Author: Dom Stevens

Museum seeks Crooked Spire memories

28th March 2017

Chesterfield Museum is appealing for memories of the Crooked Spire church for a forthcoming exhibition.

The exhibition will take place at the popular Chesterfield Borough Council run attraction this summer and will explore St Mary and All Saints’ Church as a historic building, the heart of a community and the symbol of the town.

Councillor Amanda Serjeant, Chesterfield Borough Council’s cabinet member for town centres and visitor economy said:-

“People around the world recognise the Crooked Spire church as a symbol of Chesterfield.

“We would really like local people to come forward with their memories of the church but we also want to know what the spire means to the people of Chesterfield as a symbol of the town and how it has played a part in their lives.”

Anyone with memories should contact Rachel Fannen, museum collections officer, on 01246 345722, email rachel.fannen@chesterfield.gov.uk or call into the museum during the normal opening times.

Chesterfield Museum is open each Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Admission is free.

Posted in Uncategorised

Best foot forward for walking festival

28th March 2017

Local people and visitors to Chesterfield can get out their walking boots as the Chesterfield Area Walking Festival returns for another successful year.

This year’s festival runs from Saturday 6 to Sunday 14 May with walks taking place each day.

There is a variety of walks to suit all ages and levels of fitness ranging from a family ramble of two to three miles to a trek of 34 miles, all in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside.

Highlights include the George Stephenson walk taking in places of interest connected with the ‘Father of Railways’ who made Chesterfield his home and a Bumblebee Safari to find out more about these endangered insects – and see how many they can find.

Most walks are free and all are led by an experienced walk leader who knows the history, wildlife and the best places to walk.

Councillor Amanda Serjeant, Chesterfield Borough Council’s cabinet member for town centres and visitor economy said:-

“As a council two of our key priorities are to offer activities to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents and to make Chesterfield a thriving borough.

“The Chesterfield Area Walking Festival does both by giving people of all ages and abilities the chance to take part in the various walks on offer and also attracts people to come and visit the borough and the surrounding areas to admire the wonderful scenery and find out more about the places from the experienced walk leaders.”

For more information on the festival click here.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Visiting

New occupier for former BHS Store

27th March 2017

TJ Hughes will open its doors for the first time at Vicar Lane Shopping Centre on 13^thApril, taking over the former BHS unit.

This new addition to the shopping centre will bring 50 management, full and part time jobs to Chesterfield. TJ Hughes is renowned for selling famous brands at discounted prices, specialising in home, fashion, fragrances, cosmetics, technology and electrical goods.

To celebrate the store opening on 13^th April, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony with a visit from the Mayor of Chesterfield and the Town Crier. There will also be enticing opening offers across all ranges throughout the store on the day along with a raffle where entrants can win an Easter hamper.

Shaun Brown, the Operations Manager at Vicar Lane says, “we are very excited for the arrival of TJ Hughes. It is just what Vicar Lane needed and will be a great new addition to our current tenant mix. We are delighted to be able to offer this new experience for our shoppers and I am sure it shall be very popular and successful”.

To coincide with the new store opening, ad bikes have been booked to distribute leaflets containing information and offers to the surrounding area. Peak FM radio will also be featuring the new TJ Hughes store in the lead up to the new store opening.

Anil Juneja, Managing Director at TJ Hughes says, “We are delighted to be opening our 29^thstore in Chesterfield and our aim is to provide savvy shoppers with top brands at affordable and competitive prices”.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business, Chesterfield Retail Awards, Leisure, Visiting

Perez all geared up for Brands Hatch

27th March 2017

17 year old Chesterfield motor racing ace Seb Perez is in gear for his first race of the season this weekend at Brands Hatch in the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup Championship.

Out of the three official test sessions at Brands Hatch just over a week ago he got into the top 5 in official testing out of the 16 drivers present, where he showed strong pace and fighting spirit in his first test session of the new 2017 season Ginetta GT4 SuperCup.

With a brand new car and championship ahead of him this season Perez lapped the Indy Circuit at Brands Hatch in 47.859 seconds and a top speed of 105.3mph and completing some 71 laps of the 1.2079 mile circuit.

Driving for his old team this season again, JHR Developments Perez continues his relationship with them and has taken a step forward in his motor racing career, he has moved to the more powerful Ginetta G55 race car and the GT4 Supercup Championship.

The new car and championship will be a learning curve for Perez, the car is bigger and more powerful and an even more challenging championship.

For the past two seasons Perez has competed in the Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Championship, Seb’s first full season in a Ginetta G40 race car back in 2015 saw him get top ten finishes at Croft and Snetterton, part of eleven top 15 places for the season. He finished 20th in the final standings.

After 25 rounds of the Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Championship in 2016, Perez finished the championship in 10th place with 339 points, taking his maiden pole position, a fastest race lap and four podiums, a first and three third places.

Perez made the transition from rallying to racing and following in petrol head Father’s motor sport footsteps at the end of 2014 where is raced a Ginetta at Brands Hatch in the final round of the series and part of a support race to the British Touring Car Championship.

He finished 18th and 16th for a first outing in a new car and totally different to driving through forests in a rally car.

Perez comments:-

“My last two seasons with Ginetta, have been fantastic.”

When asked about the new car and championship for 2017, he added:-

“I’ve learnt alot in the Ginetta G40 race car in Ginetta Juniors over the last two seasons and the circuits we have travelled too, so I’m hoping that experience will come in handy when it comes to picking up more podium positions in the new car.

“I’ve got a great team behind me with JHR Developments, and I’m really looking forward to getting back out on track.”

Motor sport is no stranger to Perez Jnr, son of 2014 BTRDA Gold Star Rally Champion Steve Perez, who has competed in the Kick Energy Junior 1000 Rally Championship at the wheel of a Nissan Micra rally car. The series is backed by Father Steve’s Global Brands business based in Chesterfield

The 17 year old is a student at Loughborough College, home of the UK’s Motor Sports Association Academy (MSA) studying Business, Sports Science and Motorsport Engineering.

Whilst Seb has been busy preparing for this weekend on circuit, Father Steve has been busy rallying in Spain in his 1974 Lancia Stratos HF rally car and has seen him finish 3rd on the Oris Rally Classic of Puerto Portals two weeks ago and last weekend finishing 6th on Rally Costa Brava.

Seb starts his attack this weekend at Brands Hatch with 3 races, two on Saturday and one on Sunday that’s live on TV in the 2017 Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup Championship, a 23 round series ran over 8 race weekends and is a support race to the British Touring Car Championship.

The whole race season is televised live on the Sunday on ITV4.

He then races at local circuit Donington Park over the weekend of 15th and 16th April

All eyes with be on Seb in his challenge to become the next Ginetta GT4 Supercup Champion by the end of September 2017.

Editorial and Images by Paul Horton Motorsport Media and Photography

Posted in About Chesterfield

Local student tops British Junior Fencing rankings

27th March 2017

Derbyshire Icon, Matthew Cooper, has moved to the top of the British Junior Fencing rankings after a wonderful performance in the Junior European Fencing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this week.

Matthew, a Dentistry student at Sheffield University and former Henry Fanshawe School pupil, fences at Wingerworth and Derbyshire Epee Academy fencing clubs, based around the Chesterfield area.

Matt took up the sport of fencing four and a half years ago when he joined an after school fencing club run by his coach Anthony Klenczar, his performance trajectory has been on the up ever since, in the four and a half years Matt has won national medals at cadet, junior, Under 23 and senior level; he has represented Great Britain at junior and cadet level but finishing 12^th at the Junior European championships this week has topped his short fencing career to date.

Matt says:-

“I took up the sport after having competed at swimming at county level. I was fortunate to find the sport; its not something that is main stream but really should be in my opinion.

“Fencing is a sport young people should try before they get into other main stream sports, it offers unrivalled challenges and opportunities to compete at a high level.”

Coach Anthony Klenczar comments:-

“I am immensely proud of Matt’s achievements, it is the result of hard work over a short space of time; at eighteen years of age the future looks bright for Matt, he has set himself some tough goals for the future which I am sure he will achieve.”

Posted in About Chesterfield

Route for Women’s Tour Stage 4 in Derbyshire announced

24th March 2017

Further details of the Derbyshire stage of this year’s Women’s Tour have been announced.

Organisers finalised the route after driving it as part of a nationwide “recce” of the five-stage race.

Top women cyclists from across the globe are set to take to Derbyshire’s roads on Saturday, 10 June 2017, to battle it out for first place in the penultimate stage of the hotly-contested race.

As the Tour’s toughest stage, it will take in a wide mix of rural and urban areas starting and finishing in Chesterfield and passing through some of the county’s best-known market towns including Belper, Bolsover and Wirksworth.

Today organisers named the locations of some of the stage’s most exciting elements − the Eisberg Sprints and SKODA Queen of the Mountains sections.

Eisberg Sprints will take place in Belper and Staveley, while the SKODA Queen of the Mountains climbs will be in Crich and Middleton Top. Final details are due to be confirmed in May.

Women’s Tour Stage 4 Route – Courtesy of Derbyshire Sport

Derbyshire County Council, cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure Councillor Dean Collins said:

“Bringing this prestigious race back to Derbyshire is a great opportunity for us to showcase the county on an international stage.

“The best cyclists from around the world will be competing to win what’s going to be a very tough stage and I’d urge everyone to get involved.

“This year it takes in lots of places it didn’t visit last year, including Bolsover and Staveley, and now we know the exact route families can plan the best place to watch it from. I hope people will come along and enjoy everything it offers − a very exciting event in one of the country’s most spectacular counties.”

Councillor Amanda Serjeant, Chesterfield Borough Council’s cabinet member for town centres and visitor economy, said:

“This is going to be a great weekend for people in Chesterfield and Derbyshire with The Women’s Tour, the RHS Flower Show at Chatsworth House and the Race for Life taking place in Chesterfield on the Sunday.

“There will be lots of places for people to follow the action of The Women’s Tour with the start and finish in Chesterfield town centre and I’m particularly pleased that the route will go through Staveley this year − allowing residents to join in the excitement.

“We are planning cycle and fitness activities and we will be releasing details about them closer to the event.”

Women’s secretary of the Bolsover and District Cycling Club, Jay Stocks, said the whole club was excited to see the race coming to their “patch” and would be out in force to support it.

She said:

“It’s even more accessible because it’s on a Saturday this time, so more people will be able to come and see it.

“We have some cracking hills around here with amazing views and we’ll be riding the route ourselves before the race.”

All of the world’s top 15 teams will take part in the race, which is a part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour. It includes the world’s number one team Boels Dolmans, of defending race champion Lizzie Deignan (formerly Armitstead), ensuring British fans can again look forward to cheering on the world’s best riders.

In addition the British-based Drops and Sheffield-based WNT teams will complete the 17-team field.

Highlights of every stage will be broadcast on ITV4 and available on demand via the ITV Hub.

Mick Bennett, race director for The Women’s Tour said:

“We’re delighted to be returning to Chesterfield and Derbyshire after the success of last year’s stage. With the stage coming on a weekend we’re hoping it will be even bigger and better than ever.”

Find out more about the event here.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Leisure, Summer, Visiting

Landmark sponsorship deal for Leengate Valves

23rd March 2017

After a gap of two years, Leengate Valves have agreed a new sponsorship deal to once again become Chesterfield’s ‘back of shirt’ sponsor for the first-team kit.

The deal, which covers the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons, will also feature the Leengate Valves logo on the team’s pre-match warm-up kit.

Jim Brown, Chesterfield Commercial Manager, said:-

“It’s great to see Leengate Valves on the back of our shirts once again, especially as it takes them to their tenth year as a sponsor. Steve and his family have been major sponsors and supporters of the club from our days at Saltergate and their support is very much appreciated.”

Steve Pickering, Leengate Valves’ Managing Director, said:-

“It’s nice to get the ten years of having the name on the back of the shirt, especially as I’ve been a supporter for over 50 years.

“We’re a national business so to have the name on the shirt means we get the name around the country as the team travels, which is great. We’ve been fortunate in the last few years that we’ve had two appearances at Wembley, the promotion campaigns and other televised games.”

Leigh Pickering, Leengate Valves’ Commercial Director, added:-

“We’ve had some great times and to see the name out there gets us noticed around the country!

“People call us and say that they’ve seen us on the television or at their local match and it’s great that we can associate with that.”

Leengate Valves are the UK’s leading industrial valves wholesaler and also one of the most trusted providers of specialist calibration, actuation, and valve engineering services.

Based right in the heart of the UK in Somercotes, Derbyshire, companies can benefit from their extensive stockholding capabilities as well as their many years of experience within the valve and flow control industry. They have a dedicated team of experts on hand ready to help in any way they can.

Posted in About Chesterfield

Royal takes next step to strengthen GP services for patients

23rd March 2017

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has taken the next step to strengthen the GP services it provides to more than 30,000 registered patients in Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire.

After almost two years – and now with five GP surgeries in its portfolio – the Trust has decided it’s the right time to create an ‘arms-length organisation’ (ALO) to recognise that it’s transforming from a traditional style hospital model, to an organisation that provides a full range of healthcare services and specialties for people across the community. An ALO can often offer an alternative to services that run ‘in-house’ or through service contracts.

Simon Morritt, Chief Executive at the Royal, will also be on the Board that manages the ALO and comments:-

“This new organisation is a full NHS service that the Trust owns and manages and is fully accountable for. We remain committed to meeting our aim of offering high quality, patient-focussed GP services in the communities where we have our surgeries.”

Officially registered with Companies House as ‘Derbyshire Primary Care and Commercial Services’ the arms-length organisation is classed as a limited company within the NHS.

Stuart Ellis, General Manager, explains:-

“Our GP services will remain firmly within the NHS ‘family’, but the ALO will allow us to develop other partnerships and contracts like other primary care organisations.

The Royal’s first GP practice came on board in May 2015 and the second followed in July 2016. The Trust runs a full range of services from surgeries based in Chesterfield (at The Grange, Inkersall and Rectory Road); as well as in North East Derbyshire (Clay Cross and Grassmoor).

Mr Morritt continues:-

“Like many GP Practices across the country the former Holywell Medical Group and Blue Dykes Surgeries were finding it difficult to operate because fewer doctors are choosing to train in primary care medicine. By linking up with the Trust they not only safeguarded vital services for local people, but their GPs were able to focus on patient care and clinical leadership. Over the last two years we’ve demonstrated this can work effectively and efficiently.”

The Trust has successfully recruited more GPs, has extended appointments to early mornings, evenings and weekends and is looking at expanding the range of services it provides at surgeries, including ultrasound. The ALO will enable more new ways of working, creating a team of staff that as well as GP’s, includes advanced nurse practitioners, pharmacists and mental health nurses.

Mr Ellis says: –

“The ALO means business as usual for patients, who will continue to contact us as they would do normally for appointments, repeat prescriptions or other queries.

“But it gives us more flexibility to manage the service differently and improve it for everyone. It’s an exciting step and we are looking forward to continuing to take these GP practices and services forward on a positive footing.”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business

Chesterfield employers encouraged to take advantage of Skills Bank

23rd March 2017

Local businesses are being urged to take advantage of funding and training opportunities during Skills Bank Week.

The week, which takes place from Monday 27 March, is being held to highlight the opportunities available from the £17 million Skills Bank Fund.

The fund, available to businesses in the Sheffield City Region area (Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, Doncaster, North East Derbyshire, Rotherham and Sheffield), has already offered training to 1,029 learners across the region.

The Skills Bank helps Chesterfield employees and employers identify courses which best meet the skills of the individual and the needs of the business.

Skills Bank will also calculate how much funding is available and how much each employer will contribute towards the cost of the training.

So far deals have approved for 15 Chesterfield businesses, benefitting 165 learners to a total value of £145,055, of which Skills Bank has contributed £95,845.

Deals in the pipeline for a further 42 businesses which would allow a further 714 employees to benefit from training.

Chesterfield-based letting agents Pinewood Property is one of the companies to have benefitted from funding for training in digital marketing, human resources and management skills.

Stacey Davies-Bowler, Director at Pinewood Lettings, said:-

“Management training for staff would benefit both me and my fellow director hugely. If we had a self-managed team, that would free up more time so we could spend it on business development and trying to bring more business in through the door.

“The better we understand each other, the better we work together, the faster the business will grow.”

Other Chesterfield businesses to have benefitted from Sheffield City Region Skills Bank include Mitchells Chartered Accountants and Palamatic.

Councillor Tricia Gilby, Chesterfield Borough Council’s cabinet member for economic growth, said:-

“Helping local businesses to access the funding available for training is essential to allow them to retain and develop staff as well as to allow them to meet the needs of their customers.

“By putting these skills in place, it offers real opportunities for local people by creating more and better jobs.”

During Skills Bank Week, the Skills Bank are launching a marketing campaign to promote the service across the region to businesses and communicate employers’ success stories.

The Thunderclap campaign will allow a single message to be shared on mass, to rise above the noise of social media and boost the visibility of the Skills Bank to employers across the region. To join the Thunderclap, follow this link to share the tweet on Wednesday 29^th March 2017 at 12pm.

For information on Skills Bank and the training opportunities available click here.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business

Well dressing tradition celebrated at RHS Chatsworth Flower Show 2017

23rd March 2017

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has recently announced the five local groups who will showcase their well dressing skills at the first RHS Chatsworth Flower Show (7 – 11 June 2017). Ashford Women’s Institute, Buxton Well Dressing, Burton Closes Hall & Bakewell AJ Welldressing, Chesterfield Town Pump Group and Tideswell Well Dressers will be working to create beautiful designs in natural materials such as flower petals, leaves and seeds for display at the show.

More than 62,000 tickets have already been sold for the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show, for which the overarching theme is ‘Design Revolutionaries’. The winning well dressing designs draw inspiration from the Derbyshire landscape and great innovators in design such as Sir Joseph Paxton and Lancelot ‘Capability Brown’, both of whom had a significant impact on the magnificent 1000-acre Chatsworth Estate.

Well dressing is an age-old custom unique to the Peak District and Derbyshire, which is thought to date back to Roman and Celtic times, when communities would dress wells to give thanks for fresh water supplies. The tradition continues in scores of towns and villages between May and September each year, when everyone from schoolchildren to grandparents pitches in to create living arts installations made from flower petals and other natural materials.

Liz Patterson, Deputy Show Manager, said:-

‘We are very excited to be hosting the first ever RHS Well Dressing Competition at our new RHS Show at Chatsworth. We have selected five well dressing entries to display at the show, giving visitors the opportunity to vote for their favourite.

‘We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response we have received from local well dressing groups. We received some really exciting designs and concepts, and can’t wait to see the finished product. We don’t have any wells or springs at the show but the technique and skill used will be the same and aims to bring this unique custom to a different audience. We are sure our visitors will love it, and plan that this becomes a regular feature at the show.’

Jo Dilley, Managing Director of Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire, the area’s official tourist board, said:-

‘This a brilliant opportunity for the successful Well Dressing teams to showcase both age-old skills handed down through the generations and the Peak District and Derbyshire’s unique and most ancient tradition at a world class event visited by tens of thousands of people from both the UK and overseas.

“Many congratulations to all concerned, and we look forward to seeing their imaginative designs in full bloom in June.’

Posted in About Chesterfield, Visiting

More than 4000 new jobs set to be created in Chesterfield

22nd March 2017

More than £700 million of key developments in Chesterfield will enter the delivery phase in 2017, creating more than 4000 new jobs over the next five years.

The news came at the town’s annual Celebrate Chesterfield event organised by Destination Chesterfield. The event which saw more than 300 business leaders gather to learn about further investment plans for the Derbyshire town.

Jobs will be created at the Chesterfield’s flagship developments, including Chesterfield Waterside, Peak Resort, Northern Gateway, Walton Works and Markham Vale. Significant movement has been made on Staveley Corridor following confirmation that there will be an HS2 maintenance depot based there which will create around 250 jobs.

More than 2,000 people currently work in Chesterfield’s tourism sector and a further 1,300 jobs will be created at Peak Resort when it opens in 2019.

Speaking at the event Huw Bowen, Chief Executive of Chesterfield Borough Council reassured investors and business leaders that the council was committed to developing the skills and talent of people living in the town.

He said: “We remain wedded to the concept that the growth we generate must be ‘inclusive’ and that local people should benefit from the proceeds of growth. One of the council’s key objectives for 2017 is to create a skills action plan for Chesterfield which ensures that local people and businesses have clear advice, signposting and support with regards to the range of SCR and D2N2 programmes that are available.”

Work at both the £320 million Waterside Chesterfield scheme and £400million Peak Resort development is already underway.

Rupert Carr, Director of Birchall Properties, the company behind Peak Resort which is being billed as the gateway to the Peak District, also spoke at the Celebrate Chesterfield event. He said: “Peak Resort has been a 28-year story in the making. We gained outline planning consent for the development in 1989, however it is only in recent years, thanks a coalition of national and international partners, that we have made significant progress with the development. We are now on course to launch the first phase in 2019.”

Peak Resort is currently the largest leisure development in the UK and is expected to cement Chesterfield’s reputation as a tourism town. When complete it will almost double the amount of beds in the Borough with the construction of both a four star hotel and five-star clubhouse lodges. An additional hotel is also being built at Basin Square in the first phase of Chesterfield Waterside which will maximise Chesterfield’s proximity to the Peak District National Park.

Peter Swallow, Chair of Destination Chesterfield added: “Chesterfield is on a journey; one that will see it become a significant and attractive location in the UK thanks to both the current investment and the forthcoming HS2. The town’s connectivity has always been a key selling point, but with the advent of HS2 in 2034, Leeds, Birmingham and London will be minutes away and investors are looking at the area with renewed interest. It’s a tremendously exciting time for the town, as we move from concept to delivery making it a town of opportunity for everyone.”

Held at The Winding Wheel on 23 March, this year Celebrate Chesterfield was sponsored by the University of Derby, Markham Vale and Central Technology.

For more information about Chesterfield’s developments visit www.chesterfield.co.uk/developments

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business, Celebrate Chesterfield, Destination Chesterfield, Development