Attercliffe Waterside: Home owners urged to ditch cars on huge new estate set to be Yorkshire's greenest ever

Residents won’t be allowed to park outside their home at Attercliffe Waterside in Sheffield, according to Chris Thompson, founder of Citu. It will have a car park, but it won’t be visible from the development and will only have 400 spaces.

Talking to sister paper The Star, he said: "If you put a car outside the front door you are inviting people to come by car. If you put in good cycling and walking infrastructure you’re inviting them to make that their primary means of getting around."

The homes will have timber frames and air source heat pumps to minimise ‘embodied’ and ‘operational’ carbon. By banning cars, the firm is trying to change residents’ behaviour to tackle a third measure: ‘whole life carbon’.

Attercliffe Waterside is a 10-year, £300m project that, as well as being green, is set to ease Sheffield’s housing shortage and could help transform Attercliffe’s seedy, rundown image.

The firm has submitted a planning application for the first phase, between Attercliffe Road and Sheffield and Tinsley canal, which will also have 447 homes.

Years in the planning, it is the Leeds firm’s most ambitious project, Mr Thompson says.

He added: "There are a lot of challenges. We have got to build confidence that this is a desirable place to live. But I’m absolutely certain it will succeed, we are not throwing a dice. Attercliffe has got some great ingredients."

They include its position between the city centre and Meadowhall and travel links that include cycle lanes, Supertram and a towpath.

But it all starts with a coffee shop. Citu plans to build the commercial element first by converting the former Spartan steelworks on Attercliffe Road and five other buildings into a cafe, pub, shop, offices and events space.

Finding an operator before any residents move in won’t be easy, he admits. But that’s where Sheffielders come in.

He said: "Sheffield isn’t short of people with imagination and vision. Hopefully when they see what we are building they will take that leap of faith."

Domo Sardinian restaurant in Citu’s Little Kelham development opened in a former steel mill when the area was still a "building site", he says.

If planning for phase one is granted in December, the company could start on site within months and, depending on demand, build up to 100 homes a year for 10 years, Mr Thompson says.

Some will be for sale and some for rent. Social housing is not a requirement but is "something we would welcome". Funding for the project will be from private sources. The 22-acre plot is bounded by Effingham Road and Woodbourn Road and includes Ripon Street open space.

Landowner Sheffield City Council is stumping up £4m from the Brownfield Housing Fund to buy out property owners including the Duke of Norfolk and remediate polluted land.