Thank you – and what happens next after last week’s consultation
Last Thursday, 11 December at 5pm marked the deadline for submitting responses to Sheffield City Council’s additional “targeted consultation” on the Local Plan. This followed the release of further documents and proposed changes late in the Local Plan examination process, and required communities to respond within a very tight timeframe.
First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who submitted an response, helped a neighbour fill one in, shared information, or encouraged others to take part. The response from the community was genuinely remarkable, and it wouldn’t have happened without people giving their time and energy.
Apologies as well for the short pause in updates since Thursday. After the intensity of the three-week consultation period, we needed a brief breather - to recover, spend time with family, and regroup - before coming back with a proper update.
As you may have seen on Facebook, all of the letters have now been safely delivered to Sheffield City Council and formally received - and signed for - by the Local Plan team.
In total, over 900 letters were submitted from our area alone, an extraordinary level of engagement. At the same time, the Chapeltown–Ecclesfield–Grenoside (CEG) group submitted a further 700+ letters, showing just how widespread concern is across the city.
A special thank-you again to Sunny Meadows Nursery, Nuttcase Hairdressers, and Handsworth Post Office for their invaluable support throughout - we simply couldn’t have done this without them.
There are two important developments we wanted to flag:
A professional community response has been prepared by James Bailey Planning Ltd (JBPL) - the same planning experts who attended the hearings and spoke on our behalf as part of Save S13 Green Belt - The Sapphire McCarthy campaign. This is a detailed, evidence-based submission that complements the hundreds of individual objections. We’ll be making this public shortly.
Clive Betts MP has submitted a formal response to the consultation. While recognising the need for new homes, he raises serious concerns about how the process has been handled, the quality and consistency of the evidence, and the fairness of the impacts - particularly on communities in S13. We’ll share a short summary of his key points in a separate update.
We’ve also seen some fascinating individual responses come in - including from people well beyond Sheffield, and even from across the Atlantic. We’re planning a special edition email to highlight a few responses we think you’ll want to read.
We’ve been told to expect confirmation of the total number of responses sometime this week, so stay tuned. As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let you know.
Last week showed just how strong, informed and determined this community is. Thank you again for being part of it - and we’ll be back in touch very soon with the next steps.
News Articles
You can explore all the latest Local Plan coverage on our website’s Press Articles page, where we’re adding new pieces every day as they come in.
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Contact
If you want to get in touch please email us at either:
info@saves13greenbelt.org.uk - email the working group.
website@saves13greenbelt.org.uk - suggestions/additions to the website.
In honour of Sapphire McCarthy
