Sheffield Council approves 19 new houses at former railway ‘dumping ground’

The applicant will now be able to go ahead with plans to build two cul-de-sacs of five semi-detached houses and a further nine detached houses on land between the railway tracks and Junction Road in Woodhouse.

Two of the three-bedroom semi detached houses are planned to be affordable.

The site was originally used as a railway sidings and last used as a scrapyard.

Councillors on the planning and highways committee unanimously approved the plans in a meeting on Tuesday, September 12.

Ahead of the meeting, council officers recommended it for approval saying it was “reasonably well designed” and had an acceptable density for the semi-rural area.

In the meeting, Coun Roger Davison said: “It’s a very interesting development. One of the first things we saw was that it had been used for a dumping ground at least at the beginning where the proposed houses are to be. That would indicate that larger vehicles have been going down there and dumping stuff. I hope that will stop by building this development and that it would make it a nicer place…I think this should be a development that we welcome.”

Fellow committee member Coun Peter Price added: “This is a nice development. They have not tried to overdevelop it, it’s a big improvement on what’s there now – especially from when it was an old scrapyard. There isn’t a single planning ground for turning it down. I fully support the [officer’s] recommendation [to approve]. I think it’s a good development.”

However, it will come as bad news to those who objected to the plans.

There were 20 comments objecting to the proposal including from Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East.

Concerns were raised about increased traffic, increased on-street parking, the road not being wide enough, impact on the environment and more noise disturbance.

Responding to concerns in their report, the planning officer said: “The additional traffic generated by the development would not create a severe highway safety problem.

“The improvements to the access road and the construction of the new housing will undoubtedly change the rural character of Junction Road to a more urban character. However, this is inevitable if new housing is developed off this road.

“Given the benefits of regenerating the site and providing new housing it is concluded that these significantly outweigh the erosion of the existing rural character of the locality.

“The birch woodland and green corridor adjoining the railway line will be retained and, subject to an ecologically enhanced landscaping scheme, the development would not result in an unacceptable level of loss of woodland or other habitats and risks to protected species can be managed through planning conditions.”