Stop sale of Sheffield neighbourhood green space and build council homes instead, says resident

The one acre parcel of land on Junction Road, off Furnace Lane, is being sold to MCI Developments Ltd and Keepmoat Homes Ltd so it can be cleared for 41 affordable homes.

The sale, which was agreed in November, will net £453,000 for the city council. A report into the sale called the land “overgrown” and “a liability”.

But a neighbour who has lived on Junction Road for 74 years says the sale is “not what the city needs”.

Richard Pearson, a retired accountant clerk, says the council should do away with the sale and build social housing on the nub of land while they still own it to help meet their requirement to build or acquire 3,100 affordable homes by 2029.

“I remember when this land was cottages, which they knocked down in the 1960s and they’ve done nothing with it since,” Mr Pearson told The Star.

“It would be perfect for social housing. They would be right next to the Furnace Lane bus stop and they are close to the Brunswick Gardens Village retirement home. We need homes for people to downsize into to make other homes available.

“The council could do all this if they keep the land, but they are selling it developers because they need to make their money.”

The sale of the one acre piece of land will join up with a 1.3 acre area of land alongside it that is already own by Keepmoat. The combined area would be used to build the 41 homes.

A report into the two pieces of land called them “unlikely to be viable” for development if they were not joined up.

The report reads: “The site has been vacant for many years and there has been little interest site since the housing market recession in 2008.

“In the absence of housing uses it is difficult to see how this land could be brought to beneficial use and this change in planning approach coincides with renewed interest in the land.”

Plans for any houses are yet to be submitted to to the council.