MP calls for 'pause' on Local Plan over green belt

An MP has said Sheffield's latest Local Plan must be paused again to consider "new evidence" about prime agricultural land in the green belt.

Marie Tidball (Penistone and Stocksbridge) said the city needed more homes but planning framework should utilise existing brownfield sites as well as high streets and retail spaces.

She said the plan must not be skewed towards green belt land in the S35 and S13 postcodes, locations which had been assessed as likely to contain the "best agricultural land".

The council has said it has exhausted its supply of brownfield sites and has been approached for comment regarding Tidball's latest comments.

A Local Plan document is for a council to designate land for housing, industry or green space, and Sheffield's is a blueprint for how the city will be developed until 2039, with nearly 40,000 new houses, plus schools, cemeteries and industrial units proposed.

It has been paused since 2009, and was based on evidence produced in 1998 with the new version repeatedly postponed.

Councillors are keen to get a new draft plan passed and voted in May for the first stage, but campaigners have said they are seriously concerned about the use of green belt land and the locations earmarked for development.

Now the MP has said "new evidence" shows seven of the nine green belt parcels in the Local Plan are all in her constituency to the north of Sheffield.

This includes Town End Farm, an issue she raised in Parliament earlier this week.

"That new evidence cannot simply be acknowledged and then set aside," Tidball said.

The MP said while she agreed Sheffield needs new houses, she also said she wanted to see changes to the plan and had serious questions about whether alternative sites for housing had yet been properly considered.

Among other things, she said, the plan needs "a fairer distribution of greenfield sites across the authority, greater use of brownfield sites, high streets and retail spaces".

Sheffield City Council has been approached for comment.

The authority has previously said the city is "proud" of its green spaces and the Local Plan aims to prioritise brownfield sites, limiting development on greenfield land "as far as possible".

The council has said more than 350 pieces of land had been earmarked for future development and a public consultation has taken place.

"There's a strong focus on reusing previously developed brownfield land in the urban parts of Sheffield," it said.

The authority said green belt sites in the draft plan represent around 3.5% of Sheffield's overall green belt, meaning more than 96% remains protected under the plan.

Objectors have said it uses too much undeveloped land instead of brownfield sites and gathered outside the Town Hall in May to protest.

Tidball also said there was a skew towards building in her constituency, the S35 postcode, as well as the S13 (Handsworth, Orgreave and Woodthorpe) postcode.

She told Parliament the plan needed to include the council using its powers "to use long-term empty properties to ease the pressure on Grenoside, Chapeltown and Ecclesfield".

"I want Sheffield to build more homes, especially the social and affordable homes that local families desperately need, and in the right locations," she said.

"But I believe too many of the homes in this plan are in the wrong places."

In addition, she added, she was calling for the process to be held while new evidence was "properly considered" and the city's urban housing capacity independently reviewed.

Residents should also be given clear information about the plan, she said.

Tidball said communities deserve "a local plan which reflects the evidence and delivers the homes Sheffield needs with a fair distribution across the authority".

She called for a meeting to discuss the issue with housing minister Matthew Pennycook but he said independent inspectors would be better placed to consider the next steps.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North