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STRUTTS - Wonderful news!Today Amber Valley Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council and Belper Civic Forum announced the lease of the old Herburt Strutt School to the Civic Forum on behalf of the people of Belper. The intention is that the building will be used for community and commercial purposes and that it will be organised as an independent self-financing community enterprise. Todays lease is the first step in this process which simply allows the building to be used. Further steps will be necessary before the tenure of the building is finalised, however todays announcement is ground breaking news. Without the expressions of support from the people who attended the open meetings or signed the petitions today simply would not have happened. So on behalf of everybody trying to make this work - Thankyou. If you know of any group, organisation or business looking for accommodation please contact us on the telephone or via the form on the contact page. Finally, a plea from the heart; if you have the time and skills to give no matter how small please give. We have a building to clean, heat and repair so we can all use it soon. Oh! and did I say we also need your money. Please watch this site and the press for future announcements about the public meetings to build the organisation, arrange management, organise work parties and fundraising for STRUTTS. Read the press releases and what the press have said. Thankyou The future and Why!The Herbert Strutt School occupied magnificent buildings on the A6, just south of Belper town centre until March 2008. This web site has been set up by the Belper Civic Forum as part of its campaign to ensure that the buildings remain as a community asset in line with the wishes of Herbert Strutt who donated the school to the town 99 years ago. Our vision is for a self-financing community, education and training centre, to which we have given the working title "Strutts". It would also include some office development that would provide local employment and contribute to the costs. Overall Strutts would become an important focal point for the town and generate considerable benefit for everyone in the area. The importance of the Strutt family and Belper has been recognised internationally since it is at the core of one of very few World Heritage Sites in Great Britain. The old school is an exceptionally fine building with many unique high quality architectural details. The StudentsOver the years hundreds of people have been educated in the Strutts School and large numbers of photographs have been taken. These photographs are dispersed amongst the many pupils and there children. We would like to collect as many of these pictures and the details that describe the time, place and people present. The idea is simple lets get a picture of every class and the name of every pupil. NewsThe consultation period on the feasibility study has now closed, we have added our comments to yours by submitted them to Amber Valley, now we all need to be patent and await the next stage. The feasibility study sponsored by Amber Valley is still on-line so if you have not read it please do. If you have any comments please feel free to send them to us as when we go into negotiation all ideas will be useful. This is a plea from the heart. If you have any interest in this building, its pupils, its history or the town of Belper and would like to help stop this building being sold off for housing then please get in contact. Your skills, knowledge and help may tip the balance and ensure that our objective is achieved! The petition on the PMs web site has now ended and the results are available on the PMs web site. | ||||||||
