 How Pinstone Street could look, with more planting, more space for people, wider footways and segregated cycle lanes
Connecting Sheffield: City Centre
The Connecting Sheffield: City Centre project is a key part of the ongoing transformation of the city centre. It will improve our streets and our public spaces to create an attractive place for people to spend time, including the opportunity for more outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants to make the city centre a vibrant destination.
It also links the improvement works at Fargate, developments in the Heart of the City, and The Moor to make it easy for you to access all that the city centre has to offer.
Connecting Sheffield: City Centre will create more space for people and events, with new planting and greener streets to make the city centre a safer, more pleasant place to live, work and spend time.
Our plans will give you more choice in how you travel too. We plan to introduce wider footways and separate cycle lanes, as well as the changes we've already made to make bus journeys more direct through the city centre. So you'll be able to get to all the key locations you need whether you travel on foot, by wheelchair or mobility scooter, by bike or using public transport.
The project's progress
We consulted on our initial proposals in 2021, and received more than 1,200 comments. There was positive support for the proposals, with 63% of comments supporting creating new green spaces and building on opportunities for people to walk, cycle and travel by bus across the city centre. People expressed the most positive sentiment for the environmental benefits the scheme would bring – a better and more attractive environment, making it safer to walk and cycle in the city centre.
During the pandemic, we implemented some of the proposals as Experimental Traffic Orders (ETOs) to comply with social distancing requirements.
This allowed us to trial elements of the scheme which gave us opportunities to create more space for people in the city centre. This included closing Pinstone Street to vehicle traffic and rerouting some buses.
In summer 2022 we launched, with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, the Sheffield Connect bus service. This serves key destinations via 12 city centre bus stops. The Sheffield Connect bus runs a regular service seven days a week and provides free travel for people with a valid bus, tram or train ticket, or you can travel for a low flat fare without an existing ticket.
We’re also working with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to upgrade the service to an electric bus fleet later this year, which will provide zero emission transport for the heart of the city centre.
We have now progressed the scheme’s design based on feedback from the consultation exercise. You can find the key changes to our proposals in the attached plan, and they include:
- Proposed landscaping on Pinstone Street which we’ve designed to maximise the opportunity to use the space for events.
- Pedestrianising Charles Street between Pinstone Street and Union Street to allow the opportunity for more outdoor seating space for businesses. A two-way cycle route will also run along the entire length of Charles Street to connect routes on Pinstone Street and Arundel Gate.
- A right-turn facility for cyclists from Arundel Gate onto Charles Street
- Two-way cycle routes connecting Surrey Street to Pinstone Street, Leopold Street and Fargate.
- Pedestrianising Surrey Street to give businesses the opportunity for more outdoor space, and providing a cycle route by removing 14 pay and display parking spaces and five disabled parking spaces. We will provide additional blue badge parking on Leopold Street and on Union Street to prioritise on-street parking close to the shops and services in these areas for people who have the greatest mobility needs.
You can view full details of the updated proposal and more detailed plans on the Connecting Sheffield website.
What's next?
We're now talking to businesses on Surrey Street and Charles Street to understand how we can support them with access for deliveries or servicing.
Later this year, we'll need to advertise the Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) we need for the project. A TRO is a legal order which allows councils to change the way roads are used, such as regulating the speed limits, removal of parking bays, banning or enabling turns, making a road one-way or changing loading and waiting restrictions – often indicated by parking bays or yellow lines.
Once we have advertised the order, there is a 28-day formal objection period. We must consider and respond to all objections before we make a decision on whether we implement the TRO or not.
We'll also be doing some work around the city centre to identify the locations of cables and pipes under the ground in preparation for the project's construction. We'll do some of this work at night, and some during the day, depending on location. There may be some noise and disruption, but this should only be for one day, and we'll inform residents and businesses in advance of any work taking place.
We will be in touch again soon with more updates as the project progresses, and to let you know when the TROs are advertised - along with how you can provide formal feedback.
Don't forget there's more information, and a list of frequently asked questions, on the Connecting Sheffield website (insert link).
These proposals represent our final plans for the Connecting Sheffield: City Centre project. While we’re working with businesses to make sure we can accommodate their needs for delivery and loading access, we have limited scope for making changes to the design at this stage. We still welcome your comments and feedback – we’ll consider any we receive and respond to you, whether we’re able to make changes or not. If you'd like to get in touch about the project, you can email info@connecting-sheffield.co.uk
Discover Sheffield's changing city centre
Sheffield City Centre is undergoing significant change. With so much regeneration happening, it can be hard to keep up with all of the exciting developments.
We've created a dedicated space where you can get the latest on what's new, what's underway and what's happening next.
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