Controversial ‘major application’ for 200 homes in Rotherham to go ahead

Rotherham Council’s planning committee was recommended to approve the plans to build the development on a huge piece of farmland close to a golf club on Shrogswood Road in Whiston.

The proposals centre around outline plans to develop 217 homes on an 8.3ha site south of Sheep Cote Road and north of some agricultural fields with Sitwell Golf Club to the south.

A supporting document to the committee shows that the plans from applicant Ernest V Waddington Ltd include the erection of 217 properties with a mix of apartments, semi-detached, detached and townhouses varying from one to five bedrooms.

A masterplan indicates the properties could include 18 one and two-bed apartments, 134 two and three-bed townhouses and semi-detached properties and 65 three, four and five-bedroom detached dwellings at the proposed new estate.

A report issued ahead of the planning committee said that originally 91 letters of objection – including comments from Whiston Parish Council, the local MP and the Local Action Group (Whiston Residents Action Group (WRAG) – had been received alongside two letters of support.

At the meeting on Thursday – which had been reconvened following a deferral due to a council data breach – Alexander Stafford, the Rother Valley MP, was one of the public speakers.

He described the development as “awful” and said he believed in preserving our “beautiful countryside and farmlands” over alternatives – concrete, to name one.

Mr Stafford said that there was going to be a “3,250 per cent” increase in traffic on Shrogswood Road.

He said: “Over 3,000 per cent increase on a road that was never designed for traffic.”

When he was talking about the lack of mitigation in place, Mr Stafford added it was some sort of “fairytale” that residents would use cycling and buses.

The application was approved by a six-to-five majority.