Exposed’s Ash Birch spoke to Sheffield City Council leader Tom Hunt, who provided insights into the council’s plans for the upcoming year and discussed the long-term vision for the city centre as a whole.
How do you reflect on 2023 in terms of the city centre’s development? Can you provide an update on the current status of the Heart of the City project and any significant milestones?
Firstly, Sheffield is a city on the up. In 2023, we’ve seen the Heart of the City development really come into its own. We’ve seen buildings go up, scaffolding come down, and people are getting excited about what they’re seeing.
We opened up Pound’s Park, which is just a wonderful space; we’ve seen the work around Cambridge Street beginning to come to fruition, and we’ve had exciting announcements like Pete McKee being the first tenant at Leah’s Yard.
Leah’s Yard’s first tenant Pete McKee celebrating the work being done on the historic site
I think another significant milestone is the council’s decision to name Urban Splash as the preferred developer to take forward the redevelopment of the Cole Brothers building, which is going to breathe new life back into a much-loved building right at the heart of our city.
Looking ahead to 2024, which projects and developments are you excited about seeing come to life?
Within the Heart of the City, I’m looking forward to seeing more shops opening. We’ve just announced that Fjällräven and Yards Store will be moving into the development, and there’ll be more announcements coming soon.
I’m also looking forward to seeing the new flagship Radisson Blu hotel open up on Pinstone Street, along with Leah’s Yard.
A little bit further away, I’m really pleased that we’re going to be breaking ground on the new park and public space at Castlegate early in the New Year. Following on from the success of Pound’s Park, I think that’s going to give a real different perspective on a part of the city centre that needs a bit more investment.
It’s going to deculvert the River Sheaf, so there’ll be more access to the water down there, and that’s going to allow us to retell the story of Sheffield. The field where the Don and the Sheath meet is the field where the castle used to be, the birthplace of our city.
I want to make a great city centre, but for me, it’s all about changing people’s lives for the better.
As well as there being plenty to be positive about, have there been lessons learned with regards to some of the more controversial projects such as the Fargate Container Park?
The containers were an attempt to bring footfall back into the city centre after the pandemic when a lot of businesses in the city struggled, and I think it’s right that the council is willing to try new things to get more activity in the city centre.
We are already learning the lessons from that, but I think we need to now be focused on looking forward.
We’re also seeing that on the site of where the containers were, there’s now redevelopment work going on to improve the public realm around Fargate to make sure that it’s an attractive shopping street in the way that lots of people have fond memories of.
Sustainability is a hugely important area when it comes to urban planning. How is the development addressing sustainability and environmental concerns?
It’s a really important question, and it’s fundamental to our thinking. Elshaw House, one of the office developments next to Pound’s Park, is Sheffield’s first zero carbon workspace and it’s in the top one per cent of sustainable office buildings in the UK. That’s an example of how we’re taking sustainability seriously.
We’re also currently redeveloping the whole area around West Bar to make sure that there are good walking and cycling routes between West Bar and the bottom end of the city centre through to Kelham Island and Neepsend, creating sustainable, active travel routes up from Broad Lane.
Plans for the new regeneration of West Bar
That’s going to be accompanied by Grey to Green style planting. The thing that does so brilliantly is not only provide great landscaping but also sustainable urban drainage.
One of my key long-term priorities is to make sure that we build on our tram network and expand it because we’ve been fortunate to have the tram network for 30 years, but it’s only had one minor extension into Rotherham.
Could you tell us a bit more about how building on the tram network might look?
I feel that this is now the time to make sure that we have a modern, low carbon, sustainable mass transit system to move people around our city. We want to open up disused rail lines through to Stocksbridge in the northwest but also through to the southeast of the city, linking up the tram to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and also curling right around through to Chesterfield.
Fundamentally, the tram and bringing buses into public control are central to significantly reducing our carbon emissions. We now have an opportunity to work with the Combined Authority to make this happen. We’re doing a joint piece of work with the MCA to develop a new tram vision for our city. The government has decided not to go ahead with HS2 and to make money available for local schemes, so we’ll be making our case for that.
Are there plans to attract further businesses and investments to the area, and if so, what sectors are being targeted?
We’re currently developing the West Bar scheme, a big £300 million regeneration scheme, which came with £160 million of investment from Legal and General, so there are significant growth opportunities here in the city for both office and residential.
New landmark city centre building Elshaw House
We have also just taken a big step forward by approving our Draft Local Plan, which recognises that we need 36,000 new homes to meet the needs of a growing population in Sheffield. 20,000 of those new homes will be built in and around the city centre, and we’re developing master plans for new city centre neighbourhoods to make sure that we’re developing high-quality places where people have not only got great homes but also great facilities.
It’s a top priority of mine to make sure that we are doing significantly more by way of affordable housing. We haven’t been building enough affordable homes for some time and, working with our housing growth team, we’re doing all we can to create as many affordable, new homes as possible.
I want to make a great city centre, but for me, it’s all about changing people’s lives for the better.
What would you say is your overall vision for Sheffield city centre? What sort of space would you like to see it become?
I want to make sure that the city centre is a great place to live, to work, to shop, to relax, and to socialise, but I also want it to be a great place for everyone. Somewhere everyone can come and enjoy themselves, and that everyone is proud of.
I think we’re beginning to see that. We’ve got a history of being a bit too shy and modest about our positive strengths and even worse than that, sometimes talking ourselves down. I’ve been really clear: there’s lots of great stuff happening here and frankly, we’re not talking about it enough. If we don’t, who else is going to?
