Landmark Sheffield Steelworks Granted Planning Permission 

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• Landmark Sheffield Steelworks Granted Planning Permission 

17 February 2025

A prominent brownfield site in Sheffield’s industrial centre will become home to the largest steel machining hall of its kind in the UK.

Sheffield Forgemasters has been granted planning permission for the facility at the 16-acre plot at Weedon Street in Sheffield’s Meadowhall district. The site will feature a main building with a circa 272.5 x 110 metre footprint, standing 32 metres tall, located close to the River Don. A second, proposed 3,500 m2 building will contain a state-of-the-art test-house facility and a dedicated training area.

The main building will cover a space equal to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Bond Bryan Architects and JLL acted on behalf of Sheffield Forgemasters for the site acquisition and planning submissions. Joanna Gabrilatsou, Regional Head of Planning at JLL, said: "Approval of the new machine shop is essential to allow Sheffield Forgemasters to operate in a modern, fit-for-purpose facility, and is highly beneficial to the city and the region’s economy.

“It will also allow the regeneration of the vacant Weedon St plots. We are already working on the first phase of enabling works as part of an existing consent, and we’re now gearing up to discharge conditions to implement the next phase of construction."

Craig Fisher, Programmes Director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “It signals an amazing investment for the city and for the wider UK, which will create highly-skilled engineering jobs for decades to come, fully supporting our national defence programmes.

“The sheer scale of the building will make it an iconic landmark and will eclipse the construction of the UK’s largest open-die forging-line, which is also underway on our adjacent Brightside Lane site.”

“What we are creating in the centre of Britain’s historical industrial heartland is unparalleled in the UK and will not only de-risk supply for the UK’s AUKUS defence programme, but it will also deliver technologically advanced and rewarding working facilities for our employees.”

Picture: a CGI showing an artist's impression of the site's exterior. Image Credit: Sheffield Forgemasters

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 17 February 2025

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