Council leader defends three years of roadworks as Sheffield city centre redevelopment continues
Roadworks continue in Sheffield city centre after more than three years
Sheffield Council leader Fran Belbin has defended Sheffield city centre’s ongoing road works, as they continue after more than three years.
Work to transform Sheffield city centre was started on Fargate early 2023. The Fargate work was scheduled to conclude in autumn 2024 but due to several different reasons was delayed.
But major roadworks are still on going, with work now being carried out on Pinstone Street. It is part of a project which is controversially moving traffic out of the city centre, on what was once a major bus route.
Asked about how it could feel that construction work in the city centre was never-ending, as the Pinstone Street work continues, Coun Belbin told BBC Radio Sheffield she could understand why people felt that.
She said: “But construction is part of the heart of redeveloping the city and we need that work to take place for the city to look good eventually, and seeing all the new development is really seeing the regeneration that’s taken place across the city centre.
“In Covid, that road was closed to traffic, but it’s never been properly pedestrianised even though it’s no longer used for traffic most of the time.
“You probably have seen on Surrey Street as well where most of the work is completed and actually the space feels really different now. It feels far more like a lovely, open pedestrianised space, like Fargate does.
“So, I hope we’ll be seeing more of that across Pinstone Street as well.”
Most fences were finally taken down after years of building work on Fargate in April 2025.
There is still an area fenced off however, as work is still continuing on the £14m Events Central arts venue, which was due to open later this year.
However, work continues on major changes to Pinstone Street which started in February 2025. The work is going on under the council’s Connecting Sheffield project, which is taking traffic off the road but will allow bikes and pedestrians.