Huge banking complex near trendy Sheffield waterfront set to be transformed into flats in car-free plans
Council agreed planning permission, but insists there will be no parking
A huge office complex near a trendy Sheffield waterfront is set to be transformed into flats - but the scheme will be car-free.
The plans for the former Lloyds Banking Group offices, close to Victoria Quays, will have no parking, and Sheffield Council says it will not grant residents parking permits there.
The authority has granted planning permission for the Lloyds Bank offices on Furnival Road, to become 82 flats.
But a report by Sheffield Council officers, written to help make the decision, stated: “The site’s existing car park is excluded from the site’s red line boundary area, meaning that the proposal is for a ‘car free’ scheme, with no dedicated off street parking provision.”
And developer STC Design And Build Limited said in a planning and design statement said that the car parking spaces in the site were not part of their application, and were being kept back for a separate use.
They added: “For the avoidance of doubt, the proposed residential conversion does not rely upon the provision or allocation of any car parking spaces within that wider car park. The application should therefore be assessed on the basis that the proposed residential development is a car-free scheme.”
The said it was a sustainable urban location near the city centre, with ready access to public transport, walking and cycling, and with opportunities for jobs, services and facilities available within and around the city centre.
They added: “The absence of allocated residential parking is therefore not a deficiency in the scheme, but a positive and appropriate response to the site’s central and accessible location.”
There will be cycling storages spaces in the site, but a condition on the planning permission imposed by Sheffield Council states that is has been ‘on the basis that it is designated as a car/permit-free development’.
There would be 72 bike storage spaces.and 10 ‘short stay’ spaces for cycles too.
There would be 43 one-bed flats, 37 two-bed flats, one two bed-flat for three people, and one two-bed flat for four people.
The council report added: “The office is a modern, four-storey, brick building with a hipped, tile roof. The site lies within an urbanised, edge of centre location, by the inner ring road.
“There are two similar buildings adjacent, in the same design as the subject site, as well as the similarly designed Best Western hotel to the south.”