Looks lovely in the artist's impression (lol) but the words 'affordable housing' in the plan rings alarm bells. It didn't work before as cheap housing before so why should it this time round.

Story here -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/6234385.stm

It didn't work before as cheap housing before so why should it this time round.

It needs two things - two things which, indeed, every single block of flats anywhere in the country should have.

One, secure entrances with buzzers;
Two, a maintenance person who lives on-site and whose job - and home, since he gets it rent-free with the job - depends on doing the tenants' repairs, and keeping the lifts working.

Neither of those things are necessarily incompatible with cheap housing, but I don't really expect to see either of them put in. No doubt the place will be a urine-caked hellhole again within ten years.

I disagree, the two things it needs are:

1. High Explosive.

2. A suitable detonator.

£146million. :loopy:

The company who are doing it, Urban Splash, will do a good job of it. The are probably the best property developers around for rennovating things.

you can't polish a turd, i'm afraid

sheffield needs new homes, its a pity it cant be all be council for the people and only the people of sheffield, but the only otherwise financially profitable alternative i could see would be to blow it up and make a car park and that would be a greater waste of money.

It used to be all council tenants before, and look at the mess they left it in!.

you can't polish a turd, i'm afraid

:hihi: :hihi: lmao:hihi: :hihi:

best thing they can do is bomb it with all the scum still in their rat ridden drug beds.:thumbsup:

With Urban Spash in charge you can bet it will be better than good. What a fabulous opportunity for an awesome building.

my concern when I read friday's paper was

Jeesh! only 200 flats out of 900 (and all those millions that will be spent on the re-furb!) will be socail housing, the rest are shared ownership/ outright bought ..

I'm disgusted.

Those flats always intrigue me for some reason!! Just the fact they're empty and its such a big place! Kinda want to have a look round them someday!! :P

my concern when I read friday's paper was

Jeesh! only 200 flats out of 900 (and all those millions that will be spent on the re-furb!) will be socail housing, the rest are shared ownership/ outright bought ..

I'm disgusted.

I have a different take on this. There's a chance they might do a good job if they have to persuade people to actually part with money and buy the flats. The 200 flats which are piggybacking on the deal might be good places to live too.

I can't imagine that happening if all 900 were social housing, it would just be a rerun of what happened first time round.

I looked at the Urban Splash site and they seem to have a good track record, but it's hard to imagine Park Hill ever being smart and desirable. For one thing the concrete is now very dirty, staineed and tatty looking, but I suppose the Grade II* listing might help persuade some people. It certainly saved it from demolition.

This from the Urban Splash site -

"Park Hill is all about love. Love and Sheffield. It's a story of a love forgotten. Of a building to make things better. Of a city that used to be a world city. We are asking, what if Sheffield loved Park Hill again?"

What a load of ********!

http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/pdf/ph_leaflet.pdf

http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/pdf/ph_brochure.pdf

http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/pdf/studio_egret.pdf

http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/pdf/hawkins_brown.pdf

They're damn ugly and no matter what they always will be!

For years now no ones known what the hell to do with them and it's clutching at straws measures now.

Aren't they a listed building(s)?... For gods sake.....

Could have knocked them down, rebuilt and in the end made more money than throwing at the thing.

my concern when I read friday's paper was

Jeesh! only 200 flats out of 900 (and all those millions that will be spent on the re-furb!) will be socail housing, the rest are shared ownership/ outright bought ..

I'm disgusted.

I can't agree. When there are huge estates of exclusively social housing, there are too many associated problems around anti social behaviour, poverty etc. I think building communities where there are a mix of owner occupiers, part buy/part rent, and social housing has to be the way forward.

Those of my age will remember that up until the 1970s/80s people from a much wider social mix lived in council housing, but the majority of the more affluent have moved into owner occupation, particularly in areas in the north like Sheffield where housing was affordable. The government changed housing policies to give much more help to the homeless and needy, (remember Cathy Come Home) and council housing in the main became the only option for many rather than a choice as previously. I know there are many tenants who despair about how their estate has fallen from a once aspirational place to a run down area, with boarded up properties, empty shops, messy gardens and gangs of kids roaming about. Whatever anyone's views are about Parkhill, the decision to develop it has been made and I really feel that Urban Splash can make a success of it. Their track record would suggest that they haven't entered into the project lightly.

The demand for social housing has risen sharply in the last 4 or 5 years, partly to do with the huge increase in private property prices, partly due to the ongoing 'right to buy', and partly due to the fact that councils decided to demolish homes that people just didn't want and were costing money to leave empty!

you can't polish a turd, i'm afraid

No, but you can put sugar sprinkles on it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6220000/newsid_6228300/6228385.stm
(I know it's CBBC, but it was the only site I could find with it one :P)

I disagree, the two things it needs are:

1. High Explosive.

2. A suitable detonator.

£146million. :loopy:

IT'S LISTED...durrr:loopy: :hihi:

IT'S LISTED...durrr:loopy: :hihi:

Grade II listed to be precise. Durrrrrrrrr :rolleyes: :loopy: :hihi:

It needs de-Listing then blowing up :thumbsup:

Did you know it can be de-listed yan? Durrrrrrrrrrrr :loopy: :hihi:

my concern when I read friday's paper was

Jeesh! only 200 flats out of 900 (and all those millions that will be spent on the re-furb!) will be socail housing, the rest are shared ownership/ outright bought ..

I'm disgusted.

totally agree with you, especially when it had nearly 2000 council properties in it before.
im from sheffield and like many others need council housing of which i will gladly pay full rent, if i see thatcher she can have a slap.

totally agree with you, especially when it had nearly 2000 council properties in it before.


Think about this for a while, why don'tcha?

Private housing ownership - people look after houses.

All council housing - the place was an utter dump.


Notice any connection? There's a reason they are making much of it private - it's better for people. Stop worrying about dogma and start worrying about people having nice places to live.

Think about this for a while, why don'tcha?

Private housing ownership - people look after houses.

All council housing - the place was an utter dump.


Notice any connection? There's a reason they are making much of it private - it's better for people. Stop worrying about dogma and start worrying about people having nice places to live.

no its to do with £££, the place was an utter dump because the heroin trade was allowed to openly flourish, i cant afford to buy a house, but i can afford to rent council as i have done before (and looked after it).
just bcos you (assuming you do) own your house doesent mean every1 else can afford to

totally agree with you, especially when it had nearly 2000 council properties in it before.
im from sheffield and like many others need council housing of which i will gladly pay full rent, if i see thatcher she can have a slap.

I wish people would understand the reasons for the current lack of council housing! As recently as 5 years ago there were loads of empty council properties in Sheffield - people could get a key to a flat or even a house in some areas the day after they applied. All the empties cost the council a fortune in lost rent so some of the least popular estates had properties demolished and not replaced except by houses for sale. Councils will never build large estates of social housing again, because many of them have failed. If they were successful, there would be no need for people to manage the estates, deal with anti social behaviour etc. It just doesn't happen in areas of private homes to anything like the same extent.

The labour government have done little to change tory policy on council housing. Its worth looking at the Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_house as it gives quite a bit of information on how different changes have affected housing. Also, the more people that buy their council houses reduce the number available to rent.

The reports I have read about the scheme to renovate the Park Hill flats are saying that there are still some questions to be answered regarding the financing of the project.Urban Splash are not in this for the love of it and at present cannot estimate the maintenence costs involved once the project is finished.Sheffield council ,I believe, will be contributing to the financial arrangements and once again I have heard the words 'It will not cost the ratepayers anything'.Remember the Student Games,

I have not met anyone who doesn't think spending £146 million on that monstrosity is a colossal waste of money. Blow the damn thing up and be done with it.

With Urban Spash in charge you can bet it will be better than good.

After seeing what they've done in Manchester, I would normally agree with you. But I just can't see the hidden beauty in this building and think they've bitten off more than they can chew this time.

After seeing what they've done in Manchester, I would normally agree with you. But I just can't see the hidden beauty in this building and think they've bitten off more than they can chew this time.

It's a listed building anyway. Exactly how much would they be allowed to change it?

There's an interesting discussion of the proposals on this site for new building enthusiasts -

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=310836

The reports I have read about the scheme to renovate the Park Hill flats are saying that there are still some questions to be answered regarding the financing of the project.Urban Splash are not in this for the love of it and at present cannot estimate the maintenence costs involved once the project is finished.Sheffield council ,I believe, will be contributing to the financial arrangements and once again I have heard the words 'It will not cost the ratepayers anything'.Remember the Student Games,

It will cost the tax payers something, already £35 million of our taxes has been announced publically to this daft scheme.


Also the £146million that urban splash have "promised" might not be all that safe. The way the scheme will be built is in phases, only if they sell all the flats in each phase will they have enough profit to then invest in the next phase of the scheme.

Therefore if in phase 1 they flop, no extra investment and we the people of Sheffield are left with £35 million of out taxes committed and a building site and urban splash walk away having invested next to nothing!!

I don't know what they are like now but there is nothing wrong with Park Hill per se. ..when they were built the people who where moved to them thought they were wonderful and were proud to live there,they were so much better than the slums they had moved out of.. The first 7 years there were always film crews coming round to show the "streets in the sky" ..it was a real community. They only started to go down hill when the council started to " social engineer" the mix of tenants and those decent families that could ,,left.