The UK’s largest loss of protected Green Belt land to date could be given the go-ahead by Sheffield City Council on Wednesday, 14th May.
327.45 hectares of Sheffield’s Green Belt land is at risk of being lost after the Sheffield City Council have proposed to build 34,680 new homes on 14 identified sites across the city by 2039.
The sites include Grenoside, Oughtibridge, Chapeltown, Eccelsfield, Gleadless Townend, Handsworth, Wharncliffe Side, Dore and Lodge Moor.
The plan will be presented in front of full council on Wednesday, 14th May. Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council, said the Sheffield Plan was “crucially important.”
Mr Hunt said: “The Local Plan will help to deliver more affordable housing, support regeneration and investment and enable the delivery of infrastructure to support communities.”
869 homes would be built in Handsworth, on six fields between the Beaver and Bramley estates. The Sheffield City Council say this will better the job market and reduce congestion.
Sadie Charlton, resident of Handsworth said the community had been “blindsided” by the plans, calling it “insulting”.
She said: “In S13, we’re one of the most deprived areas within Sheffield, we have least access to our beautiful spaces in the Peak District, we’re on the other side.”
Sheffield City Council said: “Whilst development of some of the sites may have negative effects on matters such as landscape, this has been weighed against positive effects such as providing more homes or land for employment.”
The Sheffield City Council say the plan aims to create around 2,550 new jobs per year over the period 2022-2039.
Michelle Dewire, resident of Beaver Estate, Handsworth said the plans would destroy the fields, creating a “concrete jungle”
She said said the woods the council propose to build on house buzzards, snakes, kestrels, bats, skylarks, woodpeckers, owls, deer and foxes. Under the The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, many of these species are a protected.
She said the effect the building work would have on the environment would be detrimental and that the animals have a “right to live.”
Mark Barnsley has started a petition to “Stop Housing Development on Handsworth’s Green Belt” which has received over 2400 signatures.
Councillor Douglas Johnson, leader of the Green Party in Sheffield and chair of the housing committee, said that no party was advocating building on Green Belt but there was “no other option.”
Cllr Johnson highlighted alternative strategies such as utilising existing empty properties and criticised the practice of “land banking” by private developers.
The countryside charity have always taken a firm stance in fighting unnecessary use of the Green Belt. They said: “Land is critical to economic growth, but our finite land should not needlessly be scarified in the name of growth.”
Chris Walker, a Grenoside resident, wrote on The Sheffield Tribune: “It cant be acceptable to just plonk thousands of homes in such a small space without thinking about other facilities needed to support the people already living there and those who will move into those areas.”
Conversely, some residents support the builds. Michael Brown said on the Sheffield Tribune the proposed sites “seem very sensible”
