Hopes office block can emerge from rubble of former concrete jungle

REGIONAL AUTHORITY TO CONSIDER DUCKWORK SQUARE PLAN

- By ZENA HAWLEY

A SOLUTION to improving one of the city’s most notorious areas for neglect and planning indecision could be about to take a step nearer to a future use if funding is approved to kickstart a grade A office block scheme.

Duckworth Square gained a reputation for being the most embarrassingly abandoned area of Derby despite being opened in 1964 as a hip shopping precinct.

By 1998, the last shop in the concrete jungle was closing and it was a further six years before it was demolished only to become an eyesore open space.

Development of the former Debenhams site into an apartment block and the new Vaillant Arena by St James Securities have started to improve the Becketwell area but they are ranged on either side of what was Duckworth Square, which stubbornly remains empty although now fenced off and looking neater.

But a meeting of the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) board on Monday, November 24, could approve the proposed office block plan being included in its investment pipeline, according to council leader Councillor Nadine Peatfield.

She is also hoping that in the region of £3.5million will be heading Derby's way from EMCCA to cover the demolition of the Assembly Rooms to make way for a multi-million pound scheme to redevelop the market Place, including more Grade A office space, a cultural hub called Derby MADE and a hotel.

There is a chance to see these plans this Friday in the Market Hall, ahead of outline planning being submitted in early 2026.