Lord Burlington, Derbyshire’s High Sheriff and Chancellor of the University of Derby, has visited Derby College Group’s Broomfield Hall Land-based and Leisure college in Morley to meet students benefiting from higher education programmes.

A mobile phones recycling initiative to support a Derby charity has been expanded thanks to intu Derby.

Anyone with an unwanted mobile phone can now drop them off at the Customer Service [CS1] desk at intu Derby.

They will be collected regularly by Sinfin-based Century Mobile who will arrange recycling and all money collected will be donated to child sexual exploitation (CSE) specialist charity Safe and Sound.

Bondholder JSA Architects has been engaged on new plans to convert Forester House in Derby city centre into an easyHotel, part of the easyGroup of businesses.

Forester House, located on the corner of Newland Street and Becket Street, became empty after the relocation of JobCentre Plus. The fresh plans would bring an 111-bedroom easyHotel, a 160-seat restaurant plus function room to the city centre.

Placement students at a Derbyshire company convinced older colleagues across their workplace to pull on fancy dress and pose for the camera when they put together a 2020 works calendar in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

More than 130 members of staff at Lubrizol, in Hazelwood, answered the call for volunteers to attend a series of photo-shoots when the students took it upon themselves to compile a calendar for the first time in the company’s history.

Ann Thorsson, a writer originally from Derbyshire, is coming back to the county in February to give a series of workshops and readings.  She'll be delivering a FREE writing workshop at Alfreton Library on Monday, 17 February 2020 - 

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is now open for entries: https://www.aestheticamagazine.com/creative-writing-award/

If you’re a writer who is interested in researching Derbyshire then take advantage of a FREE Introduction to the Record Office session at Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock.  The sessions happen on a regular basis and can be booked online by visiting

Derby College Group (DCG) has retained its ‘Good’ grading from Ofsted following a two-day short inspection in December.

DCG was one of the first further education colleges in the East Midlands to be inspected under Ofsted’s new framework.

The team of five inspectors visited all of the group’s colleges: the Roundhouse, Joseph Wright Centre, Broomfield Hall and Ilkeston College with ‘deep dive’ focuses on Sport, Animal Care, adult Retail and Wholesale programmes and Construction apprenticeships.

The cast of Derby’s pantomime, Peter Pan, are getting behind a city-wide initiative to encourage children to improve their speech, language and communication skills.

Children who grow up to be confident communicators have more opportunities in life, and TALK Derby aims to give their parents and carers the skills to help them reach their full potential.

Project Requirements

a) Develop 3 concept ideas, to then produce a campaign proposition and a campaign toolkit, which will include hashtags, taglines etc.

b) Production of supporting collateral to promote the Festival of Derbyshire. This will include campaign materials, adverts etc.