Green Party win the battle over Heart of the City 2

The Sheffield Green party are celebrating their victory over Labour-run Sheffield City Council, as their 10-year-long push for changes to '˜Heart of the city 2' have been accepted.
Artists' impression of Heart of the City 2Artists' impression of Heart of the City 2
Artists' impression of Heart of the City 2

The scheme, backed by Sheffield Council and its partner, property company Queensbury, has been designed to help attract more jobs and investment to the city of Sheffield.

'˜Heart of the City 2' will see two 4 or 5-star hotels built in the city centre, along with: residential developments, Grade A office spaces, cafés, restaurants, parking and leisure destinations.

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In 2008, plans for a new retail quarter ran into difficulty and Sheffield's Green Party councillors called for a major overhaul of the scheme, which would see local businesses and local heritage protected.

Green Party Councillor Rob Murphy said: 'Sheffield has been blighted by closed shops for 10 years.

'That's a decade of missing jobs, lost opportunities and lost business rates.'

Ten years on, the council has dropped its plans for the scheme to be exclusively retail focused and has accepted many of the Green party's proposals which they have been pushing.

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Coun Murphy said: 'After our long campaign, these new council plans are a huge step forward.

'There is room for further improvements and Green Party councillors will be keeping a close eye on the schemes implementation.'

Sites being developed includes the area between Charter Square, Barkers Pool and Pinstone Street, as well as Cross Burgess Street, Charles Street, Cambridge Street and Wellington Street.

Labour Coun Mazher Iqbal, cabinet member for business and investment, said: '˜We're pleased that the Green Party have now u-turned and are '˜celebrating' Labour's plans for Heart of the City II, recognising our focus on preserving more heritage whilst adding new residential development and offices to support new retail.

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'This is after years of opposing our plans to transform the city centre and been happy to sit back and do nothing. We began delivering on our plans some years ago, starting work on the new offices retail space and a new Charter Square, which are now almost complete. Our plans for Blocks B and C are now progressing at pace.'Â