We’ve proved critics wrong over stadium site, says council leader
THE LEADER of a Yorkshire council has claimed that a landmark development to provide state-of-the-art research into healthy living has proved critics wrong after it has been built on the site of the second largest athletics stadium in the UK.
Sheffield Council took the controversial decision seven years ago to demolish the Don Valley Stadium, which was the training ground for a generation of aspiring athletes including Olympic gold medal-winning heptathlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.
At the time, senior councillors made a commitment to build the Olympic Legacy Park in the stadium’s place, and the new development is now nearing completion.
Council leader Julie Dore has now praised the opening of the “most advanced research centre in the world for activity”, claiming the authority has stayed true to its promise.
She said: “Seven years ago people were extremely sceptical of our vision and plan and I made a promise that it would not be a supermarket and would not be housing – it definitely needed to be a legacy of what Don Valley stood for.
“People were extremely sceptical and said: ‘Oh, you’ve done this on the back of a fag packet’. No, this was always a real vision.”
Coun Dore stressed it would have been easy to sell off the site and secure millions of pounds from a supermarket or housing developer, but the council wanted the project to be “for Sheffield” and help create jobs and encourage healthy living.
At the time of its closure, the 25,000-seat Don Valley Stadium was the second biggest athletics stadium in the country, after London’s Olympic Stadium.
The Olympic Legacy Park is the home of sporting organisations including Sheffield Eagles and a technical college.
The latest addition to the site is the multi-million pound Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, which the council claims is the “most advanced in the world”.
It is the centrepiece of the park and brings together designers, technologies and charities for research, products and services.
Coun Dore said: “We made a commitment to build a world class, leading scheme that offered education, health and well-being, leisure activity and also business opportunities.
“One of the leading sectors in our region is health technology and now we’ve got the university technical college that leads into all that, a new stadium and businesses now negotiating to come onto the park.
“For us it’s a real local story because it goes back seven years ago to that really difficult and unpopular decision and trying to take the community with us.”
She added that the development’s location in Darnall, which has been blighted by deprivation, is aimed at “enthusing and inspiring young people”.
Seven years ago people were extremely sceptical of our vision. Sheffield Council leader Julie Dore.