"A dreadful legacy for our grandchildren": Sparks fly in town hall over building on green belt
“You are not to be trusted anywhere near planning decisions”
Green belt tensions came to a head in Sheffield Town Hall this week as Reform councillors asked for more consideration before further decisions are made on the controversial Local Plan
The draft plan proposes the development of 327 hectares of green space, which has resulted in a passionate community campaign to save Sheffield's green belt.
At a full council meeting on Wednesday, September 23, Reform Councillor Sean Maloney put forward a motion to “stop a second day of infamy," referring to the 2023 Lowcock report which concluded a “serious and sustained failure of strategic leadership” from Sheffield City Council in the street tree scandal.
The motion asked to explore an immediate independent audit of all brownfield, grey-belt and under-utilised land across Sheffield, and ensure the Local Plan “exhausts every green belt alternative and permanently protects Sheffield's green belt”.
The item was bumped up the agenda because of how many campaigners stood in the public gallery.
In his first ever speech in the chamber, Coun Maloney said continuing with the Local Plan after coming this far is “classic sunk cost fallacy" and "how catastrophic mistakes are repeated”.
He said the council does have an alternative, but “refuses to see it.”
Reform councillor Jack Byron seconded the motion and said: “It is about whether the people we represent believe that when they speak, their council actually listens.”
Other councillors then responded and proposed four amendments.
Council leader Fran Belbin, of the Labour party, said her amendment “deletes all of Reform's motion,” saying “you are not to be trusted anywhere near planning decisions”.
She called out “rank hypocrisy” of Reform bringing forward this motion, saying at their recent party conference, national Reform proposed scrapping planning regulations such as affordable housing targets and building standards.
She continued: “We are working within a planning framework devised by the previous Tory government, it is not of our choosing and it is imperfect."
Coun Belbin was met with heckles and Lord Mayor Coun Andrew Sangar asked other councillors to listen to colleagues with respect.
“There is no scope to rewrite the plan unless we start from scratch and risk having an even higher housing target being imposed upon us,” Coun Belbin said.
She added she was “genuinely awed” by the passion and commitment of green belt campaigners.
“I can’t promise to succeed but I can absolutely promise to try.”
Labour councillor Ben Miskell said the positives are often ignored and Sheffield "urgently needs an adopted Local Plan" for homes, economic growth and opportunities and strong communities.
He said: “Reform presents itself as community champions yet only days ago at Reform conference their leadership was talking about ripping up planning rules, deregulating the planning system and removing environmental requirements."
Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Horner said the public voices haven’t been heard and said he will “hope and pray the inspectors will reject this half-baked wrong plan”.
Green Councillor Paul Turpin said the campaigners are doing a "brilliant job" and encouraged them to continue with their pressure, adding he was part of the street campaign and can see the similarities.
Green Councillor Douglas Johnson said some brownfield sites that people see in and around the city can’t be built on because the landowners don’t agree.
He said: “Planning policy in this country is not only centralised to the government but also in the hands of land owners and developers. That's why we need a stronger Local Plan to hold those landowners and developers more to account."
Reform council leader John Hesketh rejected Coun Belbin's claims, instead saying responsibility lay “in this town hall, with this Labour leadership with the active support of the Green Party”.
He said the key to the Local Plan is revisiting the brownfield sites.
“There is land in this city to build houses without eating into the green belt, as demonstrated by these activists," he said, gesturing to the public gallery.
“If we build on the green belt which will be a dreadful legacy for our grandchildren, it will be down to the leadership in this town hall.”