Dore Village Society responds after MP Clive Betts attacks 'utterly unfair' plan for just 82 green belt homes
A Sheffield village has responded after an MP attacked an “utterly unfair” proposal to build on just one field in its green belt, while other areas could see thousands of homes.
Dore Village Society has put out a near 3,000 word rebuttal after Clive Betts criticised plans for just 82 homes off Parkers Lane in the upmarket settlement.
Mr Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, contrasted Dore with Handsworth, in his constituency, which could see 1,638 homes, 49 acres for business and a secondary school.
Sheffield City Council has put forward 14 sites in green belt to meet government targets. Mr Betts has claimed the selection is “utterly unfair.”
Dore Village Society employed the services of Christopher Pennell MBE MA, and past founding board member of government body Natural England, to respond.
In a densely-argued report against development he says ‘it is a simple incontrovertible fact’ that green belt to the west of the city is close to the Peak District National Park, which has ‘the highest landscape value in the land’.
He also says there are ‘multiple reasons’ why the plot off Parker’s Lane should not be developed including carbon sequestration, natural beauty and wildlife quality.
He adds that building on it would make ‘a nonsense of Ethel Haythornthwaite’s immense achievements in leading the case for creating England’s first national park and in designing a means of defining where developed Sheffield ended and the countryside began by championing England’s first green belt’.
As part of his campaigning, Mr Betts has also suggested building 500 homes at Ryecroft Farm, Dore; 400 off Hathersage Road, Dore and 75 at Dore Moor Garden Centre.
Hollywood star Sean Bean, who is from Handsworth, has donated £5,000 to the ‘Save S13 Greenbelt’ campaign to stop homes on fields in the village.
At hearings in autumn, government inspectors heard appeals from residents against the city council’s green belt development plans.
They are set to issue a report but a date has not yet been announced.
The proposals are part of Sheffield’s Local Plan - a blueprint for development over the next 14 years - which is set to be finalised in summer.