Development at old Sheffield pub approved

Sheffield Council has approved proposals to convert The Market Inn, off Wortley Road, High Green, into office suites, and to put up 14 detached and semi-detached homes on the surrounding land.

The pub is the latest to be considered for a housing development after being deemed unviable as a drinking establishment.

A report by planning officers said the building had been ‘disused and vacant for some time’, and that it was gathering a ‘neglected air’.

Under the plans, the pub’s internal layout will be changed to create six office suites over two levels. The outside will be ‘virtually unaltered’.

Eighteen car parking spaces will be provided behind the business centre, and a new access road running from Wortley Road would serve the new houses.

“The former pub building is considered to be a heritage asset and its retention is welcomed,” the report said.

Objections were raised by nearby residents over loss of light, noise and the felling of trees, but officers said the concerns had been addressed.

High Green has been hit hard by pub closures - elsewhere in the suburb, a lengthy battle was fought to try to stop the Cart and Horses from becoming a Sainsbury’s supermarket. In 2014 a planning inspector ruled the pub could be replaced.

Meanwhile plans have been lodged to turn the former Matilda Tavern, on Matilda Street in the city centre, back into a pub.

The tavern closed in 2005 when trade declined. Two years later, permission was granted to turn the pub into offices - but the business space has never been used.

An application by owners JMB Properties says there is now a ‘surplus of office space’ and that there is a demand for a pub to ‘act as a hub for the community’.