Sheffield got £20m for ‘levelling up’. So why has the project stalled?

Castlegate used to be a thriving, bustling part of the city centre, but in the last 10 years has fallen on hard times. So, when Sheffield City Council won £20 million from the government’s Levelling Up Fund to regenerate the area, hopes were high that the city’s historic heart might soon be on the up. However, while that might still happen, we’re likely to be waiting for some time before it does. The money was originally meant to have been spent by March 2024 but so far, the authority has managed to spend less than 10% of the £20 million windfall they were given. Today we ask: when are we likely to see progress at the castle site?

We’ve been getting loads of great reaction to our weekend story about Kommune over the last few days. Victoria’s piece was read by more than 35,000 people and led to 11 more readers signing up as members. It also produced some lovely tweets including this one from long-time Tribune subscriber Matt Boreman.

Victoria also wrote a members’ piece on Tuesday which delved into the policy implications of the decision by eight Labour councillors to form a new group on Sheffield City Council. Now all the Sheffield Community Councillors need is to decide on what they stand for.

“We have to now sit down and talk about what direction we are going to take and what we are going to support,” says Richmond councillor Dianne Hurst. The group have yet to even decide if they’re going to form a new political party, although it’s clear there’s some appetite for it. “People are saying ‘if you form a political party, we will join you’,” she says. “It’s up in the air and very exciting.”

All our journalism is based on the support we get from subscribers. The reason our reporting feels so different is because it is funded differently which means we can work differently: spending days or weeks on stories rather than having to pump out many stories a day, as the traditional advertising model requires. If you like it, please back us and pay for it. It’s a small investment for a very big return.

Your Tribune briefing

🎨 Much-loved Sheffield artist Pete McKee is moving his gallery from Sharrow Vale to Leah’s Yard in the city centre. The development on Cambridge Street is part of the long-awaited Heart of the City regeneration project, the subject of one of our recent pieces. In McKee’s words he decided to move to “be a part of our beautiful city’s new beginning — where we forge our own future and don’t look to be a poor copy of our neighbours up the M1 and over the Snake.”

🥬 The town centre may be on the up, but have we crested the wave of Kelham Island’s popularity? Certainly the impending closure of one of its top restaurants, V or V, doesn’t seem like a good sign. Owner Matt Burgess told The Star that it “simply isn’t possible” to keep the restaurant afloat in the current climate, “despite the best will in the world”. For our piece on Kelham Island click here.

🪦 Sheffield’s 16 council-run cemeteries are on the brink of filling up, which could create a “burial emergency” within the next five years, the BBC report. Tinsley Park cemetery, for example, has already hit maximum capacity and others only have a few hundred spots left. The impending shortage is particularly concerning to the city’s Muslim community, as their faith forbids cremation.

Things to do

🎖️ At Sheffield station on Friday, a plaque will be unveiled marking the sacrifice of the Pridmore brothers, four siblings from the city who all died in World War One. The plaque will commemorate John Thomas, aged 33, Arthur Edward, aged 31, Albert, aged 38 and George Harry, aged 22. To find out more about the brothers, see this piece written by Mick Drewry, the great-grandson of John Thomas, the first to be killed. The ceremony will take place at 2pm.

🖼️ Returning for its 10th year, the Sheffield Print Fair comes to the Millennium Gallery on Saturday, bringing more than 40 artists skilled in techniques including intaglio, woodcut, linocut, collagraph, etching, letterpress, screen and digital print. As a bonus for those who arrive early, the first 50 people through the door will receive a free screen printed tote bag designed by Kid Acne. The fair runs from 10am-4.30pm and entrance is £1 (under 16s free).

🎺 The next best thing to actual Beyoncé — a 16-piece orchestra performing songs from her incredible back catalogue. With strings, woodwind, percussion as well as “brass and sass”, experience Bey’s anthems in a way you’ve never heard before as the Untold Orchestra Present a History of Beyoncé at the Foundry on Saturday. For anyone who isn’t a fully paid up member of the BeyHive, folk rock pioneers Steeleye Span are playing Firth Hall on Sunday.

Sheffield got £20m for ‘levelling up’. So why has the project stalled?

When Sheffield City Council won £20m from the Levelling Up Fund for Castlegate in late 2021, it was said the money would “restore a sense of place and purpose to an important part of the city”. The council’s bid described Castlegate as “the birthplace of Sheffield”, but also referenced its current dilapidation. Until recently a thriving part of the city centre, the area is now a shadow of its former glory and had become a haven for anti-social behaviour.

The money was to be spent on three projects: the castle site itself, Harmony Works — a music education centre at Canada House — and the S1 Artspace at Park Hill flats. Of these, the castle site was to be the centrepiece. The River Sheaf would be opened up on its way through the site and complemented by a new, green public space. The council said this would be “the culmination of a […] process to transform a derelict space into one of Sheffield’s most exciting neighbourhoods, promoting the economic regeneration of Castlegate quarter”.

Fast forward two years and you might now expect contractors to be busy working at the site. The money was originally meant to have been spent by March 2024 — maybe the project would be close to completion?

However, a quick look through the rusty gates at Grey to Green makes it clear nothing much is happening. In fact, a recent Freedom of Information request by the Press Association found that of the £20 million Sheffield City Council had been awarded, only £1.5 million has so far been spent. 

You might be wondering, just like I was when I started on this story: how could that possibly be?