A £400 ($605.6) million tourism development, that will bring more than 1,300 jobs to Chesterfield in Derbyshire, has been announced by UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
Peak Resorts is a partnership between UK development company Birchall Properties and US firm Grand Heritage Hotel Group. The new integrated all-weather, year-round leisure, health, sport and education destination will be built near Chesterfield. Plans for the project – which is in the Chesterfield borough on the reclaimed opencast mining site, close to the Birchall Estate at Unstone – have been years in the making. It brings together leading hospitality, university, sport and medical expertise and will have 600 holiday apartments, hotel and hostel units with 250 woodland lodges. Chesterfield Borough Council and Destination Chesterfield, the town’s marketing campaign, both say the news that the Peak Resorts project will soon get underway shows the private sector’s confidence about investing in the borough. Work will start on site between March and April. Chair of Destination Chesterfield Peter Swallow said: “The benefits of Chesterfield’s proximity to the Peak District National Park will be fully realised with the announcement of Peak Resorts.“The investment by the US firm Grand Heritage Hotel Group will put the town on the international map and I am confident Chesterfield will reap the domino effect of this investment far beyond the construction phase.”