'Detailed discussions' between Skyline Enterprises and Sheffield City Council about former Ski Village continue
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The city council says it is still talking to a New Zealand company about a ‘Gravity Park’ and ‘more updates will follow’.
Skyline Enterprises was unveiled as a potential partner in December.
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Hide AdIt emerged as a front runner after another firm, Extreme Leisure - which planned a £25m ski resort - was sacked for being too slow.
Skyline has submitted a number of ideas for the site, including sledging and zip wires. The company did not respond to The Star.
HOW LONG COULD THIS DEVELOPMENT TAKE?
In December, chief executive Geoff McDonald said it could take ‘three to four’ years to develop and there were two big issues - contamination and access.
Sheffield City Council says there is contamination and the remnants of the former Ski Village which burned down. It announced £200,000 for a site investigation and clean up in a bid to attract investment.
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Hide AdThe other problem is access, which is via a narrow one-lane railway tunnel on Douglas Road.
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One idea from the time of Extreme Leisure’s involvement was to build a one-way route via Parkwood Road before turning back on a new road across the Viridor landfill site. Vehicles would exit via the narrow tunnel on Douglas Road.
Sheffield City Council secured a £4.8m loan from the South Yorkshire mayor’s office for a road, car park and landscaping to make the approach like a ‘private drive at Center Parcs’.
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But plans were paused after Extreme failed to hit delivery milestones, the authority said. It also reallocated £6m from the Get Britain Building Fund intended to unlock the development. This rendered the scheme unviable and the agreement ended.
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Hide AdThe Extreme development was seen as ‘hugely important’ part of Sheffield’s ‘Outdoor City’ brand that could have created 400 jobs, attracted 1m people a year and pumped £50m into the local economy over 10 years, on top of the £25m investment.
The original Ski Village was hugely successful when it opened in 1988 and attracted visitors from across the North and Midlands.
But it was destroyed by fire in 2012 and suffered repeated arson attacks. Today, the 51-acre site is derelict and overgrown and, 10 years on, it is still waiting to be reborn.