central area being grassed over'. This doesn't sound much of a nature conservation plan to me!

The whole sad story is indicative of the lack of communication, both between departments and with the general public, shown by some sections of the City Council. It definitely demonstrates woeful outmoded thinking when the promotion of biodiversity and measures to slow down climate change should be top of the agenda of every local authority!

PICTURES: Those at the top of the posting show the wood in April of 2007, while those at the bottom show what it looked like following the initial felling operations.

LATEST: What remains of the wood was bulldozed shortly after the pictures were taken - so there is now no hope of regeneration of the bluebells and other woodland flora! Furthermore, a car park for the neighbouring pub, surrounded by a harsh brick wall, has been built, taking up much of the site.

The site at the end of March, 2009, showing the new pub car park on the left. No trees at all remain and the ground has been completely bulldozed.