ELVASTON CASTLE

A meeting held to discuss the future of Elvaston Castle produced confusion and disappointment. About 40 members of the public turned out for the annual meeting of the Elvaston Castle Estate Trust, a group set up to support the castle. There were hopes that there would be some news on the future of the site, which has been a subject of controversy ever since Derbyshire County Council put it on the market in 1999. At the moment, there are four bidders vying to take over the estate. They have to submit detailed plans by next month. The trust has been working with one of the shortlisted bidders, the London-based Highgate Sanctuary, to try to ensure that public access to parts of the castle is maintained.

It was revealed at the meeting that members of the trust had met with the bidder to discuss the project. But the audience was told that details of the Highgate Sanctuary bid were commercially sensitive and would not be revealed. Trust chairman William Barron told the meeting, "We fully recognise that you've come to hear what they intend to do but we are unable to go into any detail. We'll invite you all back for another meeting within, hopefully, the next 10 days. Then we hope that we'll be able to provide you with more details. What we can say is that the information we've been given has some interesting ideas and some ideas that we disagree with. There are still queries over access and finance."

The future of the castle and the estate still seems shrouded by uncertainty. Members of the public asked whether the castle and estate would be sold or leased, and trust members replied that the building, the gardens and the country park were all included in the bid. However, Councillor Bob Janes, who chairs the county council's Elvaston Castle working party said that only a "footprint" - the castle, some outbuildings and the land in between - was being offered for lease. He said that the council would continue to maintain public access to the gardens. It is understood that Hilton-based Don Amott Caravans wants to create a holiday park and serviced apartments and the Trevor Osbourne Property Group wants to turn the castle into a hotel.

Elvaston Castle Estate Trust pulled out of a joint bid with London-based company Highgate Sanctuary to take over the running of the stately home. The trust withdrew because of a conflict over ensuring public access. The trust's Karen Sims-Neighbour said, "Elvaston Castle Estate Trust no longer wishes to partner or support Highgate Sanctuary's bid, led by Brian Ashby. We cannot reveal the exact nature of Mr Ashby's proposals, but I can say that they conflict with our aims and objectives - which are to maximise public access to the country park, core garden and castle." Mr Ashby, chairman of property developer Norseman Holdings, said that Highgate was planning public access and said that full plans would be revealed in the future.

Derbyshire County Council appears to have no idea what to do with Elvaston Castle. Two lost years have gone by since the ludicrous attempt to turn it in to a time-share paradise bit the dust and still the custodians of our heritage sit and wait, and wait. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it supposed to have been conveyed to the Borough of Derby on the sixteenth day of June 1969, and did it not become the nation's first country park with rights of access guaranteed by statute? When, by default, it passed into the hands of Derbyshire County Council in the dark days of the 1970s, it tried to change its status, until a 345,000-name petition stopped it in its tracks. Now it publicly admits it cannot afford to run it properly, though it continues to hold on to the title.

Well, there's a simple solution at hand, which won't cost a penny, just hand it over to the Elvaston Castle Estate Trust to run on behalf of the people to whom it was conveyed. The chairman, chief executive and treasurer of the trust have a business plan and potential finance in place to move in as soon as a decision is made. Not only will this guarantee its status as a public asset, it will keep it open as a country park with full and free access to the public at large and sideline all these commercial speculators who want to develop time-share apartments, luxury hotels and caravan stratagems. Above and beyond all else, it belongs to the people of Derby. David Black