Improvements update after concerns raised over 'disgusting' state of former Joplings building in Sunderland

City council chiefs have stressed works are ongoing to make improvements around the Sunniside area following concerns about the “disgusting” appearance of a prominent building.

Sunderland City Council bosses said they have been working with partners to put together a “place strategy” to attempt to tackle issues around the Sunniside district in the city centre.

It comes after councillor Antony Mullen, leader of the Conservative Group on the local authority, raised concerns around the appearance of the Jopling House building and the impact it has on the area.

In July 2023 the city council completed the purchase of the site which previously housed Joplings department store before it closed, and is now used as student accommodation.

Speaking at the latest meeting of the local authority’s scrutiny co-ordinating committee, Cllr Mullen asked if work would be taking place to make the area “a bit safer and a bit brighter” and to provide a “more comprehensive” leisure offer.

He said: “You get to that Joplings building, it looks disgusting, it feels like the end of the city centre.

“It feels unsafe to go any further around, it’s not attractive to then walk around to the cinema and the rest of that leisure complex.”

Neil Guthrie, city council development director, responded by noting when they took the building on it “hadn’t been well maintained by the previous owners, which was extremely disappointing.”

He added: “We’re undergoing some work at the moment to address some of the issues that they’ve left behind.

“We’ve been doing quite a bit of work around Sunniside generally and we’ve been working with local stakeholders to put together a place strategy, which tries to tackle some of the issues mentioned and raised.

“Jopling House is on one of the key gateways to the Sunniside proximity, the railway station, it’s on a key corner.

“Whilst we’ve bought it for a certain purpose it does form part of the future planning around the leisure offer and the student offer in the city centre.”

He added it is currently fully occupied as a student accommodation facility and “in the short term” they will “certainly be maintaining it for that purpose.”

In November the city council’s cabinet backed nearly £60 million worth of building and regeneration projects which include £1million for upgrades to the former Joplings building.

The funding would be used to “make improvements to the aesthetic appearance of the building and to support a long-term investment strategy aligned to the regeneration of the city centre.”

Joplings pulled its shutters down for the final time in 2010 after the owners went into administration.

The prime corner unit sat empty for eight years until 2018 when Groovy Students turned the upper floors into student accommodation, honouring the site’s history by calling it Jopling House.

Earlier this month city council chiefs also outlined hopes to have a new operator in place “early in the new year” to run the former Empire Cinema building in Sunderland and return it to its previous use.