New Retail Quarter - council rushing it through without consultation

[chav 10]

What do people think of the council's plans for the New Retail Quarter? The plans look pretty impressive (and expensive!) but seem to have been pushed through without any consultation. The exhibition to demonstrate the NRQ was not publicised until the weekend Telegraph, leaving no time for local people to view the plans because the exhibition closed on the Monday! Furthermore, the closing date to raise any concerns over the plans is as early 1st December.... but if you cannot view the plans, how do you know if you have an objection? Looks like several hundred million pounds of our money is going to spent on an ambitious scheme which will make Sheffield city centre Europe's 2nd largest building site without any consultation or even a public meeting! How can the council get away with this?

[Tony 10]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Do As I Say Not As I Do Planning in Sheffield.

[max 13]

Everything you need to know here:

 

Plans, etc.

[Tony 10]

To be fair though, the plans have been under discussion for long enough.

 

The statutory consultation period is only 21 days for any application, though any valid objections that are received after that date are usually taken into consideration, even if they are ignored. It is beholden on interested parties to make their views known within that period and you can visit the Planning Department at Howden House to see the application documents and the file.

 

Public consultation on these things is always a difficult call and this process often looks rushed to those who don't understand the process.

 

All that said, I do think that the Councilors (more than the planners) frequently put on a lot of pressure to push things through with as little public input as possible, especially where the party line is on the line. The Officers are on the whole very professional and interested in public views.

[Andy 10]

I knew about the exhibition a few weeks before it happened - I'm not sure how I found out about it.

 

I went along, and it was very informative, with staff on hand to explain exactly how the "new" city centre relates to the one we have today.

 

Bearing in mind the best estimate for the project being completed is 2012, you can see why the council don't want any more delays.

[matt1889 10]

The idea came together from several previous ideas dating back to the early 1990's!

 

Which i'm sure means that in this time, the relevant consideration should have gone into the whole thing!

 

I think the problems tend to be, that the ideas are released to the general public rather late, giving people very little time to object to the plans before construction!

 

Anything for an easy life????

 

Matt

[Tim42 10]

Does it look good? I have not seen the plans. Judgeing on whats gone up in this past couple or so years I bet not. I would love there to be changes to transform this ugly dump of a city into something more attractive. Why cant or wont they designe contempary buildings that look good instead of these souless slabs like the horrifieng sick mess st paul tower? Dull dreary foul, very ugly (retro 1960s slab)? Nice name, shame about the place.

 

Oh Yeah! Some Forumers are praising the dreary st pauls slab & saying we must move forward. So why are they praising this awfull, blast from the past, 1906s pile?

[KenH 10]

I also haven't seen these plans and I have no idea whether they are good or bad. I would say that simply having more retail and "luxury" apartments can't be good for the City, what we really need is a new industrial heart.

 

It is worth looking at how these things get built.

 

Everyone seems to have strong views on the World Student Games. Either this provided us with superb facilities or saddled us with a huge debt. What everyone may not realize is that many of the people involved in the qango that were behind building the facilities then went on to:-

 

Be behind building Sheffield City Airport. The same organisations behind the student games also provided an airport to the city with a clause that said the developer could have it for "£1 if it didn't make money.

 

The current qango who are behind the retail quarter are "Sheffield One". The Deputy Chairman of Sheffield One was Chairman of the Sheffield Development Corporation who were in behind the airport fiasco. Sitting with him on the Development Corporation were people who had previously gained their experience with the Student Games.

 

The current qango behind the retial quarter has 13 members but only two are elected members of the City Council. Many of the others come from industries and even companies that will benefit from such schemes. For example, I suppose you could argue that having the MD of John Lewis on the board is appropriate because they are at the core of the retail quarter but then he would also sit on the board when planning all their other schemes such as "Castlegate" and the "Cultural Industries Quarter".

 

Should we carry on letting people who made mistakes such as giving away the airport for £1 continue to move from one qango to another, leaving us to pay for the aftermath?

[Tony 10]

You are confusing totally different sectors of the Sheffield economy. At a development level retail has nothing directly to do with housing which has nothing to do with industry. They are not interchangeable commodities. You can't just have one instead of the other.

 

Next, you forget that if it weren't for the SDC, Sheffield would have no 'industrial heart' at all for it was they who were responsible for the redevelopment of the Don Valley after the industry was lost in the 70's / 80's. It was they who put in the roads, assembled land, granted planning consents in quick time, gave grants to bring derelict buildings and land back into use, and generally drove a coach and horses through the red tape that had strangled development in Sheffield. That was why the SDC was set up, and they did it rather well.

 

Your comment about the airport is a moot point, but I don;t recall that the SDC (wound up in the 90's as per it's planned life cycle) had much to do with the closure of the airport. They DID however have a lot to do with getting it built in the first place.

 

Personally I'm far happier that regeneration is being looked after by those who know what they are doing rather than 'elected representatives' who can see no further than the ballot box.

[Captain_Scarlet 10]

I've sentmy comments.

 

You may do the same after a quick view of their proprietory documents on http://www.sheffieldnrq.co.uk/

 

Greg

[Tim42 10]

Took a look at hammersons plan for the retail quater. How awfull, how depressing. Once again legoland uglyness, cheapo tackey, pretend its prestigious rubbish prevails. Sheffield city centre is adump. No question

[KenH 10]

Originally posted by Tony

Your comment about the airport is a moot point, but I don;t recall that the SDC (wound up in the 90's as per it's planned life cycle) had much to do with the closure of the airport. They DID however have a lot to do with getting it built in the first place.

.

 

They were responsible for the clause whereby it can be sold for £1 if it doesn't make a profit after ten years.

 

My points on these qangos are that they seem to have the same set of people, few of which are elected. If the people of Sheffield want the place improved then we should elect a body to do that.

 

I am unhappy that someone who was responsible for landing the city with the student games debt can then carry on and be on a body that provided an airport with too short a runway and a maximum life of 10 years. I am then unhappy that the people who produced an unviable airport can then move on to plan our inner city.

 

I don't agree that retail, housing and industry are separate. Much of the centre of Sheffield was made up of what were effectively small industrial units. Large retail developments for big landlords are very bad for a city as they encourage the same old chains of shops to take over the leases. We will find we have 100 new shops who all look like any other shops in any other highstreet. If that is the case then I may as well drive to Meadowhall and park free.