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Southey Owlerton Area Regeneration (SOAR)

Sheffield

Evaluation

Sheffield City Council took a risk by involving community representatives in the appointment of the design panel and the procurement and selection of consultants. This risk paid off by empowering individuals to take decisions about the future of the places where they live, as well as exciting them about the possibilities of good design.

The design panel

The design panel developed SOAR’s ability to be a good and confident client. It nurtured the emergence of design champions, who are fully engaged in the changes taking place and who have the links back into the wider community. According to Sheffield, this has “demonstrated to the Council and other partners how neighbourhood groups can contribute positively to the process of design”.

The efforts to integrate the social and the physical – the role of community networks, physical linkages, educational and health services, recreational facilities and housing, within a varied, complex and rich landscape – led to developments and spaces which respond to and are rooted in the context.

Partnership working

Sheffield City Council learned important lessons about corporate working and using a partnership approach which it has since applied to other areas. The experience of SOAR showed that regeneration is not an isolated activity but linked to mainstream experience. This means integrating physical and non-physical projects and seeing housing as part of a wider picture of change.

Community-led regeneration

Through openness to design advice and a genuine commitment to quality in the design and planning of buildings and spaces, Sheffield City Council has put in place a strong, community-led framework for long-term regeneration in Southey Owlerton.

A SOAR board member commented that, “CABE was helpful in adding specialist skills and knowledge to a community base which was potentially strong and viable but still evolving”.

Delivery of projects

This part of north Sheffield was included in the wider South Yorkshire housing market renewal programme in 2003, and the SOAR Partnership was later subsumed into the northern area team within the city council. Sheffield City Council is delivering a variety of projects:

  • the redevelopment of several key green spaces ahead of other physical interventions, including Busk Meadow Park and Cookson Park
  • streetscene improvements at Margetson Crescent, Longley Four Greens, Herries Road and Shirecliffe Road
  • 215 new homes at Foxhill, developed by Artisan and Great Places Housing Association and designed by Mecanoo
  • 204 new homes at the Flower ‘Five Roads’ site, by Haslam Homes, and an Extra Care Home by Sanctuary Housing Association
  • 150 new homes by Places for People at Adlington in Parson Cross
  • 34 new homes at Lindsay Road in Parsons Cross, by architects FAT for Great Places
  • new Shirecliffe Community Hub building by Bauman Lyons Architects
  • new Longley Community Hub building by Allen Tod Architecture
  • new business workspace and artists' studies at Knutton Road.