2 April 2020

We have also been able to assist Derbyshire County Council (DCC) in the fight against the coronavirus, who are working in partnership with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). We took a call from the council last week, asking if we had any buildings available that could be set up within 48 hours as a logistics hub, to be run by the MoD. We identified a unit we own near Chesterfield, which we thought might be suitable.

We opened up the building that afternoon to representatives from the MoD and DCC, who agreed to take the building, which we offered free of charge. Legal documents were issued, reviewed and signed by 3pm the following day, and the council’s operations team were in the day after that, going through all the pre-occupation checks. They have been working through the night to put everything in place, and hope to be operational very shortly.

The building will be used for the distribution of PPE, food and other vital equipment in the battle against the coronavirus.

The teams at both Derbyshire County Council and the Devonshire Group pulled everything out the bag to make this happen incredibly efficiently and at very short notice, and it is wonderful to be able to help the frontline staff fighting the virus.

We are working on other initiatives, and will share updates with you over the coming weeks.

A visit to the unit in May 2019