Swathes of perfectly sound buildings will be razed and turned into hardcore

Most, if not all, of these 46 buildings are in the City Centre Conservation Area, are still serviceable and many are of excellent quality. This demolition includes the Bethel Chapel, which has stood on Cambridge Street since 1852 and is actually Grade II listed.

A good number of these superb Victorian buildings are of a borderline listable status and would have been listed had English Heritage not been wearing their current set of blinkers. Most of the other buildings in this area have stood for over 100 years, form part of Sheffield’s historic landscape and could well have remained so for another 100 years.

Please don’t patronise us, Mr Hammerson; the giant carbon footprint that your fleets of lorries will make when carting away the demolition rubble and delivering the nice new concrete, not to mention the vast quantities of power required to destroy this much loved part of our city, will be much greater than the token ticks that you are proposing to put in the ‘green’ box.

Why not trim the profits, preserve the history and still have a smart and interesting new shopping centre to be proud of – or is that too naive a suggestion?

Any citizens of Sheffield who are still unaware of the travesty which is about to be perpetrated on both Pinstone and Cambridge Streets can read the full story by logging on to www.thestar.co.uk and go to the blog site.

Howard Greaves, Vice Chairman, Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society

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