South Yorkshire Mayor says decisions on greenbelt developments should be made by the "people that they affect"
“As a rule I think we should always try and build on grey belt or brownfield land first”
South Yorkshire’s Mayor faced readers’ questions on transport, his qualifications and even James Bond in his first Q&A session with The Star.
In the first of what will be a monthly event, Oliver Coppard spent half an hour going through all the burning questions readers had raised in advance.
However, the main question brought up by a number of people was the local plan - a blueprint for development in the city, which includes plans to build thousands of new homes on 327 hectares of greenbelt to meet Government housing targets.
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“I think it’s a really difficult position for the council to be in, because they’ve been given a target for homes that they have to meet,” the mayor said.
“If a city doesn’t have a local plan it essentially gives carte blanche for to developers to develop where they want, rather than where the city wants.
“As a rule I think we should always try and build on grey belt or brownfield land first, of course that has to be the objective.
“That can be more difficult than it seems sometimes and the local plan has to therefore look at all the available spaces and say ‘these are the ones where we could or should develop’.”
Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts has joined others in criticising the proposals, claiming that the allocation of new housing is “utterly unfair” and focuses too heavily on building within the east of the city.
In September, Sheffield City Council leader Fran Belbin called on the government to rethink the plans, adding that 90 per cent of the plan covers “completely uncontroversial” brownfield land and these developments should go ahead while a solution for the greenbelt is agreed upon.
Mr Coppard argues that this is why there needs to be “more control here” with the decision for local plans and other controversial developments like Whitestone Solar Plan being made by people in the area rather than officials in London.
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“What I hear most of all from people, that underlies their frustrations with politics at the moment, is decisions get taken that aren’t anything to do with the people that are making them,” the mayor added.
“So it's sort of taking out the hands of local people even though the decision affects us most of all.
“The principle of devolution that sits behind my job and what we want to see in South Yorkshire is that ultimately decisions are taken best the closer they are taken to the people that they affect.”
He says that while his decisions won’t make everyone happy, at least he can “look people in the eye” and respond to people’s concerns, unlike national figures making their decisions “based on a load of paperwork”.