"We face wholescale greenbelt deletion in certain areas of the city," Sheffield MP says of housing plan
Sheffield South East MP shares his thoughts on the controversial Local Plan...
A Local Plan is a golden opportunity for a council and its residents. It allows a strong and positive vision of what we want our city to look like over the next decade and more.
It is a chance to ensure housing and employment developments are met with infrastructure work and upgrades to accommodate and enhance the communities that make up our city.
However, currently this opportunity is being squandered with a bad Local Plan. We face wholescale green belt deletion in certain areas of the city at the same time as offering no meaningful infrastructure upgrades.
In Handsworth, where I represent, the community is going to lose all its greenbelt while other richer parts of the city lose next to nothing. This can’t be fair.
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Previously promises were made to me and local councillors that infrastructure problems would be addressed in this plan. Proposals like Beaver Hill, Eckington Way, White Lane, and Handsworth Hall Farm however have gone ahead without this promised improvement. Again, this cannot be fair.
There is much in the Local Plan to celebrate. There has been a genuine effort to ensure brownfield sites were selected first before greenbelt and I commend that approach. It is just a shame that at the last hurdle greenbelt sites were ushered through that takes away valuable green space from our poorer communities while offering no serious infrastructure improvements to support these new developments.
This does not mean there are not difficult choices to make. We will more than likely have to build on greenbelt which I do not celebrate, but if we are to do this let us ensure it is fair for the whole city, not just lumped on poorer communities like those in my constituency.
Let’s now take stock, recognise that if we collaborate and work together as communities and a council we can produce a Local Plan that accounts for the concerns people have, but also one that builds a positive vision of what we want Sheffield to be. We need more time to consult with local communities and look again at the sites, put a call out for further ones, and work to find a fairer Local Plan for our city.
I want to be able to back a Local Plan that works for Sheffield and has seen meaningful engagement with its residents. That is still possible.