We wanted to start with a simple thank you.

After nine intense weeks, the main modifications consultation - the latest phase of the draft Sheffield Local Plan - closed at 5pm on Tuesday 5 May.

This was the third consultation in twelve months, each asking more. Once again, people across our community found the time to read, share information, respond, and support each other through a process that was technical, confusing and hard to follow. It was another huge community effort. Now comes the harder part - waiting for the Inspectors' final report.

Thank you

To everyone who sent in a comment, however short, and to everyone who signed the city-wide petition - thank you.

The volume of responses matters. It shows the Inspectors that this is not opposition for opposition’s sake, but a community raising real and legitimate concerns.

We'll come back to the petition, and to how it was used, in a future email. We’ll also come back to why the consultation was extended by three weeks. We have obtained the correspondence between the Inspectors and the Council on that decision, and it tells a story of its own.

What Save S13 submitted

On behalf of the Save S13 Green Belt campaign, the Working Group submitted two pieces of work.

1. Our representation on the S13 sites, building on what we put in at earlier stages but tying it into the specific main modifications now being considered.
2. An independent report by a traffic consultant commissioned by the Working Group. It does what the Council’s evidence largely avoids. It sets out the traffic problems we already see on our local roads and considers the impact of adding the two proposed sites. The conclusion is plain: the consequences for our local road network would not be sustainable.

What the Sheffield Green Belt Alliance submitted

The Sheffield Green Belt Alliance brings together four campaigns: S12 Green Belt Action Group, Lodge Moor and Redmires Save our Green Belt Group, Save Chapeltown, Ecclesfield & Grenoside's Greenbelt Community Campaign and the Save S13 Green Belt Campaign.

Together, the four campaigns that make up the Alliance commissioned James Bailey Planning to write on behalf of all four campaigns. James Bailey prepared our previous two S13 submissions, so they know the plan and its faults in detail. This third document is wider in scope: a city-wide objection that takes issue with many of the plan’s strategic choices, not only those affecting our area.

What happens after the Inspectors’ report

The Inspectors’ report is a milestone, not the finish line. Many people will assume that once the Inspectors write, the plan is decided - it’s not.

If the Inspectors find the plan sound, Sheffield City Council still has to decide whether to adopt it. The Strategy and Resources Committee considers the modified plan first; the full Council votes on it after that. Each stage is a moment at which our campaign still has work to do, and at which Councillors can still have a say.

The Council currently expects adoption by autumn 2026, but the exact dates depend on when the Inspectors' report is received.

What to expect from us next

The modifications consultation was a lot to take in all at once. We’re not going to ask you to read yet more reports.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll send summaries of the most important representations - one at a time, clearly explained, with time between them so you can digest their content.

We’re going to start with what people see and feel every day: traffic on our local roads. From there, we will work outward to the wider planning arguments: whether the sites can actually deliver the homes promised, the quality of the farmland that would be lost, how new housing has been distributed across Sheffield, and the Alliance’s wider city-wide objection by James Bailey.

The summary of the S13 representation will come last, where it can act as a recap rather than a starting point.

More in the coming days and weeks.

Next email: why our traffic consultant says the Council's road network plans simply won't work.

- The Save S13 Green Belt Campaign