The Hearings: Day 4 recap
Day 4 of the Local Plan Hearings at Sheffield Town Hall has finished.
Similar to yesterday, today was another site-specific session, this time focused on Chapeltown.
There was a lot on the agenda: four sites to review — one proposed for 549 homes, and three designated as “employment sites,” meaning green belt land earmarked for warehouses, light industry, and related uses.
The employment sites are all located near the M1, but none of them are straightforward. Each comes with significant challenges - ranging from access issues to serious contamination.
The proposed housing site for 549 homes lies directly opposite Ecclesfield School - the largest secondary school in Sheffield. Historically, this site has been vigorously defended by the Council. Local residents are now asking: what has changed?
This site is projected to take up to 10 years to complete, with an estimated delivery rate of about 50 houses per year. During that period, successive cohorts of Ecclesfield students would be exposed to construction traffic and associated disruption.
For some students, their entire time at Ecclesfield would coincide with a major building site directly opposite the school.
Once again, the absence of ecological reports was highlighted by the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust. They questioned how sites can be removed from the green belt without comprehensive ecological assessments. Watch below.
However, the main drama unfolded in the final hour. The NES36 site came unstuck when the Inspector asked whether there were any land ownership issues.
It emerged that the owner of part of the proposed development land has never been consulted or informed of the Council’s plans and has no intention of ever supporting them.
The land agent attempted to suggest that the farmer had simply “changed their mind” during the consultation period, but was promptly challenged by participants for being economical with the truth. Watch their reaction below.
Participants called for a formal inquiry into what went wrong with this site, noting that something has clearly gone badly amiss. Watch below.
Correspondent’s Opinion
Oh dear. The Council have got in a mess with the last site. Chapeltown residents told the Planning Officers there was a problem with the ownership of land in NES37 months ago, and the Council still went ahead and included it in the site allocations.
Simple checks using the land registry website could have avoided this fiasco.
What’s next?
The hearings now pause until Monday, 13 October, when the focus will shift to Handsworth. On that day, Inspector Katie Child will hear evidence relating to the Finchwell and Bramley/Beaver sites.
👉 If you want to watch, 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
Then, the hearings run until 17 October, then pause 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
You can read all the news coverage of our campaign on the website’s Press Articles page. New pieces are added daily as we receive them.
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.
