Clive Betts MP Criticises Sheffield City Council Planners at Green Belt Hearing

Verity Eyre
Oct 15
4 min read

On Wednesday 15 October, the eighth day of the Sheffield Green Belt hearings took place at the Showroom Workstation in central Sheffield. Labour MP for Sheffield South East was there to voice his concerns. As acknowledged by planning inspector Katie Child, Mr Betts had previously submitted written objections to plans to build on green belt in S13 and S12 (site references SS19, SES29, and SES30).

Mr Betts started by acknowledging that some houses may have to be built on green belt before going on to criticise the consultation process, saying “…Planning helps to shape the environment and society within which we live and it is something that should be done WITH the public, not TO the public….”. He also described the selection of sites as "unfair", "unequal", and "unbalanced".

Clive Betts Criticises Sheffield Local Plan Consultation Process

Clive Betts stated he has hosted public meetings, but Sheffield City Council planners refused to attend, which he finds unacceptable. He said “Public meetings are important because people can come and hear what their neighbours are saying” and “The process has not been about listening to views… it has not been a process of engagement, it has been a process of telling people what is going to happen.”

“People are very, very angry about the way that this has been handled. There has been very little proper engagement with the public on this matter. There has not been a single leaflet put out by the council, not a single letter advising the public about what was going to happen. It has been very unequal because if you have not got a computer or access to the internet, how would you have known about the local plan, unless some of the action groups, who have done a brilliant job… mobilising and explaining to their community what was happening….”

Mr Betts also said he had submitted a list of technical questions to Sheffield City Council and the response was that they do not have time to answer those questions. He also said important documents were uploaded by the council very last minute before the hearings took place (which does not give campaigners time to read, digest, and seek advice).

Clive Betts Talks of The Importance of Infrastructure

Mr Betts argued that it has been an ongoing failing over many years that infrastructure has not been put in place in the South East of Sheffield. He said he is now told that any infrastructure will be dealt with at the planning stage. However, he said this is a "complete contradiction" because previously with regards to individual sites, he was told it would be dealt with within the Local Plan.

He said there is no recognition from the Council that the proposed green belt sites meet the golden rules in terms of infrastructure. The NPPF states that one of the golden rules for building on green belt is that the local area should be able to cope with the developments with regard to infrastructure. Mr Betts talked for some time about the importance of the tram train and also said that ensuring health care provision and schools could handle additional residents. Without infrastructure planning, Mr Betts claimed the Plan is not sound. "There is no joined-up thinking". Mr Betts said"The mayor has money from the regional fund and some of this should be used to get the tram train going".

Clive Betts Criticises Green Belt Site Selection Process

Mr Betts said that developers had determined the agenda for the Local Plan claiming that if a developer hadn’t put in a proposal for a site, that site was not considered.“That is not a way to plan for this city's future for the next 15 years. It is not acceptable,” he said.

He talked of the "unfair" and "unequal" allocation of green belt sites to the North East and South East of the City, and lack of sites in the West and said “…Sheffield is a very divided city. Life expectancy changes 10 years if you move to the other side of the city…”.

He said while he doesn't know if it is true, he has been told “by private sector planners and planners in the academic world [that] they felt the council have refused to take on development in the west of Sheffield because they were concerned ...that resident groups there will be better resourced, more knowledgeable and pose a greater challenge to them and therefore they backed away from that challenge and ...took on the poorer parts of the city …and, well they’ve been disappointed in that respect because those communities have done brilliantly in organising themselves..”

Clive Betts Proposes Alternative Housing Sites

Clive Betts proposed the following ten alternative housing sites. According to the Sheffield Star, these sites could accommodate 2,515 homes, as broken down below:

• Land at Totley Hall Lane, Dore & Totley - 700

• Ryecroft Farm, Dore &Totley - 500

• Moor View Golf Centre, Dore & Totley - 160

• Land to the south of Hathersage Road, Dore & Totley - 400

• Dore Moor Garden Centre and Nursery, Dore & Totley - 75

• Boundary Club, Beauchief & Greenhill - 100

• Land to the south of Manchester Road, Crookes & Crosspool - 40

• Collegiate Campus, Broomhill & Sharrow Vale - 250

• Infield Allotments, Darnall - 190

• Norton Lane, Graves Park - 100

Watch Clive Betts Speak at the Sheffield Green Belt Hearing

You can watch the day 8 hearing in its entirety here. This hearing also covers discussions regarding three green belt sites in the Sheffield Local Plan: