Bulletins Archive

NB. Bulletins in this archive have been edited to show only content that is still relevant

Bulletins from Aug-November 2023

November archive

BULLETIN No 3 – Published 30 Nov 2023

4. Planning Matters

There are two Planning Applications live in our area at the moment. Both are controversial, and may well give rise to some divisions amongst residents.

A. Ecclesall Primary School. The School has submitted an application to build a quite large Multi-Use Games Area [MUGA] on its currently grass playing fields. [Reference No. 23/01882/FUL. https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=RW6KWMNY0OB00]  See my Bulletin of 15 November and the attached Plan] 

Since then we discussed this application at the Public Meeting, with two representatives from the local Save Ecclesall Playing Fields group, and with a letter from the School Headteacher. After some discussion it was agreed to submit a Comment on the Planning Portal citing our concerns and reservations, and urging that the Application be withdrawn to allow for a rethink, or if the School was unwilling to do that, that the Planning Committee should refuse the application and send it back for more consultations and discussions to happen, and any omissions and discrepancies to be remedied.

At that point the Planning Committee was scheduled to hear the Application on Tues 5 Dec. [The full Comment is attached]

Since then we have been told by the Planning Officer that he has been informed that some fresh information and possibly an amendment to the application is expected from the School’s planning consultants, and that the Committee hearing is now postponed, probably until January next year. I will update on this when that further information is published.

B. The Gospel Church site. The Gospel Church site is off Carter Knowle Rd, just below the Montrose Rd shops and the Cherry Tree pub. It ceased to be a Meeting-house for the Plymouth Brethren in 2018 and has been empty, and getting increasingly derelict, ever since. It was bought in 2022 by PTA Developments [who developed the Beauchief housing development on the old Beauchief Hotel site on Abbeydale Rd South, and also the Baldwin’s Omega site on Psalter Lane] 

They have now submitted a Planning Application [Reference 23/03296/FUL  https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=S2MWMBNYGR900]

The application is for 5 blocks of apartments [flats?] – 67 in all – along with parking etc. Some of the block are 5 storeys high, and might well tower over adjoining properties and the Carterknowle Park just below, although some of the site is set quite low, and may be less visible from the road. In the Sheffield Draft Local Plan [still to be approved by the Government Planning Inspectorate] the site would have approval for 14 Houses, considerably less than the proposed 67 flats, some of which would be 3 bedroom ones, with the rest having 2 bedrooms. The Local Plan, being still in Draft, would not be allowed to overrule the existing Sheffield Plan though, which is 14 years old, and has no specific numbers attached to any sites.

There are the usual concerns common to many such development applications, such as 
a) the impact on traffic on Carter Knowle Rd [which is relatively narrow and often busy, with a lot of parking on one side], and with no footpath on that side of Carter Knowle Rd;
b) the drainage implications [how do they deal with the waste from all those dwellings?]; and what will happen to the rainwater run-off once the whole site is paved over?
c) parking [is there enough parking space, or too much? In the Draft Local Plan it is proposed to limit parking spaces on such large developments]; much of the parking is apparently to be hidden under the blocks;
AND
d) does the development provide any “affordable housing ” [none is proposed in this application, despite the alarming shortage of such housing in Sheffield; and the developer would usually  be expected to contribute a sizeable sum of money to compensate for this]. There is no mention of this in the application, and developers have found all sorts of clever ways to get around this requirement over the last few years, [aided by Government relaxation of the planning rules].

There is also one specific concern that affects the residents on Grange Lane above the site: they have a private cess-pit as they have no connection to the mains sewer below Carter Knowle Rd. This pit drains into a soakaway that flows into the culverted stream that runs beneath the site, and under the Mercia School site, to eventually run down into the River Sheaf. The cess-pit is on the site of the development, so could potentially be damaged by the construction work if the development is given permission to go ahead.

There is no Environmental Assessment of the site in the Application, as would normally be expected; and the site, especially the lowest section known as the Dell, is known to be frequented by badgers and foxes. Several trees were felled by the Brethren in 2017-18 in preparation for a sale, until the Council Ecology Unit obtained Tree Protection Orders for the rest. These may well be roosting sites for bats. The application would normally be expected to include protection for any wildlife ‘protected species’ and to contribute to increasing bio-diversity as part of the planning requirements.

Some local residents are talking about setting up a Petition against what they see as over-development. The Planning Committee is expected to consider the Application sometime in February. I shall update on this application as more information comes in.

Welcoming Spaces project – St Peter’s & St Oswald’s Church.

I am pleased to be able to report that this project will continue, as the Group has been successful in its bid to the SW Local Area Committee who have given us £610 towards it: coupled with the £680 we have received from neighbouring Wards Nether Edge & Sharrow and Beauchief & Greenhill we have nearly £1300 which should keep the project going well into March.

Please do share news of this project with any neighbours you think may be able to benefit from it. An A5 advert for the sessions [2-up] is attached – it will print on an A4 sheet set to Landscape mode.

Feedback
As usual feedback about anything in the Bulletin is welcome – I will try to answer questions or publish comments where feasible. Particularly of interest this time would be the LAC Funding opportunities and what we might bid for [see item 5c in the Minutes of the Public Meeting]: plus comments on the two Planning Applications.

BULLETIN No 2 – 15 Nov23

2. The Local Area Committee Community Survey.
The LAC carried out this survey over the summer. The results were published in September for their Quarterly Meeting, with the responses feeding into a revised Community Plan for 2023-24, and some new funding opportunities for community organisations and voluntary groups, to help deliver that Plan. A summary of the Survey responses is attached. All this to be discussed at the next Public Meeting – an opportunity to develop some new projects for our Group.

​3. Welcoming Space project.
The Welcoming Space project at St Peter’s Church on Bannerdale Rd continues to attract new attendees, and with the promise of more funding from the SW Local Area Committee – boosted by contributions from neighbouring areas Nether Edge & Sharrow and Beauchief & Greenhill – will be able to continue over the winter. Activities include chair aerobics, games and quizzes; plus there are refreshments. And we hope to add some advice sessions about personal finances and saving energy into the mix.

4. Ecclesall Primary School Planning Application.
Ecclesall Primary School have put in a planning Application to create a hard-surface Multi-Use Games Area [MUGA] and a 100metre running track on their current grass playing fields. This has aroused a local response which is largely hostile, with a considerable number of Objections registered on the Planning Portal , and a much smaller number of Supporting Comments.
The Planning Portal link is HERE – you can read the Comments and look at the documents and plans easily but to make Comments you will need to register a log-in

DRAFT COMMENT
Our Group has not discussed the Planning Application for a Multi-Use Games Area and a running track at Ecclesall Primary School, so we are not in a position to make either an Objection or a Supporting Comment. We have instead made a Neutral Comment, asking questions derived from reading the posted Documents in support of the Application, and the Objections and Supporting Comments already posted. A local campaign has been set up to oppose the application – Save Ecclesall Playing Fields – supported by the Ecclesall Green Party, and by Ecclesall Councillors.

It is not clear in the Application exactly why a Primary School needs such a large MUGA, or such a top-level running track; for pupils aged only 4- 11. The School already has a MUGA, built in 2018. The site is surrounded by housing, and has a narrow entrance drive and a one-way system for vehicles entering and leaving the site.

Comments by official sporting bodies are not exactly supportive of the proposal – normally that support would be required by the Planning Committee as evidence that the proposal was a good one. The Athletics Association comment that this track might lead naturally onto use of the adult facilities at Woodbourn Rd seems very unconvincing, given the age differences. The Football Association Comment does not support the proposal, on the grounds that there is no evidence of local demand for such facilities or of current use by the community or a local club, and that the proposed facilities are poorly-designed and might impact badly on adjacent housing.

It is suggested by a number of objectors that the intention is that the School can rent out use of the facilities to generate income. While this is very understandable in the current circumstances of local authority education being markedly under-funded, surely this should not be at the expense of the loss of green play-space for the pupils?

The loss of such green space without any obvious direct benefit to the School, and without any mention of equivalent replacement – or apparently even the possibility of that replacement – also might be contrary to the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework, as well as to those of the Local Authority current [and recently-submitted] Local Plan.

Given the existing traffic issues around entrance to the School site, and with vehicle movement on-site, the likelihood of these being exacerbated by any increases in traffic due to non-School use of the planned facilities is surely very high. Normally a Traffic Assessment would be a standard requirement for such a proposal – nothing is being proposed by the school’s Planning consultants.

The potential drainage issues deriving from the replacement of green space by hard-surface do not seem to have been well-considered: and there is no sign of any mitigation measures in the application to deal with these.

The large number of objections, from immediate neighbours as well as from parents etc. further afield suggests that the School has not made the normal efforts to consult parents and neighbours, to have the discussions; and perhaps to make some of the concessions that would allow them to calm the fears and meet the objections of all those local people.

We suggest the application should be withdrawn to allow for that process to happen; and if not the Planning Committee might sensibly refuse the application and send it back to allow that to happen.

5. The Friends of Carterknowle Park Bulletin.
FoCKPark have issued a new Bulletin updating people on progress in the Park, including the approaching completion of the Ponds area, a new project to develop football on the site, and opportunities for volunteering. A copy is attached.

6. Dunkeld Rd & Banner Cross Road – repairs update
Our Chair Paul has been in contact with Amey about the appalling state of these two roads, which residents have been complaining about for several years. He is now being told that because of the danage done by some of the trees to the roadway, a new “engineering” solution needs to be found. This has to be agreed by the Street Trees Panel – set up in the wake of the tree-felling dispute – which is due to pronounce on the scheme ‘sometime in the new year’. Not a good piece of news for the long-suffering residents. Let’s hope that it is agreed and actually does the job!

6. New Broadband poles.
Some of you will have come across notices warning that new poles are to be erected around parts of the area – Millhouses Lane and Silverdale Rd have been mentioned to me, but there may be others. These are the cable-carrying poles for a new broadband company called ConnectFibre, which has been licenced to offer broadband connectivity by the Government, and will be able to put up poles on footpaths and grass-verges to carry their cables to houses that sign up. These will be similar to those traditionally used by BT – or British Telecom as it was pre-privatisation – but they will be bright red.

I have been asked by a few people if they can object to these. Unfortunately not – the government introduced new regulations a few years ago to allow these as “permitted development”, which removes any right to object unless the poles and cables can be shown to be dangerous or to be an obstruction; and there is no need to obtain Planning Permission for them either, on visual grounds. BT poles are subject to some agreement with the Council under a Code of Conduct from earlier, but it isn’t clear if ConnectFibre are bound by the Code or have agreed to it. Attached is an Advice Leaflet from the Council about this situation.

My personal opinion is that such cables should be buried underground; but that is obviously more expensive and time-consuming. This seems to be a cheaper solution that allows ConnectFibre to offer very competitive ​prices. I would guess that they need to sign a number of people up to make it worth their while to invest in the poles. Ideally they should get together with BT to share poles where that is feasible – but there is no indication that is happening.

Possible restoration project?
We have been informed that an old roadside electricity transformer has been discovered in our Ward, on the corner of Greystones Rd and Highcliffe Rd – see Image
Although it has been listed since 1995 on Historic England’s National Heritage List for England it has obviously been neglected for many years.
We have been asked if restoration this is something we may want to take up as a group? If we do, it is possible we can get some financial support via the SW Local Area Committee. There is also one in Ranmoor, which is Grade II listed, and has been sympathetically restored by the Ranmoor Society: apparently they may have had a grant from an external funder to do the work.

BULLETIN No 1 – 1 Nov. 2023

2. Archer Lane closure.
Archer Lane is now fully re-open, following the abandoning of the Nether Edge Active Travel Scheme by the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee in September.

Local opinion is still divided it seems, with attempts to prevent the removal of the blockage, and local grafitti appearing to protest the opening. Cycle Sheffield has been trying to mount a legal challenge to the decision; and a lot of social activity is taking place. It will be interesting to see if the promised reduction in traffic on Abbeydale Rd and other roads does take place; and similarly a threatened deluge of cars using Archer Lane.

3. Neighbourhood Watch Annual Crime and Community survey.
The survey is in its fourth year, and NW want to hear your views on crime, community, and your experience of Neighbourhood Watch. The survey is open to everyone across England and Wales, regardless of whether you are a Neighbourhood Watch member. All responses will be anonymised and aggregated, and everyone who completes the 5 – 10 minute survey can choose to opt-in to the prize draw to win one of three £25 Amazon vouchers.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/surveyCC2023

Energy Costs Support
Below are some of the ways households can seek help with lowering energy costs and use, or with improving home-insulation, especially houses with no gas supply dependent on electric or oil heating. While many people in our area will not need to seek such help there are households that may qualify on poverty or health grounds. 
Please consider if any of your neighbours may benefit from the help described below; and pass this information on if so.

4. Boiler Upgrade Scheme improvements.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is a UK Government grant for people in England and Wales who want to install a heat pump or a biomass boiler.
The scheme covers three low carbon heating systems. The level of grant towards a heat pump was increased from £5,000 to £7,500 on 23 October 2023.
Air source heat pump: £7,500 towards cost and installation.
Ground source heat pump: £7,500 towards cost and installation.
Biomass boiler: £5,000 off cost and installation.

For further information on how these schemes work, and how to access them, please see the Energy Saving Trust website.

5. The Priority Services Register (PSR)
This is a free UK wide service which provides extra advice and support – especially when there’s an interruption to electricity, gas or water supply – to vulnerable people,i.e. those with access and mobility problems, extra communication, access or safety needs; and also difficulty paying bills.
It’s free to join, and allows one registration to be shared with energy suppliers, water companies etc.
Privacy laws must be followed, so your PSR information should never be used for marketing or other purposes.
For further information go to the PSR website.

6. ECOFlex & Warm Homes Support Services
The national Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) scheme supports low income and vulnerable households by providing energy upgrades to their homes: this is funded by energy suppliers who have an obligation to improve the least energy-efficient homes, to help meet the Government’s fuel poverty and net zero commitments. Improvements cover areas such as heating, insulation and solar panels.

Eligibility for ECOFlex is based on a household’s financial situation, and on the property’s current energy efficiency rating, which is shown on your Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) [IF you have one]. Only homeowners and private tenants are eligible, and private tenants must have the support of their landlord. Both owner-occupiers and landlords may be asked by an installer to contribute towards the cost of the works.

If you qualify you can’t apply directly: the scheme funds installation companies to make the improvements. An Advisor will need to have a conversation with you about your situation and will seek to understand what support you may be eligible for. Sheffield Council has teamed up with energy experts AgilityEco to carry out the assessments and

NB. The programme will end in March 2026.
For further information and to apply go to the Council’s ECO Flex website

6. Warm Homes Sheffield also provides help and support for households in need of better insulation and advice on reducing energy use and costs. Tel. 0800 107 8882 [a FreePhone number]

Feedback.
Thanks to those who responded to the call for volunteers for leaflet delivery or to join the Community SpeedWatch scheme in my last Bulletin. Also to those who offered to make a donation to support the MECK Community Group.

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