Comment - Create a car-free environment and good things will follow

It’s a combination of residual wariness - road safety is drummed into us the minute we can walk - and freedom. And it’s really rather nice.

You’d have to have a heart of stone to think recent changes to the city centre had made the environment worse.

Today you can walk from Leopold Street to the end of The Moor and only cross one road - Furnival Gate - which now has a lot less traffic on it.

The lower part of Pinstone Street features a huge new pavement, a bit like the deck of an aircraft carrier. And it has completely done away with traffic turning left on to Furnival Gate which would claim pedestrians on a regular basis.

On the section of Pinstone Street near the town hall, a new ‘parklet’, complete with fake grass, palms, benches and a coffee van have been installed next to the redundant bus stops.

So you can stand, or sit comfortably sipping coffee, in the middle of a road that used to see a thundering, non-stop procession of buses.

As if to underline the improvements, the new Radisson Blu hotel, which is going in Palatine Chambers on Pinstone Street, will have a rooftop bar. It will have one of the nicest views in the city centre without a doubt.

But, people will say, what about businesses? Some claim the road closures have damaged trade. Certainly optician Elaine Bird of JC Bird on Surrey Street is compelling when she says elderly customers now struggle to get there by bus.

But even before the pandemic, we could see city centre retail was in decline. And experts had long claimed people want experiences and not just shopping.

And clearly good experiences start with a nice environment. So just maybe Sheffield is well positioned for what comes next.

Some Pinstone Street changes were planned before lockdown. Some were brought in to allow social distancing and even the swathes of black tarmac and double height kerbstones are only ‘semi-permanent’.

So, if there’s enough fuss, it could all be removed and the buses reinstated. But I hope that doesn’t happen.