IKEA’s plans to open a store creating 700 jobs in Sheffield

The Swedish giant, IKEA has announced that they have plans to open a new store in Sheffield. The reason these plans first came about was after they decided that they did not want people living in Sheffield heading to Leeds and Nottingham when they could have their own IKEA on the doorstep and a way of attracting people to the Sheffield area.

The application for the new store is to be on the old Tinsley Wire site in Carbrook and they are expected to make a decision about this on 24th June.  The bid to secure this deal was submitted last May but it has taken time to reach a decision due to the highways department and the impact that it will have on traffic as well as the air quality in the area.  To begin with there were other objections made from other retailers as well as the Highways Agency but mostly these have now been withdrawn.  Meadowhall shopping centre have also complained about this proposed site but have said they will drop their objections if the roads are
changed to access the site.

They are just very keen to get it absolutely right and ensure that if it goes ahead that it does so free from problems later down the line. The Council itself like to approve business applications where they can but they are very thorough when doing this and like to ensure that they get everything just right so that it does not impact on the people of Sheffield.
If the new store is to be opened then it will create 700 new jobs for the local people and the Swedish firm have said they will also spend £400,000 on environmental schemes.  There are now 270 public comments on the application, creating over 300 documents in total.