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.