So, I turned up at Bolsover this morning about 9.30am ready to tell people who needed to know that work was about to start in the next couple of days, when I found this -

Not only were all the buildings surrounded in scaffold, but the roof of the workshop was gone & new waterproof membrane was being fixed.

So, I went to see the people I had planned to see, and tell them something they already knew!!

The Manager of the Post Sorting Office was OK moving his vans around, the girl in Flat 2a was not around, so I left a letter in her post box & gave a copy to her Letting Agents.

Had a long chat with the 'leader of the pack'/'man in charge' of the roofers, who seemed completely 'non-plussed' about the whole thing.

So the only thing for me to do was to go in to the Beehive Cafe & have a coffee!!

Now that is what I call - progress!!

Keep watching for more updates & more photos

Yes!!! - following my meeting this morning with our preferred builder, we are underway.

Scaffold will begin to arrive later this week, then it will rise like a talisman into the sky, and the roofing will start, to be followed by the installation of doors & windows.

Then when we are watertight & secure, we can move on to finding some tenants.

Oh! Joy! & Ecstasy!! - we are finally going to see some action!

We are using the same builder for all of the work, so that is good, and then we have an electrician lined up to bring light to the buildings.

Watch this space for an on-going progress reports & pictures.

Ooooh! I am so excited - 'I could crush a grape' (for those of you old enough to remember that comedian!)

Hello again, time for more news from Old Bolsover Yard. Had hoped to lead with news of the start of building work, but a delay in meeting with the builder means that will have to wait for later in the week.

So, what else is there to report? Well, we have 'registered' with Made in Derbyshire.

2015 was a year of celebrations and activities exploring the rich cultural life and diversity of Derbyshire, & it was named ‘Made in Derbyshire’.  Due to the overwhelmingly positive response received to this campaign as a valuable marketing tool for businesses of all sizes and in all industries in the county, it has continued beyond 2015.

Made in Derbyshire is promoted by Culture Derbyshire, a partnership of public, private, voluntary and community organisations working together to promote and improve the cultural life of the county.

You can find Old Bolsover Yard listed at - www.madeinderbyshire.org/members/old-bolsover-yard-bolsover-derbyshire, and we shall keep it up to date with what we are doing & any special events that are happening.

We have also asked about becoming part of another marketing organisation - 'Discovering Bolsover', but are waiting for a reply from them.

So, we are beginning to get things in place, whilst we await for the 'repair & maintenance' to start.

More to follow I am hoping later in the week.

Following the decision of the District Council that we do not need Planning Permission to undertake 'repair & maintenance' to the property, we were pleased to receive a letter from the Principal Planning Officer (Enforcement) confirming that to be the case.

We are now in a position to award contracts to roofers, builders & electricians etc. to get the work underway. It is likely that work will actually start toward the end of August, and hopefully might be finished in time for Christmas.

During that time, we will be working on the next stage of the development, including unit letting, marketing & promotion, and hopefully a Grand Opening event.

Do please keep coming back to this blog on the website, and you will be able to share with us the development of 'Old Bolsover Yard'

In the meantime - 'onwards & upwards!'

What a difference a week makes! This time last week we were looking forward to a long wait for planning regulations to be sorted now.

Now thanks to the work of a local District Councillor & discussions with a senior Planner, we are faced with being able to start work just as soon as we want.

In short, it was finally agreed that we did NOT need Planing Permission, because the work we proposed was classed as 'routine maintenance'. There will possibly be 'hoops' to jump through later down the line, but for now it is - all systems GO!

So we are just waiting for the builders to produce their quotations & for us to award the contracts and Old Bolsover Yard will begin to 'rise from the ashes!'

Make sure that you come back here later in the week when we might have more good news to tell you.

We are really excited!!

Well here we are with the latest news from Old Bolsover Yard - and what a few days it has been!

We had another builder visit last week to give us a quote - they were very thorough & have gone away to put something down on paper.

Then we had our visit from a local District Councillor, who had asked to come & have a look around, and see what we were proposing. This was a very  positive meeting, and the Councillor has now gone away to talk to the Planning Department.

Then we got a reply from BDC Planning - in response to my request for guidance. Rather than welcoming a new development in Bolsover, it gave all the negatives. 'DON'T DO THIS' - 'DON'T DO THAT' - 'IT WILL BE SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE WE CAN GIVE YOU A VIEW' - 'DO NOT CARRY OUT THE WORKS YOU REFER TO UNTIL PLANNING PERMISSION HAS BEEN GIVEN' etc. etc.

The beginning of the week saw the quotation from one of the builders arrive

So, it is clear that we are going to be 'held to ransom' by the District Council. Therefore, I have made the decision to stop all work connected with the project, until/or if we hear from them.

But, the Blog will go on - watch this space!!

Just over 7 days ago, I sent an email to the Development Control Department, of Bolsover District Council asking for - "an informal comment on planning, conservation & highways aspect, prior to submitting a full application"

And I am still waiting for an answer - good job I didn't ask them a difficult question!!

If you see a man like the one in our picture, can you direct him to 2 Castle Street - he might be that elusive Planning Officer!

Elsewhere in our quest to develop a new tourist attraction for Bolsover, and at the same time opportunities for small businesses to develop, things have moved on.

Tomorrow - Friday - a builder is coming to take a look at the project & then hopefully give us a quotation for the work, and on Saturday at 3pm, a local Councillor is visiting us to have a look at the buildings & hear about what we are proposing to do.

We are still awaiting the quotation from the roofing & building company who visited us last week, but I am sure that it will be dropping into the email inbox very soon.

So we wait for further progress, and some sort of indication whether Bolsover wants to see economic development or is happy to become the areas best kept secret.

More from the Blog, next week, unless we have news that requires us to produce a 'Special Edition'!!

Greetings everybody! and welcome to the first of this weeks blogs bringing you the latest news from Old Bolsover Yard.

It has been fairly quiet as will become clearer later, but there have been some developments, that suggest we might be making some progress, even at a snails pace.

We have received our first quotation for work on the refurbishment, and so now we have a 'benchmark' against which to measure others as they come in.

You will not be surprised to hear that we have received no reply from Development Control of Bolsover District Council asking for - "an informal comment on planning, conservation & highways aspect, prior to submitting a full application"

However, our contacts with local Councillors has resulted in one of them asking to visit the 'site' to have a look at the buildings & talk about what we are planning. Now isn't that the sort of thing you might expect a Planning Officer to do?

That visit is scheduled in for this coming weekend, so I am hopeful of some positive outcomes from it.

I think we have finally managed to get the the tenant of the adjacent flat to understand that she only has right of pedestrian passage across our land, and no right to park vehicles, and the lady who feeds the cat in the Yard has relocated her 'feeding station' away from the property!

Yesterday, I spoke to a local builder & asked if he would like to come & give us a quote for more of the refurbishment work we need to do. He said that he would get back to me in half to one hour to confirm a day & time. That was YESTERDAY - and still the phone remains silent. Do people want work or not? We had a visit from a builder last week who made it obvious that he was not interested in the work, within the first few minutes of his arrival.

So , if you are reading this & you are a builder, and want some work then get in touch using the Contact page on this website, and we can arrange to meet.

I am 'chomping at the bit' to get on with this project, but at the moment can only 'twiddle my thumbs' whilst the wheels of bureaucracy slowly turn.

Well perhaps by the next time things will have sprung into action - but a bit like Spring this year - it is taking a long time to 'get springing!'