Rotherham Civic Quarter - Rotherham United Stadium
The site of the old Guest and Chrimes Foundry on Don Street, just outside the centre of Rotherham is to be the home of the new civic centre for Rotherham. Rotherham United Football Club who have also been looking for a new ground since they parted company from Millmoor have announced that their new community stadium will be built here. In 2010 work has already started and the new Civic Offices are expected to be open in 2011.
Civic Offices
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 are having 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. 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.
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New Rotherham United Ground
In January 2010 Rotherham United have announced that their new stadium is to be built on the old Guest and Chrimes site off Main Street. This will be a community stadium, ie available for other uses, which it is estimated will cost about £20million. The planned stadium will have 12,000 seats, with an option for 4000 more. However the planned parking for the stadium and the new council offices which are to built on the same site is only about 500. Assuming that they are hoping to get large numbers of bums on seats it looks as if many fans will have to park a long, long, walk away - Masbrough maybe. A formal planning has to be submitted but since RMBC have been involved in talks from the start and are keen for the development to go ahead the plans should not need more than a bit of tweaking. Club Chairman, Tony Stewart announced with great pride and pleasure:-
"This is an ideal site for our new home here in Rotherham. It will also provide significant regeneration benefits and leave a legacy for the future, for the club and the town. Rotherham MBC has played a pivotal role in this process, and we are very grateful for all their help and support. Our town needs a football club to be proud of playing in a stadium to be proud of providing facilities for our community to be proud of."
Initial drawings of the architect's plans for the new stadium have drawn various comments from the football fans in my family. "Boring" and "What a waste of £20million quid" being two of the ones clean enough to publish.
Work has started clearing the site in September 2010.
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)."
So much for the preservation of Rotherham's Heritage!