15/06/2026
COUNCIL PLAN LEAVES SHEFFIELD’S MUCH-LOVED MODEL SHOP STRUGGLING.
For over fifty years, Marcway Models & Hobbies has been a fixture on Attercliffe Road — a place where generations of South Yorkshire families have browsed shelves packed with model railways, construction kits, die-cast cars, planes, tanks, and military figures.
Founded by Mark and his wife Janice, who shared a lifelong passion for the hobby, the shop has outlasted recessions, retail upheavals, and the rise of online shopping. Now, it faces a threat its owners say is entirely man-made.
Sheffield City Council's £23.5 million Connecting Sheffield scheme — designed to introduce protected bicycle lanes along Attercliffe Road and through the lower Don Valley — has brought months of disruptive roadworks to the area. For Mark, the impact has been severe.
"The consultation process was non-existent," he says. "The roadworks were poorly planned, with lane closures set to last over nine months, and I have had no support from the local MP or councillors. They left us to fend for ourselves — broken promises of weekly liaison officer visits, poor diversion signage, legitimate concerns going unanswered."
The disruption has drained footfall from a stretch of road that was already working hard to hold its own. But Mark's fears extend beyond the current roadworks. Proposed permanent closures of Shortridge Street and Oaks Green, restrictions on already limited customer parking, and plans to reduce car park operating hours could, he believes, prove fatal to the business.
"My worst nightmare is that the council will drive all the businesses out and leave a corridor of cycle lanes," he says. "It is unfair on all the hardworking businesses that have worked so hard for decades only for the council to come and force them into closure. They just don't care."
Mark says he has seen no evidence of the business impact assessments he believes councils are legally obliged to carry out before undertaking projects of this scale. And he is not alone — manufacturing companies as well as retailers in the area are beginning to close.
The one source of support Mark credits is the Attercliffe Action Group, a community-led organisation pushing for reasonable adjustments to the scheme and calling for a judicial review into how it has been handled. A petition — both online and physical — has gathered hundreds of signatures from businesses, residents, and regular visitors to the area.
Marcway Models is the kind of shop that belongs to a community in the truest sense. Customers who once came as children with their parents now bring their own grandchildren.
It is a main agent for Hornby and Scalextric, and one of the last remaining independent hobby retailers in South Yorkshire.
Losing it would leave a gap that no cycle lane can fill.
To support Marcway Models and the Attercliffe Action Group, sign and share the petition.
https://c.org/pkhdMYqRNM
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