There are no signs that a key regeneration site in Rotherham town centre will be redeveloped anytime soon, nine years after the council's own masterplan said it was a high priority that the authority should help Royal Mail to relocate.
Details of a land swap between Rotherham Council and Royal Mail show that the postal service will continue to use the site on Main Street and Westgate and are carrying out new infrastructure works.
Progress has been made on the Riverside Residential Quarter, with the council leading on housing schemes on land it owns, as well as carriyng out further land acquisitions and enabling works to open up areas for redevelopment.
However, the large plot currently home to the Royal Mail sorting office remains out of reach despite being ripe for redevelopment and earmarked for a mix of uses, predominately housing, a decade ago.
On the site of the former Westgate station, the sorting office and wider area has a long planning history with previous owners, Satnam Urban Regeneration putting forward plans for a food store to rival those being put forward for Tesco. A long running legal battle with the council came to an end in 2009.
The town centre masterplan of 2017 stated that after the redevelopment of the former Sheffield Road baths site, "the Council shall work positively to facilitate the relocation of the Royal Mail Depot elsewhere in the Borough to deliver up the second phase of the waterside project.
"The relocation of the Royal Mail Depot is a high priority. This site, with the former baths site, will prove the market and enable future phased deliver of land along the riverside to be secured.
"The present [sorting office] building is underutilised and large parts of the building are not used. The hard standing parking area is though wellused. The Council will take a pro-active approach by assisting in the site search for replacement facilities for this Royal Mail depot function and are aware of Royal Mail’s requirement. This site will then be redeveloped to deliver the second phase of the Residential Riverside. The future use and value of the site should be explored through a development capacity study alongside any site search, building on the masterplan."
Any relocation would need to be on a commercial basis and the delivery programme in the masterplan had construction starting on new developments on the sorting office in 2020.
With little sign of a relocation, the council and Royal Mail has now agreed on a land swap for two parcels of land around the site. The authority is acquiring a strip of land between the sorting office and the river so that enabling works can be completed. In exchange, Royal Mail will acquire a piece of land to the south, behind the former MOT centre and the remains of the Alma Tavern.
A council report reads: "The agreed swap will enable continuation of works to the river wall and the creation of public access along the river and into the town centre. It will also allow the Royal Mail to accept delivery of a fleet of electric vehicles once infrastructure works are completed within their new yard layout.
"The exchange of land parcels allows the River Walk to be developed as planned and Royal Mail to continue to operate from the Main Street site whilst meeting the same operational requirements as prior to the exchange of land."
Having secured £6.59m from the Government's Pathfinder grant to deliver infrastructure improvements in preparation for future residential redevelopment within the town centre, a £4.4m scheme delivered by Esh Construction on behalf of Rotherham Council completed last year. It included the construction of a new access road and a riverside footpath linking Water Lane to the town centre, alongside extensive landscaping and infrastructure upgrades.