Cycle parking rethink in Sheffield Attercliffe regeneration scheme
Plans to introduce a cycle parking hub as part of work to regenerate Attercliffe in Sheffield have been shelved because of a lack of interest.
The idea to build the cycle hub at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park formed part of a major scheme to encourage active travel in the area. The rundown ex-steel-making area is being regenerated using government Levelling Up Fund money.
The aim now is to use £30,200 of the £17m Levelling Up Fund project budget to design up to 100 cycle parking spaces and associated infrastructure. Rather than one big cycle hub like the one at Sheffield railway station, this will comprise sets of street bike stands near the Olympic Legacy Park and tram stops.
These are known as Sheffield stands because the idea to use metal piping bent into a square arch shape to create simple, low-cost bike racks apparently came from the Steel City.
A meeting of Sheffield City Council’s finance and performance committee heard on Tuesday (May 6) from finance manager Damian Watkinson that the plan originally was to build a cycle hub but this was not possible. Leasing a building would not be possible as the Levelling Up funding is for capital projects only and paying for leasing falls outside the funding rules.
He said that a marketing exercise also showed that there was not sufficient interest in the idea, so the plans have now changed.
Major plans for Attercliffe include building a world-leading NHS children’s health research centre being developed by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust at the Olympic Legacy Park. The National Centre for Child Health Technology is set to open this year.
They also involve the redevelopment of the Spartan Works former steelworks on Attercliffe Road as the Attercliffe Waterside community of more than 1,000 new homes and the creation of an arts complex in the new Adelphi Square, based at the old Grade II-listed Adelphi cinema.
Part of the aim of the project is to make public transport and ‘active travel’ – walking, wheeling and cycling – easier in the area. It also aims to create better transport links with Attercliffe and the city centre.