Opinion: Sheffield Castle - There's still time (just) for a rethink of historic site revamp

But despite our justified claims to be UK’s greenest city, the city centre does not yet live up to that boast, and it needs to do so quickly with 18,000 more homes planned for the inner city.

The good news is that another, larger and long-awaited green space in an historic and well-loved part of Sheffield is also in the pipeline at the site of the former Castle Market in Castlegate. Its probably the most run-down part of the city centre but there are lots of hopeful green shoots already appearing.

It also has some £16m of government ‘Levelling Up’ funding and a planning application is currently under consideration to transform the site into Castle and Sheaf Fields Park with a programmed start on site in August.

It's Castlegate’s biggest chance for several decades and there’s again much to welcome and be excited about in the council’s proposed plans. And yet we are in danger of not making the most of one of the location’s greatest hidden assets, the River Sheaf which gives its name to the city.

Fair play to the council, the proposed plans deal with the historic but fragmented castle remains in an intelligent and appealing way which leaves opportunities for additional visitor facilities and interpretation to be added. The reinvention of the moat as part of a sustainable water management scheme is well-handled and ingenious. The balance of buildings and green space is much improved over previous proposals although there are some concerns about the physical and social dominance of a large sixth form college enclosing most of the site which require further discussion.

The two metre Castle Orchard weir in the Sheaf is to be opened for fish passage by a series of low rock ramps removing one of the chief barriers to the return of wildlife, including salmon, from the Don to the Sheaf valley.

But contrary to plans presented for consultation and massively supported by the public last October, only a little over two thirds of the river itself will now be uncovered in current plans, the rest left for another (unspecified) day, hidden under a crumbling concrete culvert considered at risk of collapse and flooding by the Environment Agency.

The daylighted Sheaf will remain inaccessible to the public for fishing, kayaking, maintenance or enjoyment of nature, running in a canalised slot 2-3 metres below the park contained by old concrete walls topped by railings. As a result the river will actually be largely invisible from most of the ‘Sheaf Fields’.

Proposals from the Sheaf and Porter Trust’s engineers and others have demonstrated how a wheelchair accessible and natural river bank could be achieved within the current scheme as was done at nearby Nursery Street Park on the Don, at Matilda Street pocket park on the Porter and just this year at Manchester’s hugely successful Mayfield Park on the deculverted Medlock. Sadly, these proposals have been rejected by the council without any convincing explanation.

Key environmental consultees including the Environment Agency and Sheffield Wildlife Trust, along with over 50 others, have criticised these aspects of the proposal.

Of course budgets and costs play a determining part in these decisions and we accept totally that inflation has eaten mercilessly into the £16m funding granted the scheme in 2020. That’s why several Castlegate partner organisations have offered their skills, experience and support to prepare and jointly submit additional funding bids for further phases of work on the site which can build on the reshaping of the site under Levelling Up.

But common sense says that elements like earthmoving and removal of unsafe structures must be fully completed in the first phase if we are to avoid inefficient use of plant, contractor time and establishment costs as well as, longer term, the lingering frustration of opportunities tragically and needlessly missed.

This isn’t the place to go into the detail of budgets and bids but trust us, although the last word rests with the Government, the council does have some discretion and choices about what to prioritise in the overall Castlegate programme. It will require some tough decisions which need to be transparent and not cloaked in the sort of unjustified secrecy for which the council has recently been authoritatively criticised.

A little further discussion can deliver smarter approaches which avoid duplication and waste. The advice of the Environment Agency and other expert consultees must be taken more seriously.

And in the face of a catastrophic decline in bio-diversity and the urgent need to adapt to climate change, now is surely the time to prioritise habitat restoration, making room for the river and maximising chances to reconnect with nature in the inner city.

It is time for senior politicians and officers to listen to the advice of critical friends and for strategic decisions at the highest level of the council.