Sheffield’S Oldest Shop Shuts As Long Delays In City Centre Regeneration Takes Its Toll

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/sheffield_s_oldest_shop_shuts_as_long_delays_in_city_centre_regeneration_takes_its_toll_1_3129972

SHEFFIELD’S longest-serving retailer shuts its doors for the final time tomorrow - forced to close because of the long delays that have plagued the planned regeneration of the city centre.

For 132 years Pollards Tea and Coffee has offered a haven for shoppers visiting the once-bustling stores of The Moor and Pinstone Street.

But tomorrow 18 workers will be forced out of a job and a Sheffield institution will be consigned to history, as managing director Simon Bower admits mounting losses makes survival impossible.

Mr Bower, aged 41, has put the blame for the closure firmly at the doors of Sheffield Council and Hammerson, the giant development company that was meant to turn the city centre into a £600 million retail quarter.

The Sevenstone project, conceived at the height of the economic boom, has been on hold since January 2009 - and Mr Bower says he can no longer operate in isolation, surrounded by empty units.

“It has not been the recession that has done this - it’s the complete mismanagement of a massive regeneration project,” he said.

“Everything has closed around us. All the council has been doing is putting art in empty shop fronts - which helps nobody. And Hammerson are investing anywhere but Sheffield.

“Footfall has diminished and there is nobody walking past the shop.

“We are operating in gross isolation.”

Sheffield Council’s cabinet member for business Coun Ian Auckland said his officers had been working hard to make the new retail project a reality.

He said: “Whilst I’m sorry to see Pollards close, as a council we are doing all we can to bring Sevenstone forward as well as maintaining footfall around the area.

Not been in this area of the City Centre for awhile, how bad is it in this area? Anyone able to grab a picture and post it of the empty units in the area?

However the recession is clearly a major factor in how this redevelopment has faltered, but the council should have got it's skates on and moved things forward faster before the inevitable burst of the credit bubble.

[bonner]

Its the block in front of John Lewis.

The Seven Stones development was supposed to go ahead after the demolition of the old fire station. It was slipped in with the loan to Forgemasters, which Cleggzilla and Able Cable dont like because the nasty peeps might make something useful. The ConDems just like the computer say NO..

[Self Employed Youth]

Rotherham is starting to look posh in comparison.

[Patfig]

Rotherham is starting to look posh in comparison.

Scunny is on the up too!!

[aa3]

Ouch 14 out of work. It becomes a cascade effect, more shops close, less people working in the area, less people coming by, more shops close.

In rip-off Britain I think very few shops are viable. Since the great recession started we've already seen the shoe chains go down, bookstores going down, record stores closing, probably a bunch of clothing shops that haven't even made the news. I think cafes and restaurants will soon see a tidal wave of closures.

Between greedy landlords, greedy councils, parking fines, professional fees, insurance and so forth you would have to sell a lot of bags of coffee before you are getting remotely near paying overheads, let alone staffing.

The only thing viable is the big boxes, and doing super volume under one roof. And maybe some high end shops, like purses which sell for £1,500 pounds.

[Caveman]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/sheffield_s_oldest_shop_shuts_as_long_delays_in_city_centre_regeneration_takes_its_toll_1_3129972

Not been in this area of the City Centre for awhile, how bad is it in this area? Anyone able to grab a picture and post it of the empty units in the area?

However the recession is clearly a major factor in how this redevelopment has faltered, but the council should have got it's skates on and moved things forward faster before the inevitable burst of the credit bubble.

It's really quite depressing round that part of town nowadays, although the empty shop windows have been filled by people with various levels of artistic flair - I reckon the council have allowed students to showcase their work. Lipstick & pig spring to mind.

Sad really - I used to go in Pollards as a nipper and eat the coffee beans

[200p]

People like big box chain brands unfortunately.

In Boscombe in the last summer, as an experiment I observed 4 cafes. Nero, Costa, Popins and 3 private ones all within 5 minute walk away from each other. Costa was the busiest, Nero next. Poppins was less busy (a smaller chain), and the 3 private ones very quiet in comparison. One is now closed - it used to be "Rosebys" soft furnishings before. To rub salt into the wounds, McDonalds, KFC, Subway, Greggs are also there.

[Self Employed Youth]

Ouch 14 out of work. It becomes a cascade effect, more shops close, less people working in the area, less people coming by, more shops close.

In rip-off Britain I think very few shops are viable. Since the great recession started we've already seen the shoe chains go down, bookstores going down, record stores closing, probably a bunch of clothing shops that haven't even made the news. I think cafes and restaurants will soon see a tidal wave of closures.

Between greedy landlords, greedy councils, parking fines, professional fees, insurance and so forth you would have to sell a lot of bags of coffee before you are getting remotely near paying overheads, let alone staffing.

The only thing viable is the big boxes, and doing super volume under one roof. And maybe some high end shops, like purses which sell for £1,500 pounds.

When I was on the dole I did a 2week CSCS card course, so I could legally work on a building site if I managed to secure the odd weeks temporary job on a site offered @ min wage.

The company got paid £800, the test and card costs £30.. We got a sandwich daily ~ £20 over the fortnight, and £50 travel expenses, they must have yielded £700 per person for a fortnight, there was 30 of us, 3 staff, one quit not long after and I saw his job offered, - £25k a year.

There is a lot of money in the unemployed.

The government will pay you to take them on, you can pay them £2.50 an hour.

Their housing benefit yields considerable sums an supports well over 20% of landlords.

Council tax benefit provides 25% of local services.

This morning a bus driver was telling me it would be illegal for him to let me off the bus at a bus stop, due to a diversion. He would have to make a 10 minute trip (roughly equivalent to the reverse of the end of the route he had practically reached) to rejoin the route, before he could travel back down a (gridlocked) 200m stretch of road to the place which we were. I told him, "the world had gone mad, you lack common sense", pressed the emergency exit button and jumped off.

After reading about a man shouting obscenities at his TV (when Question time was on), being jailed for 14 months I am becoming worried.

[winkie]

Sad really - I used to go in Pollards as a nipper and eat the coffee beans

I love crunching on roasted coffee beans.

If we don't value our family small business retailers we will lose them.....all our high streets could then turn into 'name of supermarket express' and residential homes.....no libraries, no post offices......no community life if we are not careful.

['Bart']

it’s the complete mismanagement of a massive regeneration project

It's the usual Sheffield story, years behind Leeds and Manchester with this sort of thing, and it ends up starting (or not starting) just as the global financial crisis kicks in.

The design of the "new" Moor reminds me of that bit in Men Behaving Badly where the Crown is refurbished based on an "old" 1940s photo that was actually just a couple of years old, so it ended up looking exactly the same.

[interestrateripoff]

After reading about a man shouting obscenities at his TV (when Question time was on), being jailed for 14 months I am becoming worried.

Did his neighbours complain?

I can't watch question time it's too dangerous for the TV.

[needsleep]

It's pretty depressing round that area now. The whole thing is utterly mismanaged. The Moor is even worse - it scarcely seems possible but they've actually succeeded in making it worse

[longtomsilver]

When I was on the dole I did a 2week CSCS card course, so I could legally work on a building site if I managed to secure the odd weeks temporary job on a site offered @ min wage.

The company got paid £800, the test and card costs £30.. We got a sandwich daily ~ £20 over the fortnight, and £50 travel expenses, they must have yielded £700 per person for a fortnight, there was 30 of us, 3 staff, one quit not long after and I saw his job offered, - £25k a year.

There is a lot of money in the unemployed.

The government will pay you to take them on, you can pay them £2.50 an hour.

Their housing benefit yields considerable sums an supports well over 20% of landlords.

Council tax benefit provides 25% of local services.

This morning a bus driver was telling me it would be illegal for him to let me off the bus at a bus stop, due to a diversion. He would have to make a 10 minute trip (roughly equivalent to the reverse of the end of the route he had practically reached) to rejoin the route, before he could travel back down a (gridlocked) 200m stretch of road to the place which we were. I told him, "the world had gone mad, you lack common sense", pressed the emergency exit button and jumped off.

After reading about a man shouting obscenities at his TV (when Question time was on), being jailed for 14 months I am becoming worried.

I can't recall the specific details but I do remember reading in the Sunday Times mag about the owner of the firm that operated your course. He lived in a very nice house in Chelsea.

[Self Employed Youth]

I can't recall the specific details but I do remember reading in the Sunday Times mag about the owner of the firm that operated your course. He lived in a very nice house in Chelsea.

Are you referring to the owner of RTT group?

There are multiple 'prime' providers you see.

A4E's Emma Harrison now owns the stately home 'Thornbrige Hall' for example, with the majority of her cash cows still subsisting on the dole.

[interestrateripoff]

It's pretty depressing round that area now. The whole thing is utterly mismanaged. The Moor is even worse - it scarcely seems possible but they've actually succeeded in making it worse

The Moor is awful, created by highly skilled planners.