Plans have been submitted to demolish a troubled and decaying former cinema with a view to build shops and housing. If the council plans get the go-ahead, the former Galaxy Row Cinema in Derby Road, Long Eaton, built in 1907, would be bulldozed.
Erewash Borough Council's proposals include building four houses, 16 flats and three shops, reports Derbyshire Live. It has now filed a planning application to itself for the scheme, funded through a £25 million Government Town Deal grant awarded in 2021, with the Galaxy Row project estimated to cost between £5 million and £9 million.
In December last year, the council dubbed the former cinema an “eyesore” with the Long Eaton Town Deal website claiming it “blights the approach to Long Eaton town centre”. If approved, the former cinema – opposite the council’s Long Eaton HQ – would be demolished, along with the former Stage One nightclub and former shop unit next to it in Derby Road, and a garage facing Oxford Street to the rear would also be flattened.
The row of four two-bed houses would be built to the rear of the proposed site, facing Oxford Street, with the council saying this road is much more residential than it used to be and more homes would improve this situation – at the loss of the well-used garage facility. Meanwhile, the former cinema and three shops would be demolished and become two shops on the ground floor with seven flats on the first floor, seven flats on the second floor and two flats on the third floor.
From Derby Road the new combined building would have a lower peak than the current former cinema and the highest point, still at four storeys, would shift to the right, over the former shop and nightclub, with most of the complex sitting at three storeys tall. The four townhouses off Oxford Street would be three storeys tall, with designs showing skylights for the top floors in each home. In its application, the council says the project would boost employment but it has not detailed any proposed numbers of jobs that could be created through the venture.
The overall site would have 28 parking spaces, two of which would be for disabled residents, with all access for vehicles to the site, for homes and shops stemming off Oxford Street with none off Derby Road. When the project was signed off by councillors, officers detailed that a central courtyard between the garage and cinema would be created to give new residents some usable outdoor space.
The actual plans submitted with the application show a small yard area, separated by a number of trees and entrance to the apartment blocks and shops, along with a cycle store. Each of the townhouses would have individual private gardens.
Officers wrote that the Oxford Road side of the site is better for townhouses due to the “quieter and less polluted ground floor conditions”. The council had said: “The town investment plan recorded the evidence of an ageing population profile, lower than average qualifications and earnings, lack of spaces for business growth and continual decline in traditional retailing as challenges facing the town.
“The Galaxy Row redevelopment project was envisaged as an exemplar to address all of these issues. However, this requires the commercial and residential spaces produced to improve the town offer, with the residential development in particular setting a new benchmark for quality town centre living capable of attracting and retaining the younger, more highly qualified, higher earning members of the community who are currently looking at the town as a place to live, work and invest in.”
Officers wrote that the “busy” Derby Road side of the site “does not offer opportunities for high-quality ground floor residential use…but does have the potential for modern quality commercial space”. They wrote that: “Above that ground floor, good quality apartments are possible if they secure high-quality outlooks to the south, facing towards their own landscaped courtyard.”
Officers said the site must have its own parking spaces “in order to provide a better residential offer than the many small Victorian terraced houses available nearby to the north of Derby Road”. They said: “Given the Government’s intention to cease sales of petrol and diesel cars within 10 years, these parking spaces should be served by electric charging facilities.”
It details that 20 per cent of the spaces would have electric charging ports and the rest would be ready for retrofitting at a later date. Each residential “unit” (either a home or an apartment) would have one allocated parking spot. A report on the development said: “Erewash Borough Council wish to see a comprehensive redevelopment of the site to provide a high-quality urban infill project that promotes the Government ambition to ‘build back better’ in line with the Long Eaton Town Deal process.
“Through this process, the derelict former Galaxy cinema site has been identified as a local regeneration priority. It is considered that a wider redevelopment site is necessary to achieve a high-quality development that does not impede any future redevelopment of adjacent properties.”
