A Sheffield MP has sent a letter to a councillor after hope for a promised £90 million investment into the community has dwindled from seven years of little progress.
Sheffield City Council first discussed the Gleadless Valley Masterplan with the residents of Gleadless Valley in 2017 to improve the area.
Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley and the Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, wrote to the Green Chair of the Housing Committee, Councillor Douglas Johnson last week.
In the letter, Ms Haigh said: “In the two years since there has been no movement with delivery of the Masterplan, no confirmation of timelines of plans for refurbishment, building or demolition of homes.
“I hear time and again from residents who are fed up with the lack of progress and information they are receiving.”
She then pressed Coun Johnson for updates on the plan to share with her constituency, including:
- Who will be held accountable for the delays in this project?
- When can residents expect to see their homes and community transformed?
£1.1 million of the budget has been spent on the plan over the last seven years, but questions have been raised as to what progress has been made with that money. Residents are now losing hope in the council’s plans.
“I first became highly sceptical of the masterplan after learning about previous plans in other parts of the country,” resident Matthew Goodwin told Sheffield Wire.
“It appeared to be more about the physical elimination of visible social housing estates, and replacing them with smaller homes in the same geographical area to provide more profit for property developers, than it was about genuinely putting more resources into these areas.”
Other residents vocalised their distaste for the plan from the beginning. Under a South Sheffield Facebook post, resident Zoe Revill commented: “It’s not what us who live there want, we need more spaces for cars, maintenance of the already existing trees and pathways, walls that are crumbling, wild flowers…”
In 2017, surveys were circulated to determine the main discontent points. 15% of residents thought that Gleadless Valley was a bad place to live, with Ironside, Spring Close Mount and Sands Close namechecked as areas with residents who are the least content. The main reasons for not liking the Valley were littering problems, anti-social behaviour and drug problems.
Over the next seven years, the council encouraged the community to get involved in planning and design workshops and meetings, including the Design for Change workshops in 2019 and public consultations in 2022.
Although the local council highlighted in their plan that regeneration projects take a long time to deliver, there has been little tangible evidence of developmental results for residents to view.
Matthew Goodwin, 58, who is a long-term resident of Gleadless Valley and works as a UNISON steward, was initially quite engaged in the Masterplan process, attending meetings and working with other activists to question the council’s plans.
He said: “I became concerned that the council already had quite firm plans to demolish various properties in the valley, but had not informed the relevant tenant or residents of those properties.
“From discussions with neighbours and viewing comments on Gleadless Valley Community Facebook pages, a lot of the community is highly sceptical about the plans but clearly some want to see it redeveloped and work commence soon.”
At the point this article was published, Coun Johnson had not responded to Ms Haigh’s letter.
