£300m Meadowhall plan scaled down

Co-owner British Land has submitted a revised application aimed at creating a ‘balanced offer and economy that allow the city to thrive as a central part of the Northern Powerhouse’.

It comes after shopping centres around the region claimed the huge scheme would rob them of trade.

But a Highways England block on the scheme being assessed by Sheffield City Council’s planning committee, imposed in December, has been extended by another month, until June 22.

A British Land spokesman said they had reduced the scale of retail by removing a food store and removed four screens from the new cinema.

It had also agreed to not convert the existing Vue cinema into shops, not convert the Oasis dining area into shops and not convert any of the leisure or catering space in the new extension into shops in the future.

A spokesman said: “The changes follow the launch of British Land’s commitment to ensuring the Leisure Hall delivers significant benefits to the local community and wider Sheffield City Region.

“These include achieving 50 per cent employment locally and 90 per cent from the Sheffield City Region from the 1,400 jobs the Leisure Hall will create upon completion.

“In addition, British Land has committed to spending £100m of the construction value with companies within 25 miles of Meadowhall, £15m of which will be with small to medium enterprises.”

He added: “We continue to work closely with the Council and Highways England on our transport strategy.”

Highways England has extended a block on the scheme to give it more time to ensure the safe operation of the M1 and Junction 34, which includes roundabouts at both ends of Tinsley Viaduct.

A spokesman said: “The priority for Highways England with regards to this application is to consider the impact of development generated traffic at both roundabouts, particularly given the known capacity constraints at Junction 34.

“We therefore recommend that planning permission should not be granted for a further period of one month from the date of this formal recommendation to allow time for a full and proper assessment of the impact of these proposals and resolve any issues.”

The letter was dated May 22.

A Sheffield City Council spokesperson said there was no date for the scheme to go before the planning committee.