Marie Tidball Hosts S35 Green Belt Event

On Thursday, 3rd July 2025, Labour MP for Stocksbridge and Penistone, Marie Tidball, hosted a meeting regarding Sheffield's Local Plan to build on the Green Belt in the S35 area of Sheffield. The plans include 949 houses on green belt in Grenoside and Ecclesfield, 549 homes and 50 hectares of commercial units on green belt in Chapeltown, and 103 homes on green belt in Wharncliffe Side.

On 11 June, Marie Tidball MP announced the event, and residents were able to submit an online application to attend. On her Facebook Page at the time, Marie said,"Priority is being given to those who have previously been in touch with me about this as an issue which affects them. I also want to hear from constituents who have relevant professional expertise too."

Space was limited, and the venue was kept secret until the day before, presumably for security reasons. On Wednesday 2nd July, successful applicants were notified that the location of the meeting would be St Marks Church, Grenoside.

The Format of The S35 Green Belt Meeting

The doors opened at 5.30pm and the event started at 5.45pm, finishing at around 8.45pm. Residents were asked to show ID on entry and then assigned to numbered tables. There were approximately 8-10 tables of residents in the room, each table with around 8 people seated at it. I was seated at Table 6. Each table was grouped with other residents from the same affected area. For example, our table contained residents of Grenoside. Residents from Wharncliffe Side, Ecclesfield, and Chapeltown were also in attendance.

The meeting opened with a speech by Marie Tidball MP, followed by a speech by Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council. A facilitator from Marie's team was seated at each table. Attendees were then invited to talk through issues related to the Local Plan S35 green belt developments with their facilitator who gathered all comments to feed back to Marie afterwards, to inform her actions.

Every table had post-it notes on it so attendees could write down their thoughts and pass them to the facilitator in addition to speaking them. Tom Hunt and Marie Tidball circled the room separately and visited each individual table to chat with attendees and answer questions directly.

At the end of the meeting, an appointed spokesperson from each table was able to voice their top three concerns to the room. The meeting ended with closing remarks from Marie Tidball and Tom Hunt.

Marie Tidball Opens The Green Belt Meeting

Marie Tidnall opened the green belt meeting with a speech. She expressed "heartache about the process of site selection" and voiced her concerns about the plan and the disproportionate volume of proposed green belt developments in the S35 area of Sheffield. Marie went on to explain that the feedback gathered at the meeting would inform her letter to the consultation. She explained that she"doesn't believe in meetings about meetings" and that input from the meeting would inform the council's decisions. She looked to Tom Hunt for agreement and he nodded in agreement.

Couldn't Attend? Marie Tidball Says She Wants to Hear from You!

In her opening remarks, Marie Tidball made a point of acknowledging that it was not possible for everyone to attend and stressed that anyone who could not attend, can request a constituency appointment slot with her - and said she would be hosting surgeries throughout the summer to listen to people's concerns. You can contact Marie's team to request an appointment by emailing marie.tidball.mp@parliament.uk.

Tom Hunt Speaks

Following Marie's speech, Tom Hunt, head of Sheffield City Council spoke. He said that "no decisions had been taken" and urged that "this is the time to raise your voice". He went on to explain some statistics on the volume of people in temporary housing, and young adults who live with their parents due to housing affordability. He said that people are living longer and there are more single-person households now than ever. All these reasons, he said, produce an urgent need for more housing.

Tom explained that the Local Plan proposed in 2023 focused on brownfield sites in Sheffield, and that this was rejected by the planning inspectorates - leading to the council identifying green belt areas for development. Tom explained the importance of a Local Plan because it links developments to infrastructure and public services - without one, he says, developers can build anywhere they want without any consideration of this.

Tom talked of the eight-month timetable for the Local Plan and gave this as a reason as to why the consultation process was so short.

S35 Residents Speak Up!

After the introductory speeches, a member of the Grenoside, Ecclesfield, and Chapeltown Campaign group interjected and made a speech to the room. A long-standing tenant of one of the green belt sites for over 40 years also expressed her feelings directly to Tom Hunt, receiving a standing ovation from the room.

All attendees were very informed and virtually every objection possible was raised in the closing remarks, and no doubt even more so to the facilitators.

Further Comments from Tom & Marie

I was not privy to the discussions on other tables, so I can only report the things that I heard. However, it was clear that all attendees were informed and able to express a full specturm of objections and concerns including lack of infrastructure, poor consultation process, poor communication around the process, lack of public services, impact on wildlife, concerns about urban sprawl, flooding concerns around Ecclesfield, trafffic and polution concerns, legality of selecting green belt when brownfield or grey belt could be available, and many, many more very valid points.

Marie stated directly to our table that:

• She would work with the government to try and unlock more brownfield sites.

• She expressed sympathy that green belt land tenants had found out about the plans via the media and said this was not acceptable. She said she would meet people directly impacted by the plans as a priority (e.g. tenants of green belt sites).

• She would gather information from all her facilitators to put residents' concerns forward.

Tom stated to our table directly that:

• He was unable to answer a query directly regarding a large number of available greybelt sites that an attendee was aware of, but said this type of information should be included in an objection.

• Tom said that the selection process of green belt sites was done by a cross-party group.

• He said he did not personally want so much development in S35, and said he had been pushing for more development in the west and south of the City. He said the Liberal Democrats blocked that (note that the Liberal's may disagree, and they weren't there to comment).

• I asked Tom if the Local Plan was approved, would brownfield sites be developed on first, leaving the green belt sites to be a last resort? Tom responded that it couldn't work like that, but said it is very unlikely that any green belt developments in Sheffield would start before the 2030s. He also said The Local Plan would be reviewed every 5 years and that if new information or brownfield sites arose by the time of the review, this could result in changes to plans to build on green belt.

  
  

My Thoughts On The Meeting

Emotions were high and I am sure that not every attendee will agree with me or feel quite as positive as I do, but I left the meeting with a few positive takeaways which I will summarise below. Please note that these are my interpretations and opinions. Others may have interpreted things differently. If you have any views you would like included here, feel free to contact me and I will include them - or you are very welcome to write a comment below.

1. It doesn't seem to be the case that this is a 100% done deal.

   1. The fact that Marie is offering summer surgeries (after the consultation deadline) gave me hope that the objection deadline of 11th July isn't the end of the matter.

   2. Even if approved, the Local Plan can be reviewed and there seems to be an appetite to prioritise brownfield sites if more become available.

   3. Tom stated in his closing remarks that even if the plan is passed, no development would occur until there is a level of infrastructure in place to support it.

   4. It seems like this could go on for years which is going to be very unsettling for residents. But on a positive note, a lengthy time-scale means we should not give up, because there is still time to change things.

2. Attendees were very informed and voiced a large number of very valid concerns. This gives me hope that there will be many very high-quality individual objections submitted. And it means it is very likely that Marie's facilitators have now collated a vast wealth of information to inform her actions.

3. While some may object to the timescales, format, and circumstances around the meeting , the fact remains that the meeting occurred and a broad spectrum of views were collected.

   
   

Marie Tidball Reflects on The Meeting - 5th July

Two days after the meeting, Marie Tidball posted her reflections on her Facebook Page;

"Thank you to all the constituents who attended my ‘Sheffield Local Plan’ meeting with Cllr Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council, in Grenoside on Thursday night.

I agree with concerns raised by constituents that there needs to be a fair share of housing spread across the authority and at the moment, the local plan doesn’t get this distribution of green belt land in our constituency right, with land in S35 that is being released under the local plan baring too significant a burden. The Council is taking a brownfield-first approach, with green belt release being a last resort. However, there are opportunities to push this further, along with wider distribution of smaller sites across the authority.

Having listened extensively to constituents at surgeries, through correspondence and last

night’s meeting, I am also extremely disappointed in the process the Planning Team at the Council has followed in allocating certain sites. With constituents who live on the land and have freehold ownership and large scale, leaseholds on the land not being notified in advance of the six-week consultation.

Constituents have also raised concerns about the accessibility of materials, of the planning portal and council communications on the proposals for those who are not on the internet.

Although I don’t have a vote on the local plan, I will be raising these concerns with the Council.

During the meeting, Cllr Tom Hunt emphasised that no decisions have been taken yet, so I would strongly encourage all residents to continue feeding into the consultation. All residents can also submit their response to the public consultation until 11th July here via the Sheffield City Council website here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/.../public-consultation...  

This isn’t the end of the conversation on the Local Plan: using the feedback collated at the meeting, along with constituents’ correspondence, I will be submitting a response to Sheffield City Council’s consultation on the additional site allocations and writing to the Planning Inspectorate. I’ll also be following up with the Council about the problems with the processes, and raising further questions on behalf of local residents who have been impacted.

Constituents can book an advice surgery on the Local Plan with me by emailing Marie.Tidball.casework@parliament.uk"