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Playing field road project 'offside'
A FURTHER debate will be held this week over the planned £8million link road to the new Waverley township between Sheffield and Rotherham.
Sheffield Council officers will report to councillors on the cabinet highways committee about claims that playing fields at Woodhouse Mill which lie on the proposed route were left to the community in trust status and cannot be sold.
The public meeting at Sheffield Town Hall on Thursday, 2pm, is expected to be attended by residents unhappy about the plans.
People living in the Woodhouse Mill area said the site, off Sheffield Road, was bought by miners last century. They formed the Bullfield Trust to maintain the fields for community use in perpetuity.
In the 1990s, the trust's role was transferred to Sheffield Council but residents believe the same conditions still apply on the land, so it cannot be built on.
Rotherham Council, planning the road, has changed its proposed route so it would skirt the edge of the fields rather than o straight across.
But residents want the road to run through neighbouring derelict land, owned by Yorkshire Water, avoiding the playing fields. The water firm has refused to sell, saying its land is needed for an extension to its sewage works.
Derek Hutchinson, aged 49, of Watch Street, Woodhouse Mill, has questioned why another alternative route for the road was rejected when it was the scheme supported by most people living in the area.
Rotherham Council consulted residents on two routes for the link road, one across the Woodhouse Mill playing fields to Retford Road, supported by 39.6% of people who completed a survey.
The other was to run to the north of the sewage works, joining Sheffield Road at the roundabout with the Aston Bypass - backed by 48% of residents who responded.
The route to the roundabout also had the most support as residents' second choice.
Mr Hutchinson claimed the wording of the questionnaire was confusing because it did not give residents a specific option rejecting any road scheme.
They were asked to support either of the two routes, 'do nothing' or 'do minimum,' without explaining what doing the minimum meant, he said.
The highways committee is also expected to approve a minor change to proposed alterations on the A61 at Woodseats, at the junction of Chesterfield Road, Meadowhead and Abbey Lane.
Reinstatement of two lanes on the city-bound approach to the junction will go ahead but the amended scheme will include a cycle crossing on Abbey Lane, and a gap in the central traffic island.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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