State of the city centre
What's happening in Sheffield city centre and you excited for its future?
Transcript
00:00 My name is Ben Miskell, I'm chair of the Transport Regeneration and Climate
00:04 Committee at Sheffield City Council and I'm responsible for regeneration in the
00:07 city centre. Behind me you can see some of the wonderful things that are
00:11 happening on Fargate. It is changing and as you can see from people that are really
00:16 enthusiastic about it. At the moment we can see the boards at the back but
00:21 actually we are going to have some sustainable urban drainage systems right
00:26 in front running through Fargate which will mean it looks absolutely wonderful
00:30 the greatest green scheme. Above the shops we are going to be bringing other
00:36 uses and that means office space, workers, people who are using this space and
00:41 bringing it much more back to life. So over the next six months we're going to
00:46 see a very different type of Fargate.
00:49 The plans for the future look pretty good. I'm quite excited as to what Sheffield will look like
00:54 maybe three or four years down the line. I think in the middle it's a pretty grim place
01:02 for all sorts of reasons. It looks like a building site because it is a building site
01:08 with empty shops and so on. So I'm just, I'm sort of quitting my teeth and just hoping to get
01:13 through it and that things will be better in a few years time.
01:17 It's terrible. It's really bad. It's been neglected.
01:23 The council are neglecting people's needs of getting into city centre with cars and things.
01:31 There's nowhere to park without it being expensive.
01:34 What about the revamp of Fargate?
01:37 Well I've not took a lot to notice. If it looks okay when it's done, yeah that'll be okay.
01:41 But I don't know what to plan.
01:44 I'm on Charles Street and Cambridge Street, right in the heart of the city development
01:48 and it really is wonderful. We are starting to see new businesses come here, new cafes
01:54 and actually new residential developments. Just at the back of me some of my friends have just moved in.
01:58 It is a wonderful apartment and that's part of the wider story here.
02:02 We want to make sure that city centre is a sustainable neighbourhood for people to come and live
02:07 and spend money in shops and cafes and local businesses.
02:12 And we want 20,000 more people to come and live in the city centre.
02:16 And the benefit of that is it also protects the greenbelt space across the city as well.
02:20 It's improving, that's the main thing. It's improving, getting better, getting there.
02:25 That's what you want to see isn't it?
02:28 You know when you're born you think you're healthy.
02:31 You want to get better and better. That's the main thing.
02:36 So you can see at the moment that you've got new retailers like Sostrom & Green that have opened up.
02:41 You've got Marmaduke's and that's its second cafe in the city centre.
02:46 And also we're looking out towards Pound Park which is a really brilliant space for families to come and enjoy.
02:52 And we want to make sure that the city centre is a place that people can live, a sustainable neighbourhood
02:57 but a great place for families to come and enjoy.
03:00 Also you've got a food court that's going to be open as well
03:04 and so many other exciting things that are happening in the city centre.