23/03035/FUL Brook Place Phase 2, Summerfield Street
The Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust have the following comments as a Neutral representation to application 23/03035/FUL.
If you would like to support the trust,
Consider submitting a neutral comment stating:
"I support the comments made by the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust, specially that:
Porter Brook Entrance Treatments, a "Porter Brook Trail" Arch is provided.
Sheffield Riverside Railings are used along the river boundary.
A safe crossing of Summerfield Street, directly connecting the existing and proposed sections of the Porter Brook Trail is added by the applicant.
Please read our Neutral comment; we will not be making an Ecologly and environmental comment until the "Ecologly Report" has been made public.
"We broadly support the plans proposed by Grainger. Many of our pre-application comments have been included within the application.
There are some finer details which we feel need amending and further consideration as part of the current application.
A. Ecology Report
We are waiting for the upload of this document, which should demonstrate Biodiversity Net Gain to both the River and Land environment. We may submit further comments once we have reviewed this document.
B. Porter Brook Entrance Treatments.
We understand that at Summerfield Street, access for a fire engine is needed. This would prevent the provision of a standard Sheffield Riverside Arch. The entrance treatment of Summerfield Street would still benefit from some visual continuity matching the rest of the Porter Brook Trail and existing design guidance on Riverside Walkways.
However, at the Pear Street/Napier Street Corner, a "Porter Brook Trail" arch, as recently provided further downstream (21/03823/COND4), could be accommodated. This would provide a strong visual identity supporting Policy CS 48 (Open Space and Riversides in the City Centre). Precedents for this type of public art can be found at several riverside trail locations across the city.
C. Sheffield Riverside Railing This is mentioned on page 27 of the design and access statement. Further detail needs to be provided at this stage or conditioned as part of approval to ensure quality and consistency along the Porter Brook Trail. The visuals provided feature a different type of railings, this may be a limitation of the software used to create the images.
D. Summerfield Street.
Since our initial meeting, it has been highlighted by members of the trust that given the high volumes of traffic, travelling at speed from both the inner ring road and down the hill, crossing Summerfield Street is difficult directly between sections of the Porter Brook Trail.
A zebra crossing or traffic light crossing between the proposed and existing Porter Brook Trail should be included to ensure a safe and convenient route along the Porter Brook. A strong weighting should be given to the extra pedestrian, cycle and vehicle journeys that this development will generate and the need to enable safe access towards the city centre.
The Transport assessment and travel plan references this route without mention of the difficulty of crossing this busy road.
We would welcome further discussion with the applicant over this improvement.
On behalf of the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust."