Fargate revamp in Sheffield city centre at the finish line

Cllr Ben Miskell, the chair of the transport, regeneration and climate policy committee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that we may be only a couple of weeks from seeing the Fargate-revamp project concluding.

The revamp of Fargate in Sheffield City Centre began in early 2023 and was scheduled to conclude in autumn 2024 but due to several different reasons – rising costs, inflation, weather conditions, just to name a few – the job is still not finished.

Frustration has grown as time passed and the latest target for the completion of the works by the end of February is passed now. It’s March and we know part of Fargate is still a construction site.

However, the council has a new target now to get the project, which includes landscaping, planting, seating and lighting, finished.

Cllr Ben Miskell told the LDRS: “I can understand why people are frustrated by those delays. We’ve had a series of meetings with the contractor and they are telling us work will be substantially complete by mid-March.”

He added while the works are still ongoing, Fargate is already showing the progress that has been made and people visiting the area can already have a real sense of what the project will look like when it’s finished.

He admitted that there is a delay of four-and-a-half months and that’s “frustrating” but given the scale, the complexity and the challenges they have faced during the process “it’s unfortunately not unusual in a project of this size”.

Cllr Miskell added that the three main issues with the project have been:

The complex and complicated underground utilities (electricity, cables, etc)

The old tram tracks found at the bottom of Fargate

Cellars of buildings on Fargate

Some of these issues, he said, had only come up during digging, for example, so work on the site as a result because finding a solution required more planning and time.

Another aspect people (and councillors in opposition) have raised is cost.

Cllr Miskell said that the whole project comes in at £33.6m – including Event Central, where work should start this year to create a hub for performances, exhibitions, workshops, talks and other events, and the Front Door scheme.

Part of it was paid (funded) by government grants and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) grants while the council did also chip in.

So what do we get for this money – and the headache caused for a lot of people and businesses, as it has been widely reported in local newspapers and national media outlets over the last few months?

Cllr Miskell said it was important to understand the reason the council is regenerating the city centre is to “boost footfall, making it an attractive place to bring investment in the city and create a city centre people can be proud of”.

He added: “As a council, we are doing our bit to lay the foundations for the future of Fargate.

“We are improving the street scene, we’re making it better as a place to visit and the aim is for businesses, landlords and investors to take over once those improvements have been made bring about those long-term prosperity to the area that we know people want in place.”

Sheffield Council, Cllr Miskell said, had already backed this investment with £4m for the Front Door Scheme which will help landowners to repurpose upper floors and improve shop fronts.

He explained that new shops, a new pub and an awful lot of events and activities are coming to the area over the next few months – something that could not have happened had the council not revamped Fargate.