What can YOU do now?

We believe that many Sheffield City Councillors are unaware of the real impact of green-belt development on communities like ours. Please write to them and tell them how you feel. Follow this LINK to go to our page which includes a list of Sheffield City Councillor email addresses.

Latest Update – NEWS

The Government Inspectors initial report was sent to Sheffield City Council in January, and stated that, with one or two minor modifications, the Sheffield plan was sound and legal in their opinion.

Despite hearing evidence from many groups, including ours, and receiving thousands of letters of objection, the Government Inspectors think the plan should go ahead. We suspect that this decision is driven by central Government, who have made it very clear that they want to see a million new homes built across the UK as quickly as possible.

Is that it then?

Certainly not! Sheffield Council still have to vote on the plan, and this vote will take place AFTER the local elections in May. It is interesting to speculate what the Sheffield City Council make-up might be after the election. In 2025 Labour and the Green Party councillors voted in favour of the plan, whilst the Lib Dems voted against. We have recently been told that the Reform party is also against the building of property on the green belt.

However, even if the council vote the plan down, it is possible that central Government will step in and force the city to adopt the plan – unless there is a change in the national government of course.

What is our best move right now?

Whilst we share the overall objective of stopping the plan with the rest of the Green Belt protection groups across Sheffield, we have very specific areas of concern about the development on the Horse Field, and the impact this will have on the village as a whole.

  1. We would like to see SCC forced to publish a renewed call for substantial brown-field sites that can replace those sites in the green-belt. The previous brown-field list is out of date and, as many people have observed, there are new sites available now.
  2. We believe that building on this site would be financial suicide for any developer for a whole host of reasons to do with the land, the access, the drainage, the restrictions, the buffer zones, and the size of “plot” that can actually be built on in the end. It is important to note that no developer has yet come forward and expressed an interest in our site.
  3. Sheffield City Council are going to do everything they can to convince a developer that the site is viable, because they own the land and stand to make a huge revenue from the Horse Field if it is developed. It’s a pipe dream, wishful thinking, and we will ensure that any prospective developer knows the full story.
  4. If (and it’s a big if) it comes to light that planning permission is being sought for Horse-Field development, we will bring forward our own plan of what level of impact would be acceptable to the Village. This is something we will develop in consultation with residents who are going to be directly impacted by any development.
  5. During any planning application process we will demand investment in our community, for the whole village and compensation for those directly impacted. We have recently read of developments where approval resulted in impressive sums being invested in schools, infrastructure, community services and green space by successful developers. We will be pursuing that opportunity in partnership with other Wharncliffe Side groups. The prospect of such financial demands will go further to make building on the Horse Field not profitable for the developers.

We plan to hold public meetings in April and May to discuss these ideas as a village and finalise our plans before the SCC vote.