Sheffield Council approves new apartment block despite dozens of objections from residents

The planning and highways committee gave a green light to plans to demolish 14 unused garages and build four one bedroom apartments in their place on Meersbrook Road.

The apartments will be across a three or four storey block and each will have a bedroom, separate lounge, a kitchen dining room and a bathroom. There will also be an external balcony.

There will be a communal garden and bin storage, five off-street car parking spaces and a residents’ cycle storage as well.

In the meeting where the decision was made, councillor Andrew Sangar said: “I shall be supporting the officer’s recommendation (to approve) but I would like to second councillor Brian Holmshaw’s proposal to strengthen condition 11 to make sure we use similar materials to the neighbouring properties in terms of visual amenity.

“I’m very pleased that the developer has come down from seven apartments to four, I think that is a much more appropriate development for the size of it.

“In terms of biodiversity, Meersbrook is really important. Wherever we have rivers and streams that does add to the character of Sheffield.

“This is a piece of land which can cope with this development and, as we have heard before, we do need more housing in Sheffield. So I shall be supporting this.”

There were 25 objections across two rounds of consultation which raised concerns about traffic, wildlife and impact on neighbours.

But in a report ahead of the meeting a council officer said: “It does not raise any significant issues in respect of neighbour impacts and will not affect highway safety.

“There are no significant ecological constraints and key features including hedges are being retained.

“Whilst the scheme lacks detail in respect of sustainable building design commitments these can be secured through appropriate conditions.

“There are therefore no significant adverse impacts of the development and given the absence of a five-year housing supply in the city, it is therefore the case that the tiled balance and presumption in favour of development as prescribed by paragraph 11 of the National Planning Policy Framework is in effect, and planning permission should therefore be granted.”