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Planners have backed proposals for a new waterside commercial and retail centre with a restaurant and cafe near Chesterfield as part of ongoing improvements to the area’s canal and region.

Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the Derbyshire County Council application for the building of the mixed-use Staveley Town Basin centre with car parking, landscaping and related works at the Staveley Basin Development area, on Hall Lane, at Staveley.

A borough council spokesman stated: “The proposal to develop a facility adjacent to the basin has the potential to attract visitors who can then use the canal corridor whether that be on foot, cycle, horse or boat. This has significant health and well being opportunities.

“The proposed building will provide a complementary community use in a cafe and associated facilities so as not to discourage any particular user. There will be no negative impacts on the various routes which pass through the site.”

An artist's impression of the moorings at the planned Staveley Town Basin Centr. Photo: Chesterfield Borough Council

The 2.4 hectare site – which was a former coal working area – will be in the Staveley Basin Development area between Eckington Road and Ireland Close which is a hub along Chesterfield Canal with a lock next to Staveley Town centre.

Construction of the canal basin with an access road, a slipway, a canal lock and a bridge was approved in 2010, and restoration of the canal from Eckington Road to Hague Lane towards Renishaw was approved in 2021.

The latest approved development for the two-storey, 855sq metre centre is part of the Government-funded £25.2m Staveley Town Deal regeneration project and the centre will include office space, a workshop and commercial units for small businesses, and a restaurant and cafe unit.

The car park at the site will have 50 spaces as well as six parent and child spaces, six spaces for those with disabilities, and eight electric vehicle charging spaces, as well as 36 covered cycle racks with access available from Eckington Road over the lock bridge.

Another angle of how the Staveley development might look. Photo: Chesterfield Borough Council

An existing track will also be widened to between seven and eight metres from Eckington Road to the canal lock bridge.

Cllr Barry Bingham told the planning committee meeting he welcomed the development and especially the new footpath along Hall Lane.

Plans for waterside development with commercial, retail and restaurant units near Chesterfield get green light