It is our belief as Woodhouse Labour Councillors’ that the proposed release of two
large greenbelt sites for over 1,700 additional new homes in Handsworth and
Woodhouse is unfair and damaging. There are now just two days left to object to the
sites.

A reminder to put your objections in by 11th July at 5pm here:
https://haveyoursay.sheffield.gov.uk/sheffield-plan-proposed-additional-site-allocations

The ‘Hands Off S13 Greenbelt’ group (which is a grassroots campaigning group of
residents from the local area, and not affiliated with any political party) have
produced some excellent guidance on how to object here:
https://saves13greenbelt.org.uk/

Guidance from the council can be found here:
https://haveyoursay.sheffield.gov.uk/sheffield-plan-proposed-additional-site-allocations/news_feed/how-to-submit-a-response-to-the-local-plan-consultation

And you can also email planning aid for advice from here:
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/need…/planning-aid-england/

Background – what is this all about?

A Local Plan is a guide for how a city will grow. It shows where new homes, jobs,
and open space should go, to meet the city’s needs. It is important because it gives
the council more power to make developments better quality and require services
like new roads, shops, schools and medical facilities to be included when deciding
on planning permission. Because of this and the acute housing shortage that affects
so many residents, we support the overall local plan.

The Sheffield Local Plan is being examined by government appointed Inspectors to
make sure it meets legal rules and is based on good evidence. The Plan already
included 34,500 additional homes and over 180 hectares of land for employment,
with no greenbelt sites. The inspectors then asked the Council to find space for
3,539 more homes and 53 more hectares of land for jobs.

• Autumn 2023 – The Plan was submitted to the Planning Inspector. 89% of the
  proposed new homes and almost all the employment land was on brownfield
  sites.
• 2024 – Government Inspectors considered the Plan in detail at public
  hearings.
• February 2025 – the Inspectors asked the council to find more land for homes
  and jobs.

Following the Inspector’s instruction, and because of the lack of remaining space in
the urban areas and neighbouring councils’ inability meet any of our need, the
Council believes the only viable option is to use greenfield Green Belt land. So it is
proposing to release 14 Green Belt sites.

Two of these, SES29 Handsworth Hall Farm and SES30 land between Beaver Hill
Road and Bramley Lane, would allow the building of 1,638 new homes, a secondary
school and a space for a burial ground and some employment land. This means that
overall the South East will be taking more homes than anywhere else in the City,
except the City Centre.

These sites can be challenged on planning grounds and the Inspector can decide to reject them, although it is not easy to get this done. Objections can be legal – for example that people weren’t properly consulted, and the council have not done enough to reach out to affected residents.  Objections can also be that the plan is unsound – as the Council hasn’t proven that the impact on the environment, traffic and infrastructure provision like schools and GPs, will be justified by the benefits of new homes.

What we have done:

• In the negotiation stage, we argued hard within the council to get other sites identified in the West of the City to spread loss of greenbelt more evenly and fairly. We had some limited success with this, getting sites for about 300 homes agreed.

• Worked with MP Clive Betts to meet representatives of the community campaign, send out letters to residents (after our request for the Council to send letters to residents was refused), and help set up extra public meetings (as residents wanted more chance to ask questions than the Council would provide).

• Sent regular email updates to all residents who have contacted us.

• Attended both planning consultation events and asked planning officers for answers to residents’ questions, for people who couldn’t attend.

• Contacted planning lecturers at the university for advice and set up a meeting between the lecturers and the local campaign group to share information.

• Submitted our own objections (Cllr Rooney has done this, Cllr Norris aims to submit on Thursday)