Restorations - £200m brownfield housing plan for Sheffield 'could make Attercliffe the new Ecclesall Road'

The Attercliffe Waterside scheme will put thousands of people a stone’s throw from the district centre, which is having a £17m revamp of its own.

MP Clive Betts believes once people start moving in local businesses will improve, new ones will open and they will all grow in tandem.

Attercliffe Road will become a destination with interesting shops, boutiques and cafes just like its famous counterpart, he says.

“Once you have the residents and the private sector investment coming in they feed off each other,” said Mr Betts.

“I think there will be plenty of demand, it’s a brilliant location. There are a lot of people with an affection for the place who would like to come back and regenerate Attercliffe.”

The vision is to create a new neighbourhood of low-carbon new homes aimed at skilled young workers and families.

WHY IS CLIVE BETTS OPTIMISTIC THE SCHEME WILL GO AHEAD?

Mr Betts’ optimism comes as the South Yorkshire Mayor’s office seems set to approve £4m from the Brownfield Housing Fund to kickstart the giant scheme.

Sheffield City Council applied for the cash to buy land for £2.37m and contribute £760,000 to the refurbishment of industrial buildings of ‘considerable character,’ including the former Spartan Steel works on Attercliffe Road. A further £950,000 is needed ‘for the cost of abnormal foundations’.

The 22-acre plot is bounded by Effingham Road and Woodbourn Road and split by Sheffield and Tinsley Canal.

WHO OWNS THE LAND?

Land to the south of the canal is owned by the council, and land on both sides of the canal belongs to the Duke of Norfolk, with some leased to the Canal and River Trust.

A report to the mayor’s office says once the council has bought the land it doesn’t own it will sell it to developer Citu ‘at a price that is commercially viable’.

This is necessary, it says, because the scheme has stalled due to ‘market failure’. It will allow Citu to develop out the site, ‘raising residential values in a challenging location for residential viability’ and make the remaining phases ‘commercially viable for the private sector to deliver’.

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The Duke of Norfolk owns the freehold for Spartan Works, a former steel mill on Attercliffe Road which closed in 1999.

He also owns the plot between Effingham Road and the canal which has been cleared but maps show used to be home to Dyson Works and Fitzalan Works, the Duke’s family name.

The report adds that jobs will be affected. Some 20 at businesses in Phase 1 and a further 10 in Phase 2. The council is seeking to relocate the companies but ‘this cannot be fully guaranteed’.

WHEN COULD THE FIRST HOMES BE READY?

Phase 1, which will deliver the first 448 homes, is due to commence in 2023 and be completed in 2026.

If the grant is approved the council aims to buy the land this month with a planning application due in the summer.

The Duke of Norfolk and Citu were contacted for comment.

Attercliffe Waterside will be the first of a dozen brownfield projects set to create thousands of homes in Sheffield.

WHERE ARE THE OTHER BROWNFIELD SITES?

Last week, The Star revealed the city had earmarked seven previously-used plots which could provide 2,836 homes - houses and flats - in areas including Neepsend, Park Hill, Attercliffe and West Bar.

A further five are being worked up in Kelham Island, the Devonshire Quarter, Shirecliffe, Attercliffe and Norfolk Park.

The authority had a target of building 40,000 homes by 2039, but it was recently increased to 53,000 by the Government.

Mr Betts said the new target was a ‘nonsense’ but there weren’t enough brownfield sites to fulfil the lower target. At that level it would be necessary to build on some green space, but not the greenbelt, he said.

But he cautioned against building on too much open space in the city because the pandemic had shown they were essential ‘lungs’ for residents.

WHERE ELSE DOES THE COUNCIL WANT HOMES?

Last week, the city council advertised seven plots for sale for housing.

The sites, ‘deemed open space,’ are land off: Claywood Drive, Deerlands Avenue, Mansel Crescent, Musgrave Road, Daresbury Drive, Wulfric Road and Kenninghall Road.

BUSINESS NEWS: Thousands of ‘brownfield’ homes planned

This week the authority published a Strategic Vision for the city centre which includes an ambition for 20,000 new homes to bring a ‘permanent critical mass of people’ to create vitality and vibrancy.

It outlined plans for five new neighbourhoods: Moorfoot, Castlegate, Wicker Riverside, Furnace Hill and Neepsend Gateway.

It could lead to the demolition of the famous Moorfoot building.

A council report states the area will be aimed at young professionals and promoted as a ‘prime location for city core living’.

WHY COULD MOORFOOT BE DEMOLISHED?

It also states: ‘The future of the Moorfoot Building itself (adaptation or replacement) is currently being considered’ due to the emergence of hybrid working.

The stepped pyramid, red-brick building is a landmark between the bottom of The Moor and St Mary’s Gate.

If approved, the initial seven brownfield sites in Sheffield would create a total of 2,836 houses and flats.

They are:

902 homes at Attercliffe Waterside: £4.08m grant for ‘enabling works’ as part of £205m scheme700 homes at Hoyle Street: £1.2m for ‘acquisition and assembly of land’450 homes at Cannon Brewery, Neepsend: £2.26m for ‘acquisition and preparatory’ work369 homes at West Bar: £655,000 for highways and infrastructure work95 homes at Park Hill: £5.6m to ‘enable the delivery’ of a £26.5m revamp of the block on Duke Street120 homes at Allen Street: £434,000 for ‘acquisition and preparatory’ work200 homes at Porter Brook in the Cultural Industries Quarter: £350,000 for demolition

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