'Terrible frustration' as estate plan scrapped

Sheffield Council had a 10-year masterplan for Gleadless Valley

Residents have been left "terribly frustrated" after Sheffield City Council scrapped a £90m "masterplan" to regenerate their housing estate.

The council confirmed it had cancelled its Gleadless Valley Masterplan, published in 2022, which would have seen some homes demolished, citing cost increases due to issues including the Covid pandemic and Brexit.

Liberal Democrat councillor Joe Otten told a meeting: "People need to plan their lives. How much more talking will there be before we start the doing?”

The authority said it had instead approved plans to work with residents and community groups on an alternative regeneration scheme for the estate.

Councillors say residents need answers quickly on what is happening to their homes

The council said it would work with community groups and investment partners to devise a programme that is "more deliverable in a pressing financial climate".

It confirmed the launch of a Gleadless Valley Partnership Board to oversee the strategy.

Council leader Tom Hunt, said: “I am pleased the new, improved approach for the regeneration of Gleadless Valley has been approved.

"A delivery plan for the updated Gleadless Valley regeneration proposals will be developed over the coming year in partnership with the local community.

“We are determined to work with residents and our partners to regenerate the area for the benefit of all residents.”

Council officer Dean Butterworth told the meeting: “It is very clear that we have not got enough money to do everything we need to do, therefore we are going to have to make some very tough decisions based on the condition of housing stock.”

Mr Otten said everyone was “terribly frustrated” at the delays and abandonment of the masterplan.

“People were told in 2017 that their home was going to be knocked down and I can confirm this, a friend of mine is in the same boat and he’s been asking me for years when his house is going to be knocked down.

“He just wants to know, people need to plan their lives. I still can’t tell him. How much more talking will there be before we start the doing?”

Fellow Lib Dem councillor Martin Smith said: “Residents have gone beyond frustration, the council has let them down big time.

"Officers say at the time cost estimates were correct, and yet here we are a few years later and the cost has doubled.”

Dianne Hurst, from the Sheffield Community Councillors Group, said people had been living with increasingly dilapidated homes and the run-down estate had seen antisocial behaviour.

She said: "We owe it to them to give them a clear position as soon as possible and we need to apologise to residents for our incompetence.

"We have not been talking to residents, we need to tell them what we are intending to do and when."

'No simple answer'

Officers say from October, they will start visiting residents so they can assess which homes need investment.

Matthew Nimmo, a housing consultant working with the council, said: “There is no immediate or simple answer, we are going to have to take time to get this right and to look again at the plans.

“We will write to people immediately to explain the plans are quite likely to change so we don't know whether their properties are definitely going to be demolished or remodelled at all.

“It will take us some time to confirm that and I am afraid it is just inevitable, there is no point giving people a message that we are not 100% sure of ourselves.

“At the same time, we really recognise that we need to try to get some certainty for residents as quickly as possible."

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