Work back underway at Sky building in Newcastle

It follows calls for urgent action

Councillor Juston Hipkiss, Simon Tagg (Council leader), Christian Hipkiss (Director of Built4learning Limited)
Author: Trevor ThomasPublished 8th Aug 2022

After a five-year delay, work on the abandoned Sky Building in Newcastle’s town centre is

due to recommence.

Contractors have today started a clean-up operation to get the site ready for main

construction works, now set to commence in earnest in September with a completion date

for summer 2023.

Simon Tagg, the Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, who this morning met

with the new owners and contractors on site, said: “It is good to finally see some action

taking place. A clean-up of the Sky Building site is long overdue and we have been calling

for urgent action from the new owners for some time.

“The Council isn’t involved in the current development on the site, which has had a series of

private-sector owners since 2016, and we have been very concerned about site safety and

security.

“It is early days, but I hope that we can take this activity as the start of a new phase. The

unfinished building is a blight on our town centre and we want to see the construction work

beginning again as soon as possible and to get to the point when the building is finished.”

“The Sky Building is in a key town centre site and when finally completed will make its own

contribution to the huge shift-change in Newcastle’s multi-million pound redevelopment and

modernisation, taking place thanks to the Government’s Town Deals and Future High

Street funding.”

More than £7m of Town Deal and Future High Street funding was allocated to the

redevelopment of the town centre Ryecroft area. The blueprint plans include a net-zero

carbon Collaboration Hub, a new car park, modern residential space for ‘downsizers’, new

public realm and, potentially, a town-centre hotel.

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