Sheffield Container Park: Upstairs bar abandoned as costs head for £600,000
Plans for an upstairs bar in Sheffield’s troubled Container Park have been abandoned as costs head for almost £600,000 - double the original £300,000 estimate.
In an emergency meeting, councillors decided to halt work on HIDE bar, which was set to open on November 25. It had been blocked by the council’s building control department demanding a fire engineering and structural certificate. Now it says operator Steelyard Kelham is unable to ‘provide a timeline of completion or estimated cost’.
The city council owes SteelYard Kelham £75,500 for services provided but not yet invoiced, documents show. It is also paying £7,000-a-month running costs for the Fargate attraction. And it is spending £10,000-a-month on diesel and a generator after electricity cables were found to be missing. Partially opened in mid-October, Container Park it is set to close after four-and-a-half months at the end of February.
It means the authority is set to spend an extra £152,000 on top of £446,000 committed so far, taking the total to £598,000. It was due to open in July and cost £300,000 but has hit a string of delays, amid spiralling costs.
Coun Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of the Lib Dems in Sheffield, called it a ‘comedy of errors’. He added: “It’s yet another example of Sheffield City Council having grand plans, some of which never see the light of day and some end up like this. Containers have worked in other cities, Obviously it’s not worked out for us and lesson have to be learned. But at the moment we want to make sure we look after the businesses in there.”
Rent was supposed to pay for operating costs, he added. But there was ‘no indication of any profit’. It needs a diesel generator because a utility company disconnected the electricity supply to do emergency repairs two years ago, apparently without telling the council – which is still paying for it. It was only discovered at the start of preparation work. The authority is working to recover the money that was paid to retain the live supply. Now, a review will be held to look at new sites and possibly putting the containers into storage.
