City takes wraps off £500m plans for shopping
‘We’re looking to become major retail destination’
THE AMBITION to make Sheffield one of the country’s leading shopping destinations takes a significant step forward today with the unveiling of a £500m plan to transform a large tract of the centre of Yorkshire’s second largest city.
Construction on the Sheffield Retail Quarter could begin in 2017, bringing to an end years of paralysis triggered by the stalling and later scrapping of the doomed Sevenstone shopping centre project. It is estimated the new scheme could create 2,500 jobs from construction and in the businesses occupying the new development.
Sheffield City Council deputy leader Coun Leigh Bramall said: “The most successful city centres across the world are spaces where people can live, work, shop and socialise. They offer a great mix of independent and prime retailers, and encourage people to stay from morning to night.
“This is what we want for Sheffield, a flourishing city centre that is not only a good day out, but also offers jobs and economic benefits to the whole city.”
Sevenstone was a casualty of the credit crunch and in 2013 Sheffield City Council broke off its agreement with developer Hammerson after four years without progress.
The plans set out by the council today including new offices, homes and restaurants as well as space for shops.
The public will have until June 19 to comment on the proposals before the authority seeks planning permission for the new-look scheme.
A deal reached with the Government three years ago will allow the council to borrow money to help get the project off the ground against the business rates which will be generated by the development.
The presence of the nearby Meadhowhall centre and the shift to online shopping has raised questions over whether Sheffield can sustain another major retail scheme. But the council insists the new Sheffield Retail Quarter proposals will take account of changes in shopping habits and that many Meadowhall occupants will want to open second stores in the city centre. It is estimated the retail quarter will stop £300m of spending heading out of Sheffield, which is the region’s largest city after Leeds.
Richard Wright, the executive director at Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said: “What the centre must do is increase wealth in the region. If it just draws shoppers from other parts of the region they will suffer. Done correctly, this development will both
This is what we want for Sheffield, a flourishing city centre Sheffield City Council deputy leader Coun Leigh Bramall
reduce the leakage of shoppers to places like Manchester and Leeds but also entice people in from all over the country.”
The upturn in the economy has seen a series of shopping schemes get underway in Yorkshire, with Trinity Leeds opened in 2013 and construction underway on Victoria Gate in Leeds and Broadway Bradford.
Meanwhile, Hull City Council yesterday unveiled plans to spend £9m bringing forward a series of projects in readiness for City of Culture in 2017.
OPPOSITION COUNCILLORS have criticised moves to spend another £9m on plans to make Hull a “world-class visitor destination” in time for 2017.
The Labour leadership will use Hull Council’s annual meeting on Thursday to ask for more money to be spent on the Ferens Art Gallery, which will be hosting the Turner Prize, and on Hull New Theatre, which wants to host bigger West End productions such as War Horse.
The council is having to find another £2m towards the £20.5m cost of improving the look of the city centre, while adding a learner pool to Woodford Leisure Centre will push up the final cost – not yet known – of extending and modernising facilities there.
Improvements at the art gallery, including a £638,000 draught lobby, will now cost £4.53m, up from £3.9m.
The cost of work on Hull New Theatre has also shot up another £1.7m to £8.7m. In total £4.2m has been allocated to schemes, with the £4.8m balance held in contingency.
In February the council approved a budget of £78m for the “2017 legacy programme” and Lib Dem group leader Coun Mike Ross said in the three months since, costs were “already rocketing”.
Coun Ross said they were concerned about the lack of scrutiny: “We have concerns about putting this on the AGM agenda. It does feel they are trying to sneak it in. We said back in February when they moved the budget, they maxed out the credit card and this is more of the same. The paper talks about borrowing costs getting cheaper – so they are going to borrow more.”
And Tory John Fareham said a special meeting should have been held to decide the extra spending as “a lot of people don’t turn up for an AGM”. He added: “Labour bleat on about Government cuts but when push comes to shove we are awash with money.”
While he backed moves to spend money on the theatre, he said Woodford Leisure Centre was a “bizarre inclusion” in 2017 plans, adding: “It does make me wonder whether it is a sop to the East Hull Labour mafia – realistically, who is going to travel to City of Culture and go for a swim there? This is routine maintenance and should be admitted as such.”
However, council leader Steve Brady said extra streets, Carr Lane and Paragon Street and those off it, were now in line for improvements. The learner pool is being added to Woodford to make up for loss of the small pool at East Hull Baths –which is used by children with disabilities – when it eventually closes.
And he insisted the sums stacked up: “The Lib Dems said this before the election and it didn’t make one iota of difference – our vote in Hull increased by its largest percentage for many a long year. We got a better rate (of borrowing), which means that it is not costing any more over the same number of years.
“This is about spreading out into the community some of the vision for the city.”
Hull New Theatre hopes improvements to the backstage, refurbishing dressing rooms and increasing the size and height of the stage makes it the theatre of choice for touring companies.
There will be access for the disabled throughout and the theatre, will have 200 extra seats and a total capacity of 1,400, putting it on a par with other theatres in the region such as the Leeds Grand Theatre (1,550).
Realistically who is going to travel to east Hull (in 2017) for a swim? Coun John Fareham Conservative Group leader