Images give first glimpse of the exciting plans for riverside transformation
IMAGES have been unveiled showing the potential transformation of the Sheepfolds area of Sunderland. Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee gave the green light earlier this week for works, paving the way for a major overhaul.
The vision set out by development chiefs includes hundreds of new homes to replace the current Sheepfolds Industrial Estate. The pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Wear, currently under construction, will connect the homes to the city centre.
Several factory units and industrial buildings on the site have recently been approved for demolition, with an application for housing expected once a developer is appointed.
At a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Economic Prosperity Scrutiny Committee councillors were updated on the Sheepfolds area plans.
Computer-generated images (CGI) were presented, offering a glimpse of how the residential community could look.
Neil Guthrie, the city council’s development director, provided an update on projects linked to Siglion, the council’s regeneration and development company, including the Sheepfolds development.
The council is relocating businesses from the Sheepfolds Industrial Estate and progressing the scheme.
Mr Guthrie said: “We have been doing a lot of work over the last six months on the Sheepfolds neighbourhood at Riverside Sunderland.”
“That will be the most populated in terms of residential community, we’re targeting somewhere in the region of 600 new homes on the north side of the river.”
“We have been evolving the Riverside Sunderland masterplan that we launched in 2019 and have done work around Sheepfolds particularly to look at how we manage pedestrian flow, particularly on match days and concert events, and how we protect the residential community from that traffic flow and also how we manage the risk of terrorism and all sorts of things.”
“Also how we improve connectivity with some of the active travel networks and the likes of the Metro station.”
“We have done work to strengthen the masterplan and are looking at moving pedestrian traffic to the periphery which allows us to deliver a more concentrated residential community in the middle.”
“We have also produced a few CGI images which try to demonstrate the ambition of what we’re setting out to achieve”.
The western part of Sheepfolds and the Stadium of Light will be connected to Sunderland city centre by public areas, which will feature bars, restaurants, community facilities and open space.
At the ‘eastern gateway’ of the site, near St Peter’s Metro Station, there is a vision to create a mobility hub with access to car sharing and cycle provision, as well as space for deliveries.
Planning permission has already been granted for the first section of the ‘Way of Light’ which will run alongside the new Stables hospitality development and a planning application is expected to be submitted for more public area improvements at the northern end of the Sheepfolds site.
Elsewhere, work is ongoing to progress the procurement process to find a developer to deliver housing at the Sheepfolds site.
Mr Guthrie added: “We’re currently preparing procurement documentation with a view to launching that probably within the next four to six weeks which will kickstart the residential development process.”
“In the background, we have secured again some grant from the North East Combined Authority to help tackle some of the abnormal ground conditions as part of the first phase of the residential development.”
“We have got ongoing conversations with the combined authority, Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities around further investment in the infrastructure, particularly that will help us to unlock the rest of the residential development over there.”
“We’re well progressed now with acquisition and demolition of existing properties [at Sheepfolds] and have managed to relocate several businesses to new premises and have demolished some of the low-quality industrial units over there with a view to bringing along new development.”
“We’re in dialogue with some of the remaining tenants and have got relocation plans in progress for some of those as well, so it’s all going fairly well at the moment”.
The development boss said remediation works should start on site in late 2024 or early 2025.
Subject to permissions and agreements being granted, it is also hoped that residential development on the site would be started before the end of March, 2026.
Mr Guthrie added: “We’re expecting to be well ahead of that programme, subject to the successful appointment of a development partner.”
“Hopefully you will see a lot of change over at Sheepfolds within the next three years which fits in with the Siglion business plan”.