Sheffield green belt protest - campaigners say they have been ignored
Green belt campaigners have once again protested to Sheffield City Council about proposals to designate land for homes and industrial use.
Protesters stood with placards and banners on Sheffield Town Hall steps ahead of the city council’s monthly meeting last Wednesday (June 24).
They bombarded councillors with questions, as they have done on many occasions since May 2025, when 14 green belt sites were earmarked for housing or industrial development in the council’s draft Local Plan.
The sites identified lie mainly in S35 and S13 but also in S12, S10 and S17.
The Local Plan will, when adopted, outline where all types of development will be permitted in the city until 2039. Government planning inspectors ordered the council to consider green belt sites because they ruled that the plan required 3,529 more homes and 53 additional hectares of employment land.
Questions
That caused outrage across the city and campaigners have put forward detailed objections at public consultation sessions held by the inspectors.
Jonathan Hobson of S12 Green Belt Action Group was among the campaigners asking questions.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service ahead of the meeting: “The ongoing saga of the green belt continues. We continue to hold the council to account and get answers.
“So far all the community inputs have been ignored on a council level and an inspectorate level, but we continue to push for evidence-based information as well.”
Gillian Travis said the inspectors have indicated they are not in a position to issue their final report and have requested further information from the council “on a number of significant matters, including the consideration of additional urban sites and whether all reasonable alternatives to Green Belt release have been properly assessed.”
Unresolved
She added: “Given that the inspectors have also indicated that further modifications and consultation may now be required, does the leader agree that this demonstrates there remain fundamental unresolved questions about the plan, and what reassurance can she provide to residents that all reasonable brownfield and previously developed land opportunities have genuinely been exhausted before the permanent loss of Sheffield’s Green Belt?”
Council leader Coun Fran Belbin responded: “The latest Inspectors’ letter follows up on a small number of points that were raised by respondents to the public consultation on the main modifications.
“This shows that the inspectors are carefully considering the comments that have been made before issuing their final report.
“However, we do not think this raises fundamental unresolved questions about the overall approach in the plan and there is no suggestion in the Inspectors’ latest letter that they will find the plan unsound.”
She said the council have given extensive evidence about potential for development on brownfield sites in urban areas, including the proposals for more than 18,000 new homes in the Central Area.
She said that brownfield sites have to be shown to be suitable, available and developable during the period covered by the plan to be included.
Windfall
“Not all brownfield sites pass these tests, and some development opportunities simply don’t exist now but will come forward at some point in the future.”
Coun Belbin said the plan includes a ‘windfall allowance’ of more than 7,000 homes up to 2039. They are not allocated in the plan but are expected to come forward as planning applications.