Historic Sheffield building still at risk as developer weighs up options

Plans to replace the Old Coroner’s Court, on Nursery Street, just off the Wicker, with 77 apartments were rejected last month after councillors criticised the proposed design as ‘unattractive’ and out of keeping with the area’s heritage.

But the developer Firestone already has the go-ahead to demolish the 1913 building should it wish, and had said that were planning permission refused it would appeal and be very likely to win.

More than a month on from the planning meeting, however, it has yet to appeal and a spokesman for the firm said it was ‘taking time’ to consider whether to do so.

Heritage Campaigners issued a ‘call to action’ following what they called the planning committee’s ‘principled’ decision to refuse planning permission, claiming the ball was now in Sheffield Council's court and urging people to write to their local councillors making the case for the building to be saved.

Joined Up Heritage Sheffield claimed at the time that an alternative to demolition ‘should not be difficult to find if approached in a positive and collaborative spirit’.

“The developer has already proposed several schemes which are preferable to losing the building altogether, and the council needs to be open-minded about these,” it added.

Valerie Bayliss, from the group, said she had heard nothing more since the meeting but remained hopeful that a compromise could be found.

“There are clearly some differences of opinion between the developers and the council’s planning department, but we’d very much like a rethink and we still believe that’s possible,” she said.

“We’re still concerned that the building could be demolished at any time, with the developer only having to give the council a couple of days’ notice.”

Ms Bayliss added that she was disappointed that plans for a Castlegate conservation area which would have encompassed Nursery Street, giving added protection to buildings there, appeared to have ‘disappeared without trace’ after a consultation on the measure was cancelled at the eleventh hour in February this year.

Firestone initially applied last year for the go-ahead to raze the vacant former court building, only to withdraw the demolition notice in the face of public opposition and go back to the drawing board.

But the developer said in March this year that it had failed to come up with any alternative plans to retain the landmark, which remains boarded up following an arson attack last year, as council planners were not happy for them to build high enough to make this viable.