Loxley valley

13
Jun
2020
Peak District National Park Authority opposes plans for Loxley valley township

Peak District National Park Authority opposes plans for Loxley valley township

The Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) has objected strongly to plans for a new township of up to 300 homes in the heart of the Loxley valley.

Developers Patrick Properties want to build on the site of the abandoned old factories below Damflask, on the edge of the Peak District.

The PDNPA voices serious concerns about the impact on the national park.

These concerns include carbon footprint, air pollution, public health, unsustainable car journeys, possible tree felling and the impact on biodiversity.

The park authority says Sheffield City Council has failed in its duty to consult over the impact on the Peak District.

It also says Patrick Properties claim wrongly to have consulted the national park about their plans.

“The applicant’s Statement of Community Involvement document states … that there has been direct engagement with the National Park Authority on this application,” says the PDNPA.

“This isn’t the case, and gives us cause for concern”

The PDNPA’s detailed concerns

The national park authority sets out its fears in a 2,000 word statement of objection.

It’s key concerns are as follows:

  • It says the developers and the council have failed to recognise the potential impact on the national park, even though the township would border the park boundary.
  • The PDNPA says it is “surprised” that Sheffield City Council is prepared to consider only an outline planning application. It says this means too much is left vague, to be agreed later between the applicant and council officers. “We consider this unacceptable for such a significant development in the green belt”.
  • There is uncertainty about how many trees will be felled. “This is not acceptable for a greenbelt site where tree cover is an integral part of the character”.
  • The development would do little to reduce carbon. Rather, it would increase polluting car journeys, harming air quality and public health in an already congested area.
  • New residents would be too dependent on car journeys. They would then try to avoid the notorious Malin Bridge bottleneck. This would encourage rat runs on small country roads.
  • Sustainable alternatives such as cycling are unrealistic because of hills and distance from the city centre.
  • The impact on the green belt is not justified by shortage of housing land elsewhere in the city.
  • The development would be in a priority corridor for woodland and wildlife, and the developers have produced no evidence that biodiversity would be protected.

MPs, councillors and and other organisations are also objecting

The PDNPA’s concerns follow detailed objections from the Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake and from the Brightside and Hillsborough MP Gill Furniss.

Bradfield Parish Council are objecting too, as are local ward councillors in Stannington and Hillsborough.

Organisations objecting so far include CPRE South Yorkshire/Friends of the Peak District, the South Yorkshire Bat Group, Sheffield Friends of the Earth, Sheffield Climate Alliance, Sheffield Environmental, and the Walkley Green Party.

And at the time of writing, over 550 concerned local people have added their own objections. Thank you for your support! We’re so proud of our community!

You can object too!

If you share our concerns, please make your views known. Every single voice will make a difference!

Posted by admin, 0 comments
28
May
2020
Deadline for Loxley valley township planning objections is now mid June

Deadline for Loxley valley township planning objections is now mid June

This planning notification on Long Lane (above) confirms that the deadline for comments to Sheffield City Council over the proposed Loxley valley township is now mid June.

The extended deadline follows correspondence between Friends of the Loxley Valley and the council’s planning department.

We were concerned that site notices were missing and neighbour notification letters had arrived late.

We understand the pressures facing planning officers as they try to work from home during lockdown.

But we also think it’s vital that local people have time to properly assess the 1400 pages of planning application documents.

We are pleased to say we had a constructive response. The deadline for comments has now been extended.

The new deadline is mid June

The planning notice in the photograph is dated 22nd May. It says clearly that comments on the planning application “must be received (by the council) within 25 days” of that date.

By our calculations this means the end of the ‘Standard Consulation Period’ is now Tuesday 16th June.

But we think it would be prudent not to leave things to the last minute. We suggest you submit your views no later than Monday 15th June.

How to make your views known

Any concerned person has the right to submit views to the planning department up to the date of the final decision, (i.e. the eventual meeting of the Planning and Highways Committee).

But your views will carry most weight if they reach the planning officer during the ‘Standard Consultation Period’.

This is the date we refer to above, i.e. it ends on Tuesday 16th June.

Submission by this date means the planning officer must consider your views before preparing the report that they will submit to councillors.

You can submit your views by posting them on the city council ‘planning portal’:

Many of you have told us that you have struggled to connect to the planning portal despite repeated attempts.

In this case, you also have the right to submit your comments by email, quoting planning application reference number 20/01301/OUT

This is the email address for comments: planningapps@sheffield.gov.uk

If you continue to have difficulties submitting your views, please let us know.

However you decide to do it, please do make your views known. Every local opinion counts!

Posted by admin, 11 comments
23
May
2020
‘No to the Loxley Valley township!’ poster available for download

‘No to the Loxley Valley township!’ poster available for download

It’s taken a long time for any notices to be posted around the valley to let people know about the new planning application for up to 300 homes, so we’ve decided to produce our own!

The poster you see in this photograph is revived and re-versioned from 2005. That’s when Bovis Homes first proposed a major new housing complex in the valley bottom.

We’re still ploughing through the 1400 pages of planning application from Patrick Properties that have now been lodged with the city council in the middle of lockdown.

There’s little we can support in what we’ve read so far, so we feel we have no option but to urge the city council to reject the application.

The poster spells that message out in simple, clear terms that we hope will resonate around the valley.

How to download and use the poster

Please feel free to download the poster, to share it, put it in your window, pass it on to your friends and neighbours, put it on a local notice board. Anything that will get it seen and read!

All this will help to tell people about the planning application and to make their views known.

The links on the poster are active. So if you share it online people can click through  to our website and social media.

There’s also a QR code that people can scan from their phones if they see the poster around the valley. This will take them straight to our website where they can learn more.

The link below will take you to the poster.

Thank you again for your interest and for your support!

NB if you put up a poster in a public place, would you please then take responsibility for monitoring its condition, and for removing it when it is no longer needed?

Posters can very easily become litter, and we would not want that to happen to ours!

Posted by admin, 2 comments