Fargate Container Park: What went wrong with controversial box park - and what happens now

The vision of a hub made out of shipping containers at the top of Fargate divided Sheffielders from the start despite the success of box parks in other cities. Some saw it as a positive attempt to boost the high street and others could not trust the council to pull it off but even the critics could not predict how badly the project would go.

In the year since news first broke of the plans, Sheffield saw a sewage scare, delays after delays, disagreements, vendors pulling out, low footfall, and the bar never being completed, as costs and negative press mounted. Councillors on the strategy and resources committee voted to kill the project completely and give the remains to community groups.

Councillors Terry Fox, leader of the council, and Julie Grocutt, deputy leader, partly blamed the new committee system for the problems.

Coun Fox said: “Obviously this project hasn’t been our finest hour. But what I don’t want it to do is extinguish our appetite for ambition for this city. Sadly, the containers project never fulfilled what was expected. The council now needs to learn lessons from this to ensure that similar mistakes aren’t made again, and the on-going governance review needs to investigate how the committee system can facilitate better oversight for councillors.

“But this should never detract from our ambition to boost the local economy and draw-down whatever investment we can from government. Going forward, I’m excited to hear the proposals and how the containers can be re-purposed to support the critical and valuable work of community groups who bring so much to Sheffield and its residents.”

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said it was clear there was public concern about how the council got here and it needed to rebuild trust.

He added: “The container park has not been our proudest moment. Other cities have made it work and I look forward to the review to tell us why it hasn’t worked in Sheffield.”

The future of Sheffield’s Container Park

Councillors decided to pack up the Container Park – which only debuted in October, despite originally being planned to open ahead of the Women’s Euros in July – and put it in storage on a brownfield site that is yet to be confirmed.

It will then distribute the eight containers in individual units to community organisations across the city or possibly use them for outdoor catering and toilet facilities in parks.

It is expected that community groups will be able to formally express interest in using the containers in early February and a proposal of the options is expected in April.

This is expected to cost around £55,993.

Councillors chose the option recommended to them by officers out of a possible four choices.

The other options were: relocate the park to the empty land at Sheaf Street next to Sheffield railway station, work with a third party to relocate it to a different place near the station, or sell the containers.

Coun Douglas Johnson, leader of Sheffield Green Party, said the chosen option was a “sensible decision” and a few groups had already expressed interest in using the containers.

Speaking about what went wrong, he said: “It is important that the council sometimes takes some element of a reasonable amount of risk but with that we have to recognise that if we take risks sometimes things will not go your way.”

All were in agreement that lessons needed to be learned and the council is working on an internal audit which is due to be completed later this year.

What about the businesses?

All the businesses chosen for the Container Park were local independents but after months of delays, several of the original line-up pulled out and had to be replaced.

The group of vendors who headed into the New Year wrote an open letter to the council earlier this month describing how they gathered together to combat issues that could have been easily resolved but were often hit with a “brick wall”.

They said it resulted in them all taking matters into their own hands – helping with maintenance, litter picking, electrical and plumbing repairs and even cleaning up human excrement.

Urging the council not to write it off as a failure, they asked for investment to move it to another part of the city and give the businesses more control.

It was also stated in a recent council report by officers that vendors wanted to continue trading in the containers, even if it moved to another location.

This decision goes against their wishes but the council said it will offer help in the form of advice from its business support team.

Coun Martin Smith said: “It’s good to hear we will be offering support to the retailers because I think we all agree they are the innocent parties in all of this and we owe them an apology for the mess.”

Coun Fox said: “As the containers come to a close this week, I’d like to take the time to thank the brilliant businesses who, despite the setbacks, have stuck with the container project and highlighted the strength, determination and importance of independent businesses in this city. I wish them all the best for the future and hope to see their brands go on to achieve fantastic things.”

The final cost of the project was around £500,000 – an increase of about £200,000.

Funding originally came from the government’s Get Britain building fund for a “shovel ready” infrastructure project to stimulate jobs and economic recovery following Covid-19.

SteelYard Kelham, which officers said was the only company to step forward, was chosen to lead the project on behalf of the council.

Despite the failures, officers said the likelihood of funding being clawed back was low.