Rose Garden Cafe: Partnership to save popular Sheffield park venue says it is making real progress

Sheffield City Council agreed to work alongside two community groups to look at how to restore the popular cafe after a successful 15-month campaign to save it from demolition. There was an outcry after the cafe was closed suddenly two years ago because of structural concerns.

Two members of the Rose Garden Cafe Partnership gave an update on their progress at a meeting of the council’s charity trustee sub-committee this week (July 16). The park is one of several in the city owned by a charitable trust, of which the council is sole trustee, and the sub-committee makes decisions about them.

The meeting heard from council officer Rebecca Nixon and Friends of Graves Park member Gertie Whitfield, who are both members of the partnership. Gertie said: “Working together enables us to do better, more effective work, rather than each working independently.”

Ms Whitfield described how a public consultation exercise on the future for the building drew a big response, showing how important the park and cafe are to people. She said the consultation was answered by people from every city postcode and further afield.

It showed that the cafe is the second most popular reason to visit the park and its heritage and identity are important factors for users.

Scaffolding

Ms Nixon said: “It was a really far-reaching consultation that would not have been as good if we’d done that separately.”

She said that a structural engineer has done detailed work that shows most of the scaffolding propping up the building can now be removed as the roof is in reasonable condition. That means the cafe operator can now look at bringing back indoor seating, rather than just operating as a takeaway.

The engineer found that the lean in the front wall has been caused by poor foundations that can be rectified.

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Committee chair Coun Richard Williams said: “It sounds very, very optimistic and positive.”

Coun Fran Belbin said it had been a real pleasure to attend one of the partnership’s events and meet independent chair Chris Hallam and members. She said everyone has a positive attitude towards working together.

Coun Belbin said the partnership should be a model for the future for the way the council works.

Tarnished

Coun Kurtis Crossland said: “This is a jewel in Sheffield’s crown, historical actions led to that being tarnished a little bit.”

He added sardonically: “Who’d have thought that involving the community in things in their local area helps move things forward? This is something that the council as a whole can learn from about community involvement.”

Ms Whitfield commented: “I think it’s because of the relationships we’re building and so we can talk to each other properly and it was very difficult to begin with.”

She said it was important that people had done what they said they would.

Ms Nixon added that if relationships are not built quickly to help establish a level of trust, a lot of time and effort has to be used on “mopping up messes afterwards”.

The partnership, which also involves the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign, is now moving on to look at fundraising to cover the cost of renovation and restoration work.