News: Plans emerge for Snail Yard site
Redevelopment plans are finally taking shape for a site on the heritage High Street in Rotherham town centre that was acquired by the local council in 2020.
Proposals involve new offices and residential units replacing a temporary pocket park and a vacant plot.
Rotherham Council purchased the former Primark building 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 and the authority had set out to complete a pocket park by September 2021 before targeting the Women's Euros in July 2022. It eventually fully opened in 2026 with project costs of £920,000.
Now plans are being brought forward by Rotherham Council's development partner for the prominent site.
Rothbiz reported earlier this year on details of the projects from social impact developer Capital&Centric, who have been awarded a contract to develop five council-owned sites that could reach up to £100m in value.
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Whilst residential-led plans are being progressed for other sites, for Snail Yard, a smaller-scale, mixed-use development is proposed, centred around a courtyard concept.
Early stage planning documents show two new blocks. A new block fronting the High Street, potentially on top of the current pocket park, would contain 2,600 sq ft of commercial space and four residential units. A second block would create 9,500 sq ft of office space and external deck space. The formation of the blocks would also create a hidden courtyard space.
The plans, drawn up by Urbana planning consultants, explain that the development is "principally commercial-led, bringing a substantial amount of new employment-generating floorspace into the heart of Rotherham Town Centre, supplemented by a modest residential component" that would compliment rather than replace commercial use.
The homes are all set to be four bedroom properties adding larger family accommodation to the residential mix in the town centre.
The plans add: "The proposals seek to reinstate the commercial uses which were once occupying the site prior to its temporary use as a pocket park. In this instance, the proposals bring high street uses back to the High Street, restoring an active built frontage and introducing additional activity, employment and footfall."
New housing and increasing the resident population of the town centre is being used as a way to "support the vitality and viability of its existing and emerging commercial, leisure and community offer."
On the design of the development, and given that the site is in the town centre conservation area and close to listed buildings, the developers set out that the proposals "do not seek to replicate historic development, but instead provide a contemporary development which responds to the established scale, rhythm and character of its surroundings and allows the site to make a positive contribution to the evolving character of the Conservation Area.
"Overall, the proposals represent an opportunity to deliver a significant improvement to the character and appearance of this currently fragmented part of Rotherham Town Centre."
A council cabinet report from earlier this year stated that the scheme is not considered viable without some form of public sector funding and the council is working with Capital&Centric to find gap funding.
Capital&Centric website
Images: RMBC
Proposals involve new offices and residential units replacing a temporary pocket park and a vacant plot.
Rotherham Council purchased the former Primark building 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 and the authority had set out to complete a pocket park by September 2021 before targeting the Women's Euros in July 2022. It eventually fully opened in 2026 with project costs of £920,000.
Now plans are being brought forward by Rotherham Council's development partner for the prominent site.
Rothbiz reported earlier this year on details of the projects from social impact developer Capital&Centric, who have been awarded a contract to develop five council-owned sites that could reach up to £100m in value.
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Whilst residential-led plans are being progressed for other sites, for Snail Yard, a smaller-scale, mixed-use development is proposed, centred around a courtyard concept.
Early stage planning documents show two new blocks. A new block fronting the High Street, potentially on top of the current pocket park, would contain 2,600 sq ft of commercial space and four residential units. A second block would create 9,500 sq ft of office space and external deck space. The formation of the blocks would also create a hidden courtyard space.
The plans, drawn up by Urbana planning consultants, explain that the development is "principally commercial-led, bringing a substantial amount of new employment-generating floorspace into the heart of Rotherham Town Centre, supplemented by a modest residential component" that would compliment rather than replace commercial use.
The homes are all set to be four bedroom properties adding larger family accommodation to the residential mix in the town centre.
The plans add: "The proposals seek to reinstate the commercial uses which were once occupying the site prior to its temporary use as a pocket park. In this instance, the proposals bring high street uses back to the High Street, restoring an active built frontage and introducing additional activity, employment and footfall."
New housing and increasing the resident population of the town centre is being used as a way to "support the vitality and viability of its existing and emerging commercial, leisure and community offer."
"Overall, the proposals represent an opportunity to deliver a significant improvement to the character and appearance of this currently fragmented part of Rotherham Town Centre."
A council cabinet report from earlier this year stated that the scheme is not considered viable without some form of public sector funding and the council is working with Capital&Centric to find gap funding.
Capital&Centric website
Images: RMBC
13 comments:
Leave it as a part, better than 4 bedroom homes in a town centre, don't tell me they aimed at young professionals.... Words already gone out about these planned properties.. Probably somewhere in Africa or Asia... Oh no there's me Going off all wacist, do I give a flying!
Oh no there's me Going off all wacist......Knuckle dragging, underachieving, bottom feeding, bedroom conspiracy theorist, the end.
Considering it took the council getting close to six years to install a couple of park benches, I'm not expecting anything to happen any time soon...
Brain dead methinks
Spend one million pounds to get a bit of grass and brightly coloured benches (that I actually saw people using today) and it's all going to be scrapped to erect more ugly (or the words they used) empty shops, four bedroom 'family' dwellings (there's no play area or parking and empty offices, that no one can afford. Progress!
Great news
It will happen like everything in Rotherham at a Snails pace
All very positive
Cause for celebration
There is a road at the back of the site so there could easily be access and parking provision there.
Great to see all the work going on in the town centre.
Absolutely
Wilfully ignorant methinks
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