Wicker development plans aired

Story: Douglas Johnson

Thursday 13th November

About 40 people – mainly business owners and developers – attended a meeting at SYAC on the Wicker to hear about plans for the long-term development of the Wicker and Riverside area.

Chaired by Simon Ogden, the Council’s Head of City Development, and with support from Councillor Janice Sidebottom (Cabinet Adviser on Sustainable Development and Transport), a range of interested local business people heard and saw something of the plans.

Plans on display

There were colourful displays of plans about traffic, development zones and flood information, as well as printed brochures to take away. A specialist officer from the council spoke of the plans to develop a Riverside Park along the banks of the River Don along Nursery St. This is not just to be a pleasant area between the river and the street (now that Nursery St has so much less traffic on it) but is an important part of the flood defence plans for the area.

Plans are underway to design flood defences to protect against the sort of floods we can expect once every hundred years – and with extra protection built in to allow for climate change. However, it was uncertain when the new defences will actually be built because so much depends on getting the £8.1 million from Yorkshire Forward.

Preparing for One in a Hundred

Business owners were hoping the once-in-a-hundred-years flood doesn’t come along in 2009 but were clearly concerned at extreme possibilities:

One person’s suggestion to raise the entire Wicker area up by several feet was politely explained not to be feasible. A suggestion that 2007’s floods were caused by an unauthorised release of reservoir water and that Severn Trent Water was covering it up was answered by the fact that Severn Trent don’t operate any of the reservoirs that feed into the Don. Questions were asked about the likelihood – and effect – of the canal bursting.

Council officers did accept that signage on the new Wicker road system was not good enough and work is going to be done around this.

Raymond Walton (new operations director at SYAC) took the lead in asking if people in the area wanted to come together to set up a new Wicker Association of traders, residents and community groups. He offered to help facilitate it and his offer was warmly accepted by those present.

Christmas Lights

Finally, the meeting discussed a “re-launch of the Wicker” event, with Christmas lights, to take place on 10th December in the afternoon. Whilst the city centre Christmas lights didn’t extend quite as far as the Wicker, the proposal is to have “an evening of sounds, sights and tastes on the Wicker” with music, lights and other entertainment.

Plans to download

The Wicker Riverside Action Plan can be downloaded here.