Rotherham Civic Quarter
The new one size fits all council offices called Riverside House have opened in 2012. Council services and facilities now are available here including the lending library. That is, except for the Local Studies Library which has moved to Clifton Park Museum and the York and Lancsater Museum which will re-open in Clifton Park Museum in approximately January 2013.
Riverside House
Now I thought that a new town hall was to built here also but I obviously remembered wrongly as Rotherham Town Hall and the Eric Manns Building on Moorgate Street had a lot of brass spent on them in 2010. The new E-shaped offices are seen as part of town's £2 billion Rotherham Renaissance programme. When finished and fitted out most of the other council buildings right over on the other side of town are supposed to close and be demolished, leaving more development space. There is supposed to be a new road and bridge over the Don connecting to the site from Sheffield Road - no this has been cancelled. As I recall parking provision in the plans was pathetic.
In order to fund the multi-million pound expenditure required Rotherham Council had entered into a PFI private finance initiative arrangement with regeneration group Evans of Leeds who own the site. They have tied the people of Rotherham to a 35-year deal under which a rental of £2.9 million a year will have to be paid to Evans for the privilege. And to boot there will be rent reviews every five years so Rotherham could end up paying very dearly indeed. Nor will the local authority own the building outright when the agreement runs out in the mid 2040s, although it will have an option to buy it. Many people consider that this is a very bad deal for the town.
Listed Guest & Chrimes Building
Part of the old Guest & Chrimes Building is listed. I thought, silly me, that one of the intentions of the redevelopment was to preserve this, possibly by incorporating in an artistic and interesting way into the new buildings on the site. However it is not incorporated in either the Civic Offices, or the Football Stadium. Moreover I note that on the map of the proposed site there is a comment:-
"Footprint of existing Grade 2 listed building, the subject of a separate application for Listed Buildings Consent for demolition (either in whole or in part)."
The site actually has a "For Sale" notice on it in 2012.