Rose Garden Cafe: Sheffield Council says Graves Park building restoration could cost £1.79m

It is the most expensive option of five costed by the council’s capital delivery services – closing the cafe and securing the site comes out cheapest at £95,000.

Campaigners fighting to save the original cafe have urged the council to work with them on funding the restoration and say that no further public consultation is need to delay the plan, as the subject has been so fully debated. A petition calling for restoration of the building following the sudden closure of the cafe due to structural safety concerns in July 2022 now has 11,000 signatures.

The council report, which is available on the Rose Garden Cafe closure page on its website (https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/parks-sport-recreation/rose-garden-cafe-closure), lists costings for five options. These will be presented to councillors for a decision.

The options are:

• 1 Site safely secured and cafe building closed, £95,000
• 2A Structural stabilisation of the existing building and full refurbishment, £1,790,000
• 2B Structural stabilisation of the existing building with light touch refurbishment to cafe interiors only, £911,000
• 3 Demolition of existing cafe building and provision of MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) facility, £1,480,000
• 4 Demolition of the existing building and provision of a traditional build facility in its place, £1,560,000
• 5 Demolition of the existing building and site clearance only, £137,000

The report notes that all options would see the retention of the modern toilet block attached to the cafe.

The building partly reopened last December, with extensive scaffolding and propping, and is currently run as a takeaway-only service.

Andy Kershaw from the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign wrote to council head of facilities management Nathan Rodgers: “Please ensure that any report which goes to elected members emphasises the huge public support against any form of demolition or closure as indicated in options 1,3,4 &5 and in favour of the retention, restoration and reopening of the Rose Garden Cafe (11,000 signatures) and the offer of a genuine partnership approach by the Friends group and the Save the Rose Garden Cafe Campaign to work on both identifying and raising the necessary capital to do this.

“We want to see Parks & Countryside bidding to the council’s own capital programme for this and working with us on funding solutions in an open, transparent and co-operative way. Please let us know when you expect to table the report for the relevant council committee.”

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Mr Kershaw also said: “We also do not wish to see any further delay to this project and yet another costly public consultation when the issue has already been so publicly debated would have this effect.”

The options that have been costed have already been agreed by the council’s charity trustees sub-committee, which next meets on September 15. The communities, parks and leisure policy committee will also be involved in decision making and it next meets on September 25.

Last month the council stated that it wants to work with the Friends of Graves Park, the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign, local residents and other groups to make a decision on the future of the building, which dates to 1927.

The council’s Better Parks project recently completed a cafe in the grounds of Whirlow Brook Hall.