'Sheffield city centre - there's no point just grumbling about it'

Sheffielders can have their say on the consultation which will run until February 11.

Whether you love its independent shops and places to eat, or hate its lack of big retailers (or both, simultaneously), we all need it to be the best it can be. Sheffield’s future depends on it.

There is much development work going on there already, with cranes often seen dominating the city skyline. The Grey to Green scheme looks fantastic and the Heart of the City project will be very exciting once complete.

However even the city centre’s biggest fans must admit it needs more. More reasons for people to visit and at the moment, a lot more visitors too.

A bit of a plan bringing the whole thing together wouldn’t go amiss, either, rather than people being expected to stumble upon our world-class theatre complex or the newer shops on The Moor, not to mention the new-look Fitzalan Square or cool traders on Division Street without any guidance.

So this week our special report on pages 8&9 focuses on a new Sheffield Council consultation where we are all asked for our views on the city centre, on building 20,000 new homes there, creating five distinct neighbourhoods, the key areas of Fargate and Castlegate and the awfully gigantic, costly problem of what to do with the John Lewis building now it is ours.

Now this consultation has been months in the making and there are plenty of people who will say, ‘get on with it already.’

But this is where we are and there’s no point grumbling about something without trying to change it.

The consultation document says it takes around seven minutes to complete online. So put the kettle on and let the people at the top know what you want for our city centre.