A new pedestrian route has been opened across the Broad Marsh development site, providing a direct open air link between Collin Street and Listergate .
The opening of the walkway is a sign of progress on plans to completely redevelop the 20-acre site – made possible through the demolition and clearance of the western end of the former shopping centre.
The four-metre-wide tarmac walkway, with lighting and CCTV and bollards at either end, is fenced off from the demolition site either side, with windows in the fencing for people to see progress on the site. It replaces the covered passageway – which has been closed this morning – that was constructed to maintain pedestrian links between the station and the city centre while demolition was underway in this area.
The walkway crosses the site where the ‘green heart’ space is envisaged as part of the ambitious proposals for Broad Marsh, for which a £20m bid has been submitted to Government for Levelling Up Funding.
City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen, said: “The opening of this route is a small but significant step in the redevelopment of the Broad Marsh area. It is the first time since the 1970s that people will have uninterrupted open air access between the Southside of the city into the city centre.
“The space that it crosses, created by demolishing the western end of the old shopping centre, is proposed to become the ‘green heart’ of the vision for Broad Marsh – a total transformation from what was there before.
“It comes as progress continues on fitting out the new Central Library and surrounding streets and as we await the Government decision on our bid for £20m for Levelling Up Funding to start to bring the Broad Marsh vision to life.”