Event Central Fargate Sheffield: Vital decision delayed over concerns at huge rise in budget
A decision to approve a new £14.4m budget for the Event Central entertainment venue on Fargate in Sheffield city centre has been delayed by a week by councillors concerned at the cost.
LibDem members of the finance and performance policy committee yesterday (August 18) voiced worries about the project because the cost has risen from an original estimate of £6.9m. They called for a delay in order to understand why the budget has increased to £14.4m.
LibDem group leader Coun Martin Smith said he was further concerned because the council has already created a city centre venue at Bethel Chapel on Cambridge Street which has not yet opened as no private operator has been found to run it.
Event Central, which stretches from 20-26 Fargate, is envisaged to house a 200-person live event space and café/bar area on the ground floor. Co-working spaces and meeting rooms would take up the four upper floors.
Because construction work is due to start on September 1, a special meeting of the committee will have to take place next week. This is so that additional costs would not be incurred by waiting until the committee’s next regular meeting on Monday, September 22.
Committee chair Coun Zahira Naz said she agreed to the need for a delay because councillors have serious reservations. She added: “I don’t want this to be a committee where we just rubber-stamp things that come to us.
“We really want to get things right.”
Astronomical
A report to the committee said that a business case put together in March 2022 that won government Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities funding estimated the cost at £6.9m.
Coun Smith said: “I can’t recall a capital project since I’ve been a councillor to go up by such an amount in terms of percentage. Can you explain why it’s gone up by such an astronomical amount from the original business case?”
He was told the original business case was a preliminary assessment that hadn’t taken into account every issue that would be involved in converting the former shops into Event Central. A more complicated project taking longer would inevitably cost more.
Originally, the main entertainment space was going to be in the basement but that was ruled out, which was the major change made to the project.
Coun Smith said: “We’re talking about an event space for 200 to 300 people. The council has already constructed one of those on Cambridge Street and not been able to let it since it was finished.”
Ffinance manager Damian Watkinson said that an operator, which is a not for profit organisation, has been secured for Event Central and a lease is being drawn up. He stressed the need to keep to timeframes set out by the Levelling Up Fund so that the project could be delivered in time.
Impact
Coun Smith commented: “It sounds like the end of Mastermind – we’ve started, so we need to finish.”
Green Party Coun Martin Phipps said: “I know that the costs have obviously gone up by quite a lot. I’d like to know what the impact of deferring would be.
“I wouldn’t like to inadvertently shut down the project by not approving today.”
The revised funding involves £6,546,973 from the government Future High Streets Fund, £766,158 from the council Corporate Investment Fund, £879,564 from the Sheffield City Region Get Building Fund and £6,216,063 of SYMCA Gainshare money, totalling £14,408,758.