Fears Hollin Busk defeat will ‘open the floodgates’ to unsuitable development in Sheffield

Outline plans for up to 85 houses on Hollin Busk fields, at the junction between Carr Road and Hollin Busk Lane, Deepcar, were overwhelmingly rejected by the council’s planning and highways committee last year.

But developers Hallam Land Management appealed to the Planning Inspectorate which, following a five-day inquiry, overturned the council’s decision and granted permission for the estate.

Those who fought for four years to protect the land are bitterly disappointed and there are fears that weaknesses in the council’s defence exposed in the inquiry will lead to more loss.

One of these weaknesses is the long-awaited Local Plan. When finally implemented, it will guide developments across the city until 2038 but, following numerous delays over many years, this is still not expected to be finalised until 2023.

Andy Tickle, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England which campaigned alongside the Friends of Hollin Busk and others, said this outcome would have been different if it was in place.

He said: “Our great fear is that this now opens the floodgates and I would think that a lot of developers and their planning consultants will now be looking at sites that would fall under the same arguments as has happened to Hollin Busk and they will push them through in the near to medium future.

“I think Sheffield will be somewhat defenceless in the next couple of years. That’s very worrying because what we are about at CPRE is the right development in the right place and to achieve that you need an up-to-date and progressive plan and with no plan then we just are going to be faced with speculative development. Sheffield City Council has to bear the blame for that.

“Of course the government does keep changing the rules and that is really unhelpful as well but there has been political delays in taking the plans forward and that’s now put us in a pretty perilous situation.”

Liz Ballard, chief executive of Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust which also supported the Hollin Busk campaign, said: “This site was allocated as open space and should be protected as such. It sets a worrying precedent and further adds to the desperate need for Sheffield to have a Local Plan in place as soon as possible.”

Stephen Normington, the planning inspector for the inquiry, stated in his report that the most important policies in council’s current adopted Local Plan – comprising the Unitary Development Plan (from 1998) and the Core Strategy (from 2009) – were too outdated to have any real influence and as the new Sheffield Plan was in the very early stages of preparation, its draft carried no weight in his determination.

Also weakening the council’s argument, was that it could not demonstrate a five-year housing supply. It claimed it could show a 5.4 year supply of housing but the inspector said the council actually had a deficit in the five year requirement of 3,214 homes and a supply of just 3.95 years.

In this case, favour is always given to new homes unless harmful impacts significantly outweigh this need, as in the case of the recent Loxley Valley planning inquiry which also highlighted issues with housing supply and the Local Plan.

These problems not only affect big inquiries but also regular planning decisions. The Local Plan is a bugbear for councillors and the housing supply issue was raised in a planning and highways committee meeting today in which councillors had to decide on various applications for new homes.

Councillor Peter Garbutt, member of the committee, said: “Tilted balance means we are almost bound to accept an application and that really makes me feel, well, it fills me with dread.”

Going forward, Dr Tickle said the council needed to revise its housing supply figures and prioritise accelerating the Local Plan as hard as possible.

More than 520 residents originally opposed the Hollin Busk plans, including Stocksbridge Labour councillors, Conservative MP Miriam Cates, Stocksbridge Town Council and Bolstertone Community Group.

Despite the outcome, campaigners said they will continue to fight for Hollin Busk and other green spaces.

Peter Morgan, chair of the Friends of Hollin Busk, said: “We are of course very disappointed with the decision, but we are also proud of the case we made to the inquiry and grateful for the support we have enjoyed from the Stocksbridge and Deepcar community. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that the final shape of this development is appropriate and sympathetic to the local area.”

Councillor Richard Crowther, Mayor of Stocksbridge, added: “Whilst we are resolute in our conviction that the wrong decision has been made in this appeal, we are appreciative of the courtesy extended to us as third parties by the main parties’ advocates and by the inspector himself. This decision doesn’t give the developers carte blanche however, and any detailed plans for the site will be the subject of further applications and must themselves comply with planning guidance.”

Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said it was clear the absence of a Local Plan meant Sheffield did not have the up-to-date planning policies needed to give Hollin Busk the protection it deserved and urged the council to move ahead as quickly as possible with the Sheffield Plan.

She added: “I would like to thank the Friends of Hollin Busk and Stocksbridge Town Council for all their work over the years. This is not the outcome we wanted, but I hope we can look at further opportunities to protect Hollin Busk and other important local green spaces going forward.”

Sheffield Council was contacted for comment.