Tree row sees city left out of prestigious list
A CITY’S bitter row over tree-felling has seen it left out of a prestigious list of the country’s most desirable places to live.
Sheffield, where protests have been held over the loss of trees, has this year not been included in the The Sunday Times Best Places to Live list.
Sheffield Council and its contractor Amey have faced calls to cease tree felling after heated scenes and arrests.
The Sunday Times, which publishes the list, said: “No room for Sheffield this year, thanks to the bitter battle over council-backed plans for mass tree-felling.”
Paul Selby, of action group Save Nether Edge Trees, said he was surprised Sheffield was left off the list for that reason. But he added: “There are some streets that were genuinely leafy where 100 per cent of the trees have gone.
“On some streets there has been genuine tension between residents. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.”
A Sheffield Council spokesman said: “Sheffield remains the greenest city in Europe and there will be more trees at the end of this programme than when it started, so it is regrettable that the increasingly extreme actions of a small number of protestors is having this impact in the media.
“It is also clear that, as the Chamber of Commerce have recently stated, businesses are seeing the inward investment gains from the improvement in the city’s highways”.
Bradford was also highlighted as showing ‘no sign of gentrifying’, but York was named best place to live. Jobs, schools, broadband speed and shopping are all taken into account.
A SOARING 37-storey tower that would be Sheffield’s tallest building is planned in the city centre directly opposite the railway station.
Sheffield Hallam University is seeking partners to put up the landmark high-rise structure in Sheaf Street, at the site of the former Nelson Mandela Building close to the bus interchange.
The development would feature a conference facility with space for 300 people, a 120-room four or five-star hotel, roof gardens, dining and bar areas, 200 apartments and room for food outlets on the ground floor.
The plan supports – but is not a crucial element of – the university’s 15-year campus masterplan, the first phase of which will cost about £220m.
Over the next five years new buildings are planned for the business school and social sciences, as well as a revamp for the students’ union, known as the HUBS and housed in four distinctive stainless steel drums originally created for the ill-fated National Centre for Popular Music.
Hallam has been working with architects from BDP and property firm Lambert Smith Hampton on proposals for the tower.
Designs were presented this week at the MIPIM real estate conference in Cannes.
Currently, Sheffield’s tallest building is St Paul’s Tower, the 32-storey 331ft tower of apartments that overlooks Arundel Gate. The Nelson Mandela Building was once home to the university’s students’ union.