The Hearings: Day 1 recap
Day 1 of the Local Plan Hearings took place today at Sheffield Town Hall.
During the session, Sheffield City Council presented proposals to allocate 14 green belt sites across the city, with 44% of the proposed housing concentrated on two sites in Handsworth.
The doors opened at 9am, with our representatives from James Bailey Planning Ltd and Rowan Clapp of Cornerstone Barristers among the first to arrive.
They were joined by Sadie Charlton and Nicola Oats from the Save S13 Green Belt campaign ahead of the session’s start. (I forgot to take a photo 😊.)
Around 25 people took part in the day-long hearing — roughly split 50/50 between housing developers and local campaign groups. There were about a dozen people in the audience, which was surprising given the public feeling around these proposals.
The session ran for eight hours and covered issues ranging from the accessibility of consultation documents to the spatial distribution of the green belt sites and air quality impacts.
The Sheffield Star later published an article on the proceedings, featuring testimony from Sadie Charlton.
Correspondent’s Opinion
There didn’t seem to be any knockout blows to the plan — or to the S13 sites — but it was my first time at one of these hearings, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. What we got was a lot of back-and-forth, with the Inspector firing off some sharp questions at Sheffield City Council. Interestingly, even the housing developers were against the plan, but arguing that it didn’t go far enough.
At times, the Council’s answers felt shaky — especially around Freedom of Information requests and alternative format documents — and they leaned heavily on data that nobody in the room could actually verify. I doubt the Inspector missed that.
One particularly daft moment came during the discussion of the proposed new secondary school for S13. The Council have based their calculations for a new school on citywide averages, even though the school would only serve the immediate catchment area — raising the risk it could be built in completely the wrong place.
There was also an eye-opening exchange about viability — in plain terms, whether developers can actually afford to build houses on these sites. A representative from S35 pointed out that a 300-page document concluding housing was not viable in northeast Sheffield had been replaced by a much shorter 17-page report declaring the opposite.
That exchange can be seen at the link below.
Even more striking was a moment when Sheffield City Council admitted they hadn’t updated the costs of building houses on the green belt at all. Watch below.
By the end of the eight-hour session, the Inspector looked more than a little fed up — hopefully with the Council!
Mike Johnson, Head of Planning at Sheffield City Council, spent much of the day on his own at the back of the room.
Watch Day 2
Day 2 will again feature James Bailey Planning and Rowan speaking on behalf of the Save S13 Green Belt campaign.
👉 We’ve set up a dedicated page with the full agenda and YouTube livestream links so you can follow the sessions remotely:
https://saves13greenbelt.org.uk/hearing-streams
This stage of the hearings runs until 17 October, then pauses before concluding on 21 November.
👍 Support the cause
Photo competition
Don’t forget our photo competition. We’re looking for photos of our beautiful S13 green belt to include in our 2026 calendar.
See competition details on the website.
Details on how to buy the 2026 calendar in local shops, ready for Christmas, will follow shortly.
Related news articles
Read all the news articles about our campaign on the website’s press articles page.
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.
