Plans Approved For Former Thorntons Factory Site
Planning has been approved for a new care home, café and library to be built on the former Thorntons factory site on Derwent Street.
Amber Valley Borough Council approved the plan by Glancy Nicholls Architects to demolish the Derwent Street factory and build the new 40 bed care home and other facilities for the town.
Three separate applications were submitted recently by Derbyshire County Council for the development of an integrated care centre with 40 private rooms, communal areas, public library and associated external landscaping and car parking.
They were all approved on April the 11th.
In the initial design statement Glancy Nicholls Architects said: “The council’s vision was to create an integrated scheme with complementary services and accommodation to create a successful and sustainable community.”
The site, which was heavily damaged by fire in 2013, was taken over by Thorntons in 1948 during the companies early expansions.
The Derwent Street factory ceased production in 2004 when Thorntons shifted its operations to Alfreton.
Recently I met a lady in her late 70s who told me that 50 years ago she had been a junior Librarian at Belper Library, she had been told by one of the senior members of staff ‘not to get too comfortable as they would be moving to a new Library in the Town soon’. 50 years on and we will get our new Public Library and the dereliction of Derwent Street will start to improve. At a time when many communities across the country are losing their libraries because of Government cuts, we in Belper are lucky to have this investment along with new elderly care facilities.