Your questions answered by Conservative MP Miriam Cates and Sheffield councillor Lewis Chinchen

Owlthorpe Fields Action Group asked: “After seeing the massacre of parts of the surrounding areas of Owlthorpe Fields, will your party support the designation of formal nature sites, protect them from development and leave them as a cherished green space for the local community?”

Lewis Chinchen: “Recently, the Local Plan went before full council for spatial options, which is where we think new homes in the city should be built.

“Mine and Miriam’s position is to support a brownfield only approach where only previously developed sites are used and you are not building on greenfield land or the green belt.

“The reasons for this is firstly, the government target was always meant to be a starting point, it wasn’t a firm figure and the target has to be applied on a city by city basis.

“We know Sheffield has a unique reputation as the Outdoor City and as councillors and MPs we need to do all we can to protect that reputation.

“I think building thousands of new homes on greenfield and green belt land puts that reputation at risk.

“If we, as a council, had supported this previously, it would have protected sites such as Owlthorpe.

“We’ve seen the huge opposition to some of these planning applications and I think the need for a Local Plan is shown by what has happened.

“It is a classic example of cases going before the planning committee and then being overturned on appeal by the planning inspector, just like what happened at Hollins Busk in Deepcar.”

Gary Parkins asked: “Miriam, why did you vote against free school meals, which help the poorest families in your constituency?”

Miriam Cates: “It’s just not true that I voted against free school meals, that’s absolutely not the case.

“There was never any question of free school meals being ended, in fact, under the Conservative Government more children are eligible now than were before.

“The vote in question was about whether to extend a supermarket voucher scheme over a half term holiday.

“The government had already announced that we’ll be moving away from this voucher scheme and going towards food parcels or the local authority would get a lump sum, then it would be up to them to decide who needs it and how to deliver it.

“That’s a much better way of doing it because there are lots of children who actually needed help, but for whatever reason, hadn’t registered for free school meals or weren’t eligible.

“It gave a lot more flexibility and autonomy to the council but the Labour Party chose to bring an opposition debate, which is basically like a school debate.

“You all vote at the end of it, but it doesn’t mean anything. There’s no law created, nothing will change, it’s just a debate.

“I don’t think supermarket vouchers are the best way to do this, those worked in an emergency but there are a lot of problems with them.

“Children are my top priority, the number one thing that I work on in Parliament. I’m on the Education select committee, I’m working on family policy and I’ve been standing up for children throughout this pandemic trying to get schools reopened and trying to get the children’s lives back to normal.”

Ruth Hubbard asked: “What’s your advice to your many clinically vulnerable constituents for whom so-called ‘freedom’ means precisely the opposite now there are no more restrictions?”

Miriam: “I completely understand people’s nervousness. We’ve had nearly two years now with not just the restrictions, but very much focusing on the dangers of Covid and the number of people with it.

“It’s completely understandable, especially for people who are clinically vulnerable, that they’re nervous about restrictions ending and getting back to normal.

“The really good news is that the vaccination programme has worked phenomenally well and actually we have a lower death rate at the moment than average from all causes.

“Every death is a sadness but we have controlled Covid so well through the vaccinations, that we’re now in a better position than we are in a normal February before Covid, which is quite remarkable.

“Although Omicron spread through the population very quickly, it’s been much less severe for people who are fully vaccinated and now there will be a fourth jab in spring for elderly and vulnerable people.

“It’s a really difficult situation for vulnerable people but two years ago before Covid, infectious diseases, coughs and colds were a normal part of our lives.

“There will always sadly be people who are at severe risk from those and we have to get the balance between those people being given the support they need to take the precautions they need to take, and everybody else being able to get on with normal life.

“That’s not a matter of selfish freedom, it’s actually how society functions. Children need to go to school, businesses need to operate, we need to be able to see friends and family.

“We’ve got to get back to that position of compromise that we had before the pandemic and just remind ourselves of what is normal, and we all need to use a bit of wisdom and responsibility.”