Bids totalling £70m have been made for a new performance venue in Derby’s Becketwell redevelopment area, and to cover the expense of infrastructure for the proposed Infinity Garden Village.
The bids, submitted by Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council to the government’s Levelling Up Fund, include £20 million for the proposed £45 million Becketwell Performance Venue.
If it gets backing the 3,500 capacity venue on the site of Colyear Street, could host 200 events annually and create 200 jobs.
Derby City Council deputy leader Coun Mathew Holmes said: “We are fully committed to delivering the new venue as part of the Derby recovery plan and the city’s cultural ambitions.
“This venue will help level up the city and enable us to build back better by diversifying our economy and attracting more people into the city centre.”
The council hopes the venue – which would be built by St James’ Securities and operated by ASM Global on a 30-year lease – could be ready by 2024.
It would replace the city’s Assembly Rooms, which closed in 2014, and has seen refurbishment and replacement plans dropped.
Derbyshire County Council, meanwhile, is working with the city council and South Derbyshire District Council, on a £49.6 million bid to pay for infrastructure for the proposed Infinity Garden Village, between Sinfin and Chellaston.
The site could include thousands of new homes and a business park and the money would be used for measures including a new junction on the A50, which could cost £37.5 million.
There would also be a mile-long link road from the junction up to Infinity Park in the city.
County council leader Coun Barry Lewis said: “We look very carefully at every funding scheme to make sure we apply for all those applicable on behalf of our residents.
“We have submitted an application with colleagues in Derby City Council for funds from the Levelling Up Fund for the South Derby Growth Area.”
Plans for 1,850 homes, a primary school, a village centre with a community hall, shops and space for health services, a pub, drive-through restaurant and a petrol station were submitted nearly two years ago and are yet to be decided.
The first 52-acre block of the 290-acre business park was also submitted nearly two years ago and is also yet to be decided.
If bid applications are accepted, central government will ask for detailed business cases to be prepared.
