Tuesday 28 August 2012

Broomhill police station / public toilet site up for grabs?


The Council have recently completed some planning advice for the former police station/public toilets at the junction of Fulwood Road and Manchester Road which is available from the following webpage.
 
The property is Council owned and the Council's property service may decide shortly to advertise the property for sale. If anyone can think of a beneficial use of this site that is in accordance with the planning advice, let's hear it!

Friday 17 August 2012

Community enterprise seeks investors for renewable energy projects

A local community enterprise is developing a number of small-scale energy schemes in and around Sheffield that local residents can invest in. If you are interested in knowing more, or might like to become an investor or a volunteer, see http://www.sheffieldrenewables.org.uk/. It would be interesting to consider whether there is any scope for schemes of this kind in Broomhill. Any ideas out there?

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Council launch library consultation


The council are consulting on how to change the library services to make them fit and affordable for the future and meet people's needs across the city. The scale of the reduction to the Council's budget means that efficiency savings alone will not be enough to cover the loss in funding. At this crucial point in time, the council want to look at the library services afresh, to see how they can work in new and different ways. This could mean developing, changing or relocating some services and reducing or closing others.
Research has identified a range of opportunities that they could explore and they want to know what we think of them. Opportunities to work differently include:

  • opening hours and the buildings libraries operate from
  • making library services more efficient
  • partnership working - collaboration with voluntary/community groups
  • volunteering to enhance the service
  • increasing income
  • new technology
You can complete the survey online on the council website www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraryreview

Saturday 4 August 2012

Secret Garden Demolition Application Submitted

August is Sheffield University's favourite month for submitting planning applications and this year is no exception. So we now have an application to demolish the buildings on the southern part of the Tapton Experimental Gardens site, including the temporary structures in the Secret Garden (the walled kitchen garden of Tapton Elms, on Taptonville Rd). 

The Uni have planning permission to demolish and redevelop the site but their plans have gone awry as Miller Homes, who they were working with before, are driving a very hard bargain now that the housing market is in a slump. So there is no immediate redevelopment on the horizon and indeed it is quite likely that the entire project will fall flat on its face. That means that the Uni will have to re-market the site to a new developer, who will bring forward another development plan.

Possibly to prepare for this the Uni now want to demolish the current buildings on the site  - except for the hall of residence building - as they have been struggling with security. There have been continual problems with trespassers and some while ago metal thieves caused serious damage to Pisgah House, which took over a year to fix.

So while one can sympathise to an extent its really important that nothing of historic or horticultural value on the site is demolished or damaged at this time. The garden is now on the list of protected historic parks and gardens in Sheffield so it would be counter to the Sheffield Development Framework to do anything to them that damages historic features or prevents their possible future restoration. The trees in the gardens are subject to protection orders but there are many other plants that could be trampled or destroyed by demolition works.

It is a great pity that the University will not engage with the council and community over the future of this site, to discuss alternative options to simply flogging it off and building on it. We think there are so many other potential options that haven't been properly explored but its simply not possible to work on them unless the site owner is on board. As usual we're left with only one option - the planning process. So since that is the only avenue to make our feelings known let's go for it.

To comment on this planning (i.e. demolition) application, you can use the Council's online planning system at 

or alternatively simply send an email to planningdc@sheffield.gov.uk quoting the application number 12/02284/CAC