Dom Stevens

It’s time to reflect on another year at Destination Chesterfield

18th December 2023

Do you reflect enough on what you have achieved and take time to celebrate your successes?

We discussed this question at our Destination Chesterfield Strategy Day.

As a place marketing partnership, we focus on promoting Chesterfield and telling the place story with our Chesterfield Champions and other partners.

This blog celebrates some of Destination Chesterfield’s achievements in 2023.

Working together to shape our direction

In January, we held our annual consultation session with our Chesterfield Champions. They wanted us to continue our activity to attract investment to the town and promote Chesterfield as a place to visit and spend leisure time.

In my view, the strength of the Destination Chesterfield Partnership comes from collaboration and a shared approach to promoting and developing our town. We give partners a chance to have a say on what we deliver, get involved if they want to, and influence policy for the borough.

Skills for the future

In February, we organised, for Chesterfield Borough Council, the Employability and Skills Conference at the Winding Wheel, focusing on businesses working with schools to develop talent for the future.

Future talent has been a focus for Destination Chesterfield’s Manufacturing and Property and Construction Groups this year. Local businesses committed to supporting initiatives such as Made in Chesterfield and the successfully piloted Careers Made in Chesterfield programme with Chesterfield Borough Council and Parkside School.

A vision for Chesterfield

The Celebrate Chesterfield Business event, attended by 300 delegates, relaunched the Chesterfield Story and showcased the new Chesterfield Borough Council Growth Strategy.

We asked partners to commit to their vision for Chesterfield in 2030 and collectively support the promotion of the town.

Team Chesterfield hit the road

A delegation from Destination Chesterfield, Chesterfield Borough Council and Chesterfield Champions attended UKReiif in Leeds in May.

The event is the largest Property and Infrastructure event in the country.

Destination Chesterfield coordinated activities which included showcasing major sites and opportunities at panel discussions, launching the new investment prospectus, a media campaign to support activity and arranging meetings with potential investors, developers and funders.

Bringing the town centre to life

June saw the launch of Peddler Market Chesterfield by Peddler Events and Chesterfield Borough Council. The Destination Chesterfield team supported the marketing and organised the launch event.

The first event was a success for the traders and attracted footfall to the town centre.

Following the success of the launch event, Destination Chesterfield has teamed up with Peddler Events to create Peddler Connect, an informal business networking event open to all businesses and will take place at future Peddler Market Chesterfield events.

As requested by some of our Chesterfield Champions in January, the event offers networking opportunities but supports our objectives of attracting people to the town centre.

An eventful summer

In January, Champions asked for more events and festivals in Chesterfield. Over the summer, it was great to see Eat in the Park and the Chesterfield Children’s Festival alongside the return of existing favourites such as the BRM Solicitors Chesterfield Festival of Cricket, Chesterfield Pride and the Chesterfield Medieval Fun Day.

Throughout the summer months, Destination Chesterfield managed the Summer in Chesterfield Campaign. The campaign was seen over 1.6 million times by target audiences. The Love Chesterfield Survey identified that 38% of people who saw the campaign said it influenced them to support local retailers.

The office is dead, long live the office!

In August, the Chesterfield Office Campaign ended. Launched in 2022, it showcased office space available in Chesterfield for businesses looking to start up and grow.

It has been great to see the success of One Waterside Place, which is now fully let, and the range of businesses that have chosen the Northern Gateway Enterprise Centre.

A place to visit

Destination Chesterfield secured funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to develop and deliver a Short-break campaign for Chesterfield.

Research has been commissioned and is currently being carried out with both former visitors and non-visitors to shape a marketing campaign which will launch in 2024.

Why Chesterfield Why Now?

We delivered the Chesterfield Investment Summit in October. The event showcased Why Chesterfield Why Now. We heard from investors, developers and businesses who highlighted our strategic location, affordability and supportive local authority and business community as to why they chose Chesterfield.

The feedback on this event was positive regarding the content, the people attending the event and the business conversations that took place at or because of the event.

Christmas in Chesterfield

The Christmas in Chesterfield Campaign promotes the town over the festive period, encouraging residents to support local and attracting people within an hour of Chesterfield to enjoy our town.

The business community is leading the way

Destination Chesterfield is led by an independent board of directors from the private and public sectors. The Destination Chesterfield Review by Thinking Places recommended an update of the governance and a refresh of board membership.

Expressions of interest from employees at Chesterfield Champion businesses who would be interested in joining the board are now open.

Championing Chesterfield

Did you know we work with over 220 businesses and organisations that are Chesterfield Champions?

Throughout 2023, the number of businesses committing to work collectively to promote Chesterfield has grown again.

Every month, the team update partners through events and marketing activity.

They are also working with Champions to gather content for campaigns and celebrate the success of Chesterfield businesses through our news content.

Teamwork makes the dream work

I am immensely proud of what Destination Chesterfield delivers and the hard work the team put in to bring together a range of campaigns and activities to meet the objectives of our strategy and ultimately support Chesterfield’s growth ambitions.

Thank you to our board members, Chesterfield Champions and delivery partners for supporting us in raising the profile of and changing perceptions of the borough of Chesterfield.

Next year I am looking forward to launching the new Destination Chesterfield Strategy 2024 – 2027.

Join us at the Celebrate Chesterfield Business Event on the 20th March to discover more and get involved in delivering it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Blog, Business, Celebrate Chesterfield, Destination Chesterfield, UncategorisedTagged in Championing Chesterfield, Destination Chesterfield, Destination Chesterfield 2023, Dom Stevens

‘We want to continue our collaboration to achieve Chesterfield’s ambitious plans’

18th May 2023

Destination Chesterfield Manager, Dom Stevens highlights how partnerships in both the public and private sectors continue to push forward the town’s extensive range of regeneration projects.

I have spent this week at UKREiiF – the largest real estate and investment event in the UK, attracting over 6000 delegates from the public and private sectors.

Team Chesterfield went to the event to share our ambitious new growth strategy with the property sector.

It has been a busy week of meetings and events, discussing the opportunities in Chesterfield and raising awareness of the Borough. The true success will be known in the coming months and years, as we develop relationships alongside the continued progression of £2 billion worth of regeneration projects.

One of the strands of the Chesterfield place story is creating connections. People tend to think of this as being about our excellent transport links, our supply chain, and our location next to the Peak District.

It is much more than just that!

Throughout history, Chesterfield has built positive relationships to bring forward growth and investment. We have a clear growth strategy, projects to deliver those ambitions and want to continue collaboration to achieve these ambitious plans.

On Tuesday, Dr. Huw Bowen, Chief Executive of Chesterfield Borough Council highlighted these ambitions, alongside the importance of strategic thinking and collaboration at a packed panel discussion in the Harworth Pavillion.

Later that day, Joe Battye, Director of Economy and Regeneration at Derbyshire County Council delivered a case study about the Staveley Growth Corridor, highlighting the role of two local authorities and the private sector to bring forward community-changing regeneration.

Members of our Chesterfield Property and Construction Group came together to launch our new investment prospectus, and it was brilliant to catch up with so many of them over the week.

You can view the prospectus here.

It was also great to see Chesterfield highlighted in the Midlands Engineering Portfolio. The document included the transformation of our historic town centre, the £340 million Chesterfield Waterside scheme, and the forward-thinking masterplan for Chesterfield station.

A collective voice for the region is a huge opportunity that could be brought about by devolution in the East Midlands. A joint event organised by D2N2 LEP, Marketing Derby, Invest in Nottingham, and ourselves explored the opportunities.

Will Morlidge, Chief Executive of D2N2 LEP highlighted that the deal would ‘move Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire into the Premier League.’ Meanwhile, Andy Dabbs, Chair of Chesterfield Property Group said the deal needs to embrace public and private sector collaboration, and pool expertise and resources to underpin long-term plans. He added: “It’s a real opportunity to change the perception of our region.”

Chesterfield has a strong heritage of being inventive and delivering innovative approaches. From the first disposable nappies and the drills that made the Channel Tunnel, to being the proud home of railway innovator, George Stephenson!

On Thursday, it was brilliant to hear Tarah Gear from Milligan, highlighting another innovative project in Chesterfield – The Gateway at Peak.

The project is a pioneer in supporting the Peak District National Park and Chesterfield, in terms of the environment and social inclusion. It was particularly exciting to hear that brands which have already signed up are changing their approaches, to fit with the ethos of this exciting development.

As Tarah told the panel, they want this development to have ‘a lasting legacy’ and be the ‘ancestor’ that future generations respect.

In an increasingly noisy marketplace, ‘Team Chesterfield’ has articulated why our area is a wonderful place to live and work. However, don’t just take our word for it! As The Spectator reported this week, ‘A new property powerhouse is emerging’ in North Derbyshire.

Thank you to the dedicated and driven partners who continue to work with us and support Destination Chesterfield in raising the profile of the town. Keep a look out for the Chesterfield Investment Summit which returns this October. Once again, the event promises to provide several exciting updates on Chesterfield’s vast regeneration opportunities.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Blog, Business, Destination Chesterfield, Development, Property and Construction, UncategorisedTagged in Chesterfield blog, chesterfield business news, Chesterfield collaboration, chesterfield developments, Chesterfield regeneration, Destination Chesterfield, Dom Stevens, Property and Construction in Chesterfield, UKREiiF

Chesterfield’s Property & Construction Group is leaving no stone unturned in shaping our town into a great destination for generations to come

7th June 2022

With so many great developments coming to fruition in our town centre and surrounding areas, there is plenty to get excited about in the coming years across Chesterfield.

We are beginning to see the groundwork for millions of pounds worth of investment in our town, which I’m confident will turn Chesterfield into a superb visitor destination and a place ripe for investment.

We are just weeks away from the opening of the highly anticipated Northern Gateway Enterprise Centre, which has already seen plenty of interest from investors locally and further afield. The state-of-the-art business centre will help to create 500 jobs, ensuring the town centre economy is resilient for many more years to come. At Destination Chesterfield, we are very excited to be showing our Chesterfield Champions around the development in the near future, demonstrating what an asset the new Enterprise Centre will be once open and operational.

On top of that, development at Chesterfield Waterside is continuing at a pace, with new housing and high-quality office space being developed. This will be another key milestone in the regeneration of Chesterfield, with its proximity to Chesterfield Station making it an excellent location for commuters to Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and beyond. The proposed Chesterfield Station Master Plan will also ensure anyone arriving in Chesterfield has a great first impression of the town when they step off the train!

In terms of our historic town centre, further transformations are going to be seen around several key sites. Our market will be revamped, ensuring one of our most treasured assets continues to thrive in modern times. The striking Stephenson Memorial Hall is also undergoing a major refurbishment, extending the iconic Pomegranate Theatre, and improving our cultural offer with a better museum, gallery space and education facilities.

Positive things are also happening in our town centre right now! We’ve seen several new shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants making Chesterfield their new home since we came out of the pandemic. It is very encouraging that so many great independent businesses are seeing the potential in our town for the future.

As part of the role of the Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Property and Construction Group, business leaders within the sector locally are ensuring that with these multi-million-pound developments taking place across the town, no stone is left unturned in ensuring we can maximise the potential of these investments. The group constantly discusses several key themes based around skills, business support, promoting investment in Chesterfield and sustainability and wellbeing. As a group, we believe we have a golden opportunity to transform the landscape of Chesterfield for generations, and ensure our town aspires to be an excellent place to work, live, visit and invest.

To find out more about the Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Property and Construction Group, go to: https://www.chesterfield.co.uk/propertygroup/ or email PropertyGroup@chesterfield.co.uk

Posted in Blog, Business, Destination Chesterfield, Development, Property and ConstructionTagged in Chesterfield blog, chesterfield business news, chesterfield developments, chesterfield news, chesterfield town centre, Development in Chesterfield, Dom Stevens, Invest in Chesterfield, Love Chesterfield, visiting chesterfield