Derbyshire County Council are moving towards the creation of a Development Board for Elvaston Castle and the grounds.

The body created, if approved by elected members, will act as an advisory body to the Council, helping to provide a pathway towards a  Single Management Body, which will ultimately accept devolved responsibility for the management of the estate.

The Single Management Body will be tasked with delivering the core ten year vision for the estate, including all the elements that the House and Country Park can offer, from heritage, conservation and dedicated public access.

You can see the vision for Elvaston on our Futures page here.

The role’s of the expert panel will be voluntary, with expenses and childcare costs provided.

Useful web resources:

There are a variety of models for the creation of Advisory Boards and ‘professional’ volunteers to enable input to development plans.

English Heritage Advisory Board – you can see how a full, expert advisory board functions and its remit, set against a development framework here.

World Heritage Sites– although not explicitly relevant to local projects, the UNESCO model of selection and advisory management offers smaller projects some key insights into how heritage, the natural environment and public access can be measured and monitored. See the model on the pages of Wikipedia here.

St. John Canada, Growth & Community Development – this Canadian City offers an exemplar of how a public body manages and makes available practical, operationally focussed heritage management and information support for residents. This is Canada with heritage writ large.

You can see a fuller, local report about this interesting development in the Elvaston story on the web pages of the Derby Telegraph here.