Images show Sunderland's new Sheepfolds housing scheme

Earlier this week, Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee approved plans for public realm works in the Sheepfolds area to improve connectivity ahead of a major transformation.

The vision set out by development bosses for part of the Riverside Sunderland regeneration site includes hundreds of new homes which would eventually replace the area known as Sheepfolds Industrial Estate.

New homes would be linked to the city centre by a new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the River Wear, which is currently under construction.

In recent months, applications have been approved to demolish several old factory units and industrial units on the site, and a planning application for housing is expected to be submitted in future once a developer is appointed.

At a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Economic Prosperity Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (April 9, 2024), councillors were given an update on plans for the Sheepfolds area.

A presentation revealed CGI images showing how the residential community could look from key vantage points, including the riverfront and at sites near the Stadium of Light and St Peter’s Metro Station.

Neil Guthrie, city council development director, gave a presentation on Sheepfolds as part of a wider update on projects linked to Siglion, the council’s regeneration and development company.

Councillors were told work was taking place to relocate businesses based at the Sheepfolds Industrial Estate, as well as work to progress both the public realm and housing elements of the scheme.

Mr Guthrie told the meeting: “We have been doing a lot of work over the last six months on the Sheepfolds neighbourhood at Riverside Sunderland.

“That will be the most populated in terms of residential community, we’re targeting somewhere in the region of 600 new homes on the north side of the river.

“They will be connected to the city centre by the new Wear footbridge which is due to be completed by summer next year.

“We have been evolving the Riverside Sunderland masterplan that we launched in 2019 and have done work around Sheepfolds particularly to look at how we manage pedestrian flow, particularly on match days and concert events, and how we protect the residential community from that traffic flow and also how we manage the risk of terrorism and all sorts of things.

“Also how we improve connectivity with some of the active travel networks and the likes of the Metro station.

“We have done work to strengthen the masterplan and are looking at moving pedestrian traffic to the periphery which allows us to deliver a more concentrated residential community in the middle.

“We have also produced a few CGI images which try to demonstrate the ambition of what we’re setting out to achieve”.

On the western part of Sheepfolds, high-quality public realm is planned to connect the city centre with the Stadium of Light, along with bars, restaurants, community facilities and open space.

At the ‘eastern gateway’ of the site, near St Peter’s Metro Station, there is a vision to create a mobility hub with access to car sharing and cycle provision, and space for deliveries.

Planning permission has already been granted for the first section of the ‘Way of Light’ which will run alongside the new Stables hospitality development and a planning application is expected to be submitted for more public realm improvements at the northern end of the Sheepfolds site.

Elsewhere, work is ongoing to progress the procurement process to find a developer to deliver housing at the Sheepfolds site.

City council development director Neil Guthrie added: “We’re currently preparing procurement documentation with a view to launching that probably within the next four to six weeks which will kickstart the residential development process.

“In the background, we have secured again some grant from the North East Combined Authority to help tackle some of the abnormal ground conditions as part of the first phase of the residential development.

“We have got ongoing conversations with the combined authority, Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities around further investment in the infrastructure, particularly that will help us to unlock the rest of the residential development over there.

“We’re well progressed now with acquisition and demolition of existing properties [at Sheepfolds] and have managed to relocate several businesses to new premises and have demolished some of the low-quality industrial units over there with a view to bringing along new development.

“We’re in dialogue with some of the remaining tenants and have got relocation plans in progress for some of those as well, so it’s all going fairly well at the moment”.

The development boss said re-mediation works should start on site in late 2024 or early 2025.

Subject to permissions and agreements, it is also hoped that residential development on site would start before the end of March, 2026.

Mr Guthrie added: “We’re expecting to be well ahead of that programme, subject to the successful appointment of a development partner.

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“Hopefully you will see a lot of change over at Sheepfolds within the next three years which fits in with the Siglion business plan”.

The comments were made at Sunderland City Council’s Economic and Prosperity Scrutiny Committee at City Hall on April 9, 2024.

Caption: CGI images of how new residential community could look in Sheepfolds area of Sunderland Credit: Sunderland City Council / Siglion Caption: Collage image of how new residential community could look in Sheepfolds area of Sunderland Credit: Sunderland City Council / Siglion