Call for Christmas designs on Sheffield's concrete blocks

Have you got a festive design for Sheffield's concrete blocks? Sheffield City Council are encouraging people to get creative and come up with designs for the anti-terror blocks outside the Town Hall and Pinstone Street.
Concrete blocks have been installed on Fargate and on Surrey Street to Pinstone as a security measure over the festive periodConcrete blocks have been installed on Fargate and on Surrey Street to Pinstone as a security measure over the festive period
Concrete blocks have been installed on Fargate and on Surrey Street to Pinstone as a security measure over the festive period

The plan is to jazz up the grey bricks to help keep the festive theme around the city centre.

They are asking the public to have their say and submit landscape designs.

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Councillor Jim Steinke, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety, said the blocks will be up until the second week of January and the designs will be reused in the future.

He added: 'It's a sad state of affairs that we need to have them but if we have to then we may as well jazz them up a bit.'

The blocks are 2.5 metres long and 0.5 metres high. Five designs will be chosen and printed onto covers which will be placed on the blocks.

The council have loaned them so cannot paint directly on them.

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Richard Eyre, head of city centre and major events, said they estimate the total cost of printing the covers to be around £2,800.

It is the first year they have had the larger blocks, which has prompted discussion around making them more festive.

Coun Steinke said: 'We had some last year but they were more discrete, this year the recommendation was that we made them bigger, which is not a response to any increase in threat, it's just that the government have cracked down on good practise which they should've done in previous years.'

To submit a design, send a copy to [email protected] or post to The Star, The Balance, 2 Pinfold Street, Sheffield. S1 2GU.

Submission for ideas close at midnight on Tuesday, December 4.Â