Wednesday, March 9, 2022

News: Contractors appointed for Rotherham town centre green space projects

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Contractors have been appointed to undertake work on a pocket park and high-quality public space on the High Street in Rotherham, but the scheme has been delayed again.

Another town centre green space project is being designed.

Rotherham Council purchased the former Primark building on High Street in November 2020, using funding from the Towns Fund Accelerator programme after the Government awarded a £1m grant to kick start regeneration projects in Rotherham town centre.

Demolition work took place last June and the authority had set out to complete a pocket park by September 2021.

Approved plans for Snail Yard would see 0.08 hectares of the 0.24 hectares site turned into public space will have a stepped profile and proposals include astrotrufed terraces, seating and trees, as well as branding features such as the red scaffolding with black mesh proposed to encase the site. This could be a space for public artwork, and / or large branding and signage.

Having secured further funding in December, Rotherham Council has now appointed Galliford Try, one of the UK's leading construction groups, to carry out £400,000 of landscaping works, hard and soft public realm areas and fencing works surrounding the site's perimeter.

The project has also been delayed and is now due for completion by June 2022. The council said that its construction projects "are being affected by national market conditions" such as national labour and material shortages.

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At Forge Island, where work is being carried out to create a new leisure scheme with an 8-screen boutique style cinema, modern hotel, food and drink outlets and car parking, a scheme called Riverside Gardens is set complement the investment.

Using Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) and Council money, the creation of a high-quality Riverside Gardens is set to link the Forge Island redevelopment with the town centre in the area around the now demolished Riverside Precinct.

Tetra Tech, a leading provider of consulting and engineering services, has been appointed by the council on a £439,196 contract for the design and delivery of the gardens and public realm.

Tetra Tech acquired UK-based engineering firm WYG in 2019. Consultants at WYG worked on the Rotherham town centre masterplan which was adopted in 2017.

Images: RMBC

8 comments:

Ziggy,  March 9, 2022 at 12:52 PM  

Just, wow! Unbelievably inflated sums of money being wasted.

Anonymous,  March 9, 2022 at 8:14 PM  

What about looking after green spaces out of town rather than selling them off to become empty warehouses?

Mr me March 9, 2022 at 8:49 PM  

Waste of money ,why spend money on a "green space"when Clifton park is just up road and minster gardens around corner,get appartments built or leave site derilict.To muck of this crap wasting money!

Dan H March 10, 2022 at 8:51 AM  

This is money in the form of grants from government so its good that it's been spent here instead of the usual places such as London, Manchester, Leeds etc.
Keep up the good work.

Graldhunter March 10, 2022 at 12:28 PM  

Yet another "open space" fantasy dream project for all the town's addicts to use and spoil, grrrrr 👿👿👿👿

Anonymous,  March 10, 2022 at 7:37 PM  

Another town centre "green space"for those wonderful citizens from all over globe to congregate,sell there stolen goods,drink fine wine and use pharmaceuticals.Well done Rotherham council😏

Mark,  March 10, 2022 at 7:56 PM  

Totally agree. It's refreshing to see a forward thinking comment on here rather than the usual tub thumping

Anonymous,  March 15, 2022 at 9:21 AM  

Where it reads the "project has been delayed", I read "The council ran out of money". The scope of the Council's imagination for the town centre seems to be focussed on these ill-thought out pet projects.

It's all well and good spending money on creating something like this, but the sites need to be maintained, and judging by the fact that the council can't keep clean with what they have, I fail to see how this will benefit anyone.

For example, I'd love to know how much the Council has spent on the new Dalek-style bins in the town centre, most of which have now been vandalised, particularly the ashtrays which seem to act like catnip for the town's undesirables.... They've been in situ for less than a year!

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