Anger at plans to build homes on green spaces
Woodhouse east farmland Richard Pearson, Kevin Hill, Philip Bond, Bulb planting. Peter W.
CONSERVATIONISTS have hit out at plans to include green-field land in south east Sheffield among sites considered for housing.
Sheffield Council has announced 18 additional locations – mainly green and open spaces – to be considered for homes, because of a shortage of brownfield land.
But Shire Brook Conservation Group says the number of locations in the south east of the city is an ‘unfair concentration’ and other areas should be considered.
Kevin Hill, group chairman, said the three sites proposed in Woodhouse – which include the largest of the 18 proposed locations, on farmland east of Woodhouse – are ‘out of proportion and an unfair burden on the district’.
Mr Hill, of New Cross Walk, Woodhouse, said the other sites in his suburb now being considered – agricultural land off Junction Road and Beighton Road – were earmarked to be protected as open space.
Mr Hill said added strain will already be placed on the area’s infrastructure with the construction of 4,000 houses at the new Waverley township, Orgreave, and he believes more than 600 homes could be built on the three additional sites in Woodhouse.
He said: “If more housing has to be provided locally, we are sure more suitable sites could be found by infilling, rather than by extending the urban sprawl onto agricultural land.
“We would suggest a debate is had as to whether the relatively-scarce agricultural land east of the city should be better protected, while easing protection on more abundant land in other areas.
Group member Richard Pearson, of Junction Road, Woodhouse, said: “Sheffield Council states changes to the housing market mean some land already identified, especially in the city centre, will not now be taken up by housebuilders. So, because developers don’t want the expense and inconvenience of building on inner-city sites, we should let them have our green spaces?
Sheffield Council said it needs to build 35,000 homes by 2026 and does not have sufficient brownfield land for all of them. Officers say only 1,100 homes are proposed on green and open sites – none on Green Belt.
n Members of the public are invited to comment on the proposals at www.sheffield.gov.uk/sdfconsul – by Monday, February 27.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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