5 huge Sheffield projects that never happened - from a flying car airport to a monorail

Here are five forgotten schemes that would have changed things.

Flying Car Airport

A prime plot of land outside Sheffield station was reserved for years for HS2, which the government promised over and over would come to Sheffield. While we waited, it was only natural people would come up with other ideas. One of the best was an ‘airport’ for flying cars and taxis. In 2021, aerospace industry executive Matthew Knowles proposed it as a way to take people from the station to their destination faster than by road. It wasn’t that outlandish - the same year electric aircraft maker, Vertical Aerospace of Bristol, announced it had pre-orders for up to 1,000 planes from American Airlines, and others, valued at up to $4bn. But, just like HS2, it never happened and the plot stands empty today.

Ski Village

Everyone agrees Sheffield is in the unique position of having amazing slopes a stone’s throw from the city centre. What better way of cementing its ‘Outdoor City’ reputation than with an artificial ski and gravity resort? Developer Extreme Leisure won the tender in 2017 and promised a £25m destination with dry ski and snowboard slopes, mountain biking, BMX, rock climbing, a zip line and luge run all served by two chairlifts. Skateboarding facilities and a surf lake were earmarked for “phase 2.” But in 2021 the firm was sacked for being too slow. A follow-up plan for luge runs - tobogganing down concrete channels - was promised last year. But last month the New Zealand operator announced it had been lured away to Swansea.

Closing Park Square Roundabout

This roundabout handles all the traffic coming into and out of the the city centre on the Parkway. So the idea of closing it made everyone sit up. But it was only part of a much bigger plan with other standout elements including switching the Sheaf Street dual carriageway with the tram route behind Midland station. A huge garden bridge linking Sheaf Square and Park Hill was also proposed, as well as flats and office blocks. At £1.5bn, this was perhaps Sheffield’s most ambitious plan ever. But that made it more likely to fail, which it duly did.

In 2021, incoming council leader Terry Fox pulled the plug saying: “We do not feel it meets local needs, offers value for money or would meet our environmental ambitions.”

Monorail

A driverless, automated network, with small cars carrying 15 passengers - it sounds amazing even now. But in the 1970s a monorail connecting shopping areas on a two-mile track with nine stations really grabbed the imagination. Thousands went to look at blueprints on show at Cole Brothers, the former John Lewis. But the scheme was abandoned in 1975.

Kelham Bridge

The original idea was a smaller model of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York linking the former Brooklyn Works on Green Lane and Kelham Island Museum. The idea was agreed in 2002 and approved two years ago. But now developers Citu and the Upper Don Rivers Trust say it is no longer needed because of Low Traffic Neighbourhood in Kelham Island. And Sheffield City Council has agreed.