Hearings start on plans for controversial Sheffield travellers’ site
The plans to create the site near Crystal Peaks have drawn thousands of objections
Hearings are beginning today into plans to create a travellers’ site near Crystal Peaks in Sheffield that are opposed by local residents and MP Clive Betts.
South East Sheffield MP Mr Betts will be attending government Planning Inspectorate hearings into the Sheffield Local Plan. It is a document setting out what types of developments can take place across the city over the next 15 years.
The sessions at Sheffield Town Hall tomorrow will be looking at Sheffield City Council proposals to locate a site for travelling showpeople on land off Eckington Way, which is also earmarked for industrial units.
Mr Betts and other objectors will be represented by barrister Chris Young KC at the hearings.
All council Local Plans – which must by law include a proposal for a site for travelling showpeople among other plans to accommodate travellers – are subject to public hearings. They allow interested parties to contest the proposals.
The plans for the land off Eckington Way have by far drawn the most opposition to the whole document – more than 4,000 people have signed petitions or lodged objections.
Mr Betts said: “What I shall be saying tomorrow is what I have been saying before. I’ll be arguing strongly that the site chosen for the industrial and travellers’ site is totally inappropriate.”
He pointed to traffic congestion and air pollution in that area, which he believes will only be worsened by the proposals. He said that the council should concentrate instead on tackling those issues, as it has promised to do for many years.
Mr Betts said traffic jams are common outside peak times. “The Sunday road congestion is awful. People are taking half an hour to get to their homes less than a mile from Crystal Peaks.
“People do massive detours to avoid the area.”
Mr Betts said that when the council did their analysis of potential sites for travelling showpeople, Eckington Way was not even top of the list. “The council have been very unclear on the criteria they used and how they got to this site.
“There’s already a traveller’s site at Holbrook which I know very well. There was land at the side of the site already suggested for more travellers’ pitches.
“Travelling showpeople wouldn’t want to go on the same site as the other travellers but there could be a separate part. When it was mentioned the council said ‘oh no, there are newts on the site’.”
Mr Betts said newts are a protected species and care must be taken with them but a licence could be obtained to move them safely.
He rejected any suggestion of anti-traveller racism associated with the objections as a “simple way of dismissing something”. The MP said that he had spoken to a local leader of travelling showpeople who would advise his members against using the site because of its location.
“I want to help them find a site that’s suitable,” said Mr Betts. “I’ve done a lot of work on the site at Holbrook. The council has completely mismanaged Holbrook, as per the story in The Star a few weeks ago.
“Racism is just a knee-jerk, silly reaction to what we’re saying.”
A resident of the Holbrook site complained about a gang who she said had been burning and fly-tipping rubbish for more than a year.
To watch the hearings online, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-c8f17dMw4