Work to start on £23m project as funding confirmed

A £23m project to reinvigorate a business park site, which has links going back to the early Industrial Revolution, is to receive major funding from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership. Work is due to start on the scheme next month.The Riverside Business Park, a 225,000 sq ft site of industrial buildings, just north west of Bakewell town centre, is to be redeveloped in three phases to improve access to the site, the state of the buildings there and to better meet the needs of modern companies. The current park is on the site of Lumford Mill, built by entrepreneur Sir Richard Arkwright in the 1700s.The mill was destroyed by fire in the mid-19th century but its site has subsequently been redeveloped for modern industrial and commercial uses.Redevelopment of the central and western areas of Riverside Business Park will be supported by the building of a new road link and bridge from the A6. Funding for the Riverside Business Park project has come from Litton Property Group (which bought the site in 2001 and is based there), set to invest around £20.3m, and a further £3.3m which has just been agreed through the D2N2 Infrastructure and Investment Board. Planning permissions have previously been granted for the Riverside Business Park project’s main phases. Construction work on site is due to begin in July, with the new bridge and access road set to be built between January 2022 and 2023, and all works due to be completed by October 2026. When completed, it is estimated that the project will have supported the creation of 154 new jobs and safeguarded 113 existing ones, created 131,567 sq ft of additional commercial space for the area and established a new 72-bed hotel.