New tower with dozens of flats in Sheffield city centre rejected

Sheffield City Council’s planning department has rejected the plans for an eight-storey building on Johnson Street in the city centre due to the missing flood risk assessment and other tests.

In a decision notice, planning officers said: “The additional/amended flood risk assessment information and the sequential and exception tests requested in writing on September 26, 2023, and October 19, 2023, have not been supplied.

“In the absence of such information, the local planning authority must assume that the proposed development could be unsafe in flood events.

“It is unclear if there are other available sites at a lesser risk of flooding capable of accommodating the development and the wider sustainability benefits outweighing the flood risk have not been demonstrated.”

The plans included the demolition of an existing building on Johnson Street and a new mixed-use tower being built in its place. It would be up to eight storeys and made up of a commercial unit and ancillary spaces on the ground floor, with 55 flats on the upper floors.

According to a document, the area is characterised by low-rise industrial buildings, offices and warehouses, punctuated by selected buildings of historic significance.

Also, the report said that the buildings in the area are of low quality.

The plan was to have commercial units on the ground floor and 50-plus flats – ranging between studios and one- and two-bed flats – on floors one to seven.