Sheffield green belt: Public hearings on controversial city housing plans set to start
Public hearings over controversial Sheffield green belt housing plans are set to start on Monday, with campaigners fighting the schemes expected to attend.
Residents in neighbourhoods across the city have launched protests over Sheffield Council proposals to build on green sites in areas ranging from Grenoside to Handsworth.
Among those speaking out again the plans is the big name actor Sean Bean, who was brought up in Handsworth and has spoken of the need for the green land to remain.
He said: “The greenbelt means a lot to me as I grew up in the area - it was the hub and the centre of the area where we explored the countryside and had a laugh and played games. “
And on Monday, the first public hearing on the plans will take place at Sheffield Town Hall.
They will be held in public - but not all members of the public will be allowed to speak at the hearings.
Sheffield Council has described the process, including who will be able to speak, ahead of the hearings.
They said they are part of a programme of consultation which follows a review of the Draft Local Plan by independent Government Inspectors in 2024, which led them to ask Sheffield Council to identify additional sites for 3,500 more homes and over 50 more hectares of employment land.
In response to the the council proposed 14 sites within the green belt to accommodate the additional homes and employment land, looking at sustainability of sites, the delivery of sustainable communities, site availability and sites that have been promoted through the current local plan process.
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In May this year, the full council approved submission of the proposed 14 sites in the Green Belt for consideration by the Government Inspectors.
The consultation started in May and lasted for six weeks, closing in July this year with 3,657 people submitting their opinion on the proposed additional site allocations. Those replies were sent directly to the Planning Inspectorate with the latest public hearings set to review the responses and decide on the next course of action for the plan.
Public hearings to look into the public response to the site allocations. will be at:
> Sheffield Town Hall on Monday September 29, starting at 10am, until Thursday October 2
> The Showroom/Workstation on Monday October 13 , at 10am, until Wednesday October 15.
Hearing sessions on the other aspects of the Sheffield Plan will then be held in Howden House in Sheffield on Thursday October16 and Friday October 17
A third week of hearings, should they be required, has been scheduled in for Monday November17 November until Friday November 21
All sessions of the hearings will be open for anyone to attend, subject to room capacity. They sessions will also be streamed live on the Sheffield Council YouTube channel.
The council says while members of the public can attend every session of the hearings in person, not everyone who attends will be able to speak. The independent Government Inspectors will have already notified those who they want to hear from during each session with only those invited to speak being able to do so.
Once all the hearings have concluded, the independent Inspectors will review the information they have been given and will compile a preliminary report of their findings.
The report could conclude that Sheffield’s Local Plan is sound and can continue or propose ‘main modifications’ that are needed to make the plan ‘sound’.
The Inspectors could also conclude that the plan is unsound and cannot be made sound through modifications, in which case the Council would be asked to produce an entirely new plan. If the Inspectors recommend main modifications, those modifications will be subject to further public consultation next year.