Welcome to the March issue of our e-newsletter, which aims to provide a brief update on everything that is happening at Markham Vale.

Derbyshire’s investment strategy named one of the best in Europe by the Financial Times

Derbyshire’s strategy for attracting overseas investment to the county has been named as one of the best in Europe in rankings compiled by the Financial Times.

Here at Markham Vale, the project partners of Derbyshire County Council and HBD have had some success in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the business park.  Our work adds to that of other organisations including Derbyshire Enterprise Partnership, Marketing Derby’s Invest in Derbyshire Service and Destination Chesterfield who all actively promote Derbyshire for inward investment. 

In the prestigious Financial Times’ FDI European Cities and Regions of the Future 2022/23 rankings, Derbyshire has been placed fifth within the top 10 Small Regions for FDI Strategy category, which recognises the regions who have devised the strongest strategy for attracting investment.

Derbyshire is ranked alongside other regions in countries across Europe, including Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Croatia, Spain, Norway, Austria and Serbia – and is the only UK region to feature in the top 10.

More information can be found here

Brand new showroom opens at Markham Vale

It's official! The brand-new showroom for Blue Whale Spa opened at the beginning of March.

Blue Whale Spa Ltd is a UK owned hot tub manufacturer, focusing on producing competitively priced, high-quality products.  The company boast in-house facilities for design, research, and development. They are one of the latest companies to select Markham Vale at the heart of the UK as the place to meet their growing business needs.

The company had a very busy period planning the opening and sorting the final set up but they achieved their opening target date of 4^th March and they can't wait to show it to all their customers and to showcase their favourite hot tubs. Why not visit the showroom on Greaves Close or visit their website at www.bluewhalespa.com/

Plot 9 Development opportunity

Plot 9 on Meadow House Way is a self-contained development site which can be developed as a single unit of 52,500 sq ft. The property will be designed to meet the specific requirements of an occupier but can include 2,500 sq ft of high-quality office.

The development plot benefits from outline planning consent for B2 and B8 uses which means delivery of a unit can be achieved within 9 months from agreement of terms.

For more information and contact details click on the image.

New walking and cycling route to work

We are just putting the finishing touches to our latest walking and cycling route connecting local communities with Markham Vale. Our latest route runs alongside the A632 connecting Markham Vale with the western edge of Bolsover.  This particular trail is being funded by Derbyshire County Council and Sustrans the national cycling charity.

Chesterfield based civil engineering company Fitzwise are completing the final tasks ready for an official opening, albeit it is already proving very popular with users.  Last month they installed a new bridge over the Doe Lea.

The trail is being constructed as part of the Corporate Travel Plan for Markham Vale as a means of providing sustainable and healthy travel routes to work.  There are a number of other routes connecting Markham Vale with the surrounding communities as well as also allowing people to travel through the Markham Vale business park.

Annual Jobs Surveys

The Markham Vale annual jobs survey is underway and many of you will already have been contacted and asked for your input.  Thank you to all those who have responded so far.

The survey forms a key part in measuring what is being achieved at the region's top business park and is essential information required by grant funding bodies that have helped to finance the infrastructure around Markham Vale; it also helps us in to highlight the vitality of the area when talking to potential businesses to locate here.

When we first started the survey in 2007 the Environment Centre was the only building on the whole site and the first ten people were employed in three start-up businesses.  Three years later in 2010 saw major investment from a variety of companies including Holdsworth Foods and Industrial Ancillaries bringing the total number of companies on site to 12 employing 86 people.  Fast forward to 2016 and over 900 people were employed in 38 different companies.  Exciting times were just around the corner as the first development plots on Markham Vale North were released to the market and other companies started investing on the East and West phases and in 2019 over 2,200 people were recorded working in 53 different companies.  Whilst the number of companies based at Markham Vale over the following two years had increased to 64 in 2021 the number of people employed by them remained fairly static at 2,229; the impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic having an impact on employment with some sectors having a slow down in growth whilst others faced uncertainty.

This year’s results won’t be available until April; as soon as we know what the final tally is we’ll be sure to let you know. 

Markham Vale Mining Heritage Group

The Markham Vale Mining Heritage group have been busy over the past few weeks promoting the Walking Together Mining Memorial in order to try and find surviving family members of the final thirteen miners that we will be commemorating this year.  They have they been telling the story of the mining disasters to local community groups and have also been raising the profile in the local press, notably in the Twist and S40 magazines.

You can view the latest copies of these magazines at pages 26 to 27 of S40 and pages 22 to 23 of Twist

Markham Vale Wildlife Group

The Wildlife Group was established two years ago and since then they have been busy recording the many different bird species to be found at Markham Vale.  These are many and varied with 120 recorded so far.

Obvious rarities such as Bearded Tit, Wryneck, Golden Oriole and Black Redstart for example were headline birds but the site, more importantly, supports good numbers of commoner species such as Yellowhammer (95 counted into roost at the North Tip reedbed alone) Some species have been lost from or declined on site over the years, mainly due to habitat loss and more intensive farming methods but hopefully future projects will redress this balance, for example – three “grass” fields at the top of North Tip were previously farmed and cut for silage, these are no longer in production so could be developed as flower rich meadows to provide nectar for pollinating insects and seed for wintering birds.

Your Markham Vale photo

Given that the Wildlife Group have recorded 120 different species of bird at Markham Vale, it is apt that this month’s photo was chosen to reflect their survey activities.  Submitted by local resident Mark Radford, the photo shows a Red-Crested Pochard.

Submissions are welcome from everybody working or living around Markham Vale or whether you are visiting the area.  All types of subjects are welcome; they could be of wildlife, scenes from inside the buildings, of construction work, of people at work or of the landscape – all that is asked is that they are taken around the Markham Vale area.  Email your submission to peter.storey@derbyshire.gov.uk

Markham Vale sponsors Celebrate Chesterfield

Destination Chesterfield’s annual Celebrate Chesterfield business event returns to the Winding Wheel on the 23rd March 2022.

Celebrate Chesterfield – organised by Destination Chesterfield, in association with The University of Derby and sponsored by Markham Vale and Central Technology – is an ideal opportunity for you to meet some of the key people who are working to achieve the goal of making the town a “modern destination.”

Attracting over 250 delegates, the annual event will update on the latest regeneration projects taking place in the area and of course plenty of time to network with other delegates. The event will also offer local business the chance to showcase what they do at the Derbyshire Festival of Business exhibition.

The Markham Vale team will be there to answer any questions you may have about the development site and discuss future development opportunities.

Book your delegate place by visiting Celebrate Chesterfield

Logistics and Supply Chain Conference

The University of Derby is hosting a Logistics and Supply Chain Conference on Thursday 31 March 2022 from 4.30pm until 8.00pm. The Enscite team will be there and able to speak to SME’s about funded support for companies within the D2N2 region operating in the aerospace, rail and automotive supply chain.

Other project teams from the University will also be present giving advice and information from Student placements to grant funding.  If this is of interest you can book via the link below.

Logistics and Supply Chain Conference - Logistics and Supply Chain Week 2022 - University of Derby

Keep in Touch

For further information on development opportunities at Markham Vale, click on

Business and Markham Vale or http://www.markhamvale.co.uk/.

For further information about the Environment Centre then email Trudi.Saxton@derbyshire.gov.uk or click here environmentcentre

If you have news, events, accolades, business developments or features that you think may be of interest to others at Markham Vale then please contact us for possible inclusion in future newsletters.

Peter Storey                                                               Trudi Saxton
Head of Markham Vale                                              Environment Centre Manager