Campaigners question Sheffield Council on green belt plans
The Sheffield Local Plan hearings have started today with the city council facing a number of questions about green belt housing plans.
Planning inspectors and local campaigners have gathered at the Town Hall today (September 29) to talk about the council’s latest proposals as part of Sheffield’s Local Plan process, which could see new homes to be built on 14 green belt sites to accommodate additional homes and employment land.
During a six-week public consultation, 3,657 people submitted their opinions on the proposals.
At the first hearing, Planning Inspector Katie Child and David Troy heard what campaigners and local residents thought of the process and the proposal that would see more than 3,500 new homes built on green belt land.
Sadie Charlton from the S13 Campaign Group asked the council’s representative whether they thought the consultation period was “successful” - citing a number of conversations with people who were not provided accessible information despite requests submitted.
“Not only were they not presented but their requests weren’t even responded to by the council”, she said.
She added her objection was not taken into account even though she ran her own local campaign.
Ms Charlton said in her view Sheffield Council “cannot demonstrate that all residents’ views were properly captured”.
She then asked the inspectors whether they can be confident other objections such as hers were not missed.
The council’s representative said “we have replied to a number of requests for alternative format documents” and he was not aware of any that they haven’t.
He then told the inspectors he was confident that “all objections have been passed to yourselves as part of the process”.
Ms Charlton then added, as a follow up to the points she has raised previously, that she knows seven people whose requests were not responded to.
Jo Tunstall, from the Chapeltown, Ecclesfield and Grenoside Campaign Group, told the inspectors that Sheffield Council had done the “bare minimum” and added there was no learning from the Lowcock Report, citing the city’s street tree felling saga.
“All the mistakes that were made during the Street Trees have been repeated, and certainly felt by our community”, she said.
Ms Tunstall said they had found that 17 letters and 503 emails had been sent out by the council across Sheffield (which accounts for less than 0.1pc of the community) with regards to the proposals.
She added the group had raised a Stage 2 complaint around the consultation.
Ms Tunstall said their Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were not responded adequately either, saying there was a feeling “there has been an unwillingness to provide information, to allow us to participate effectively in this consultation”.
The council’s representative read a statement out loud.
He said the council believed the “consultation was carried out in accordance with the council’s statement of community involvement”.
In terms of contacting registered contacts, 520 emails and postal letters were sent to those “who had previously advised that they wish to be kept informed by the Local Plan”, he said.
He added the consultation webpages had almost 60,000 page views and over 11,600 unique visits to the local plan consultation page.
The council’s social media channels were also used to promote information, and emails also were sent out to more than 50,000 people who had registered for general news updates.
The inspectors also heard that a number of drop-in sessions were held too.
In terms of the FOIs, the Inspectors were told of the 44 FOIs 42 have been responded to.
The hearing continues.
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The hearings will be taking place between September 29 and October 2 at Sheffield Town Hall, mainly looking into the public response to the site allocations.
The next round of sessions will take place between October 13 and October 15 at The Showroom/Workstation.
Then sessions on the other aspects of the Sheffield Plan will be held in Howden House on October 16 and October 17.
The third (and final) week of hearings, should they be required, has been scheduled for between November 17 and November 21.
It is reported that once all the hearings have concluded, the independent inspectors will review the information they have been given and will compile a preliminary report of their findings.
The report could conclude that Sheffield’s Local Plan is sound and can continue or propose ‘main modifications’ that are needed to make the plan “sound”.
The inspectors could also conclude that the plan is unsound and cannot be made sound through modifications, in which case the Sheffield Council would be asked to produce an entirely new plan.
If the inspectors recommend main modifications, those modifications will be subject to further public consultation next year.