Plans for 120 homes on site of now-demolished bus depot approved

An outline application for the homes on the former South Yorkshire Bus Depot on Midland Road, Rotherham, has been approved, and further details are expected in a future reserved matters application.

The site has been used as the South Yorkshire Bus Deport since the late 1970s, and the majority of the buildings in the centre of the site have now been demolished.

Proposals from applicant Prospect Estates show a mix of house types and sizes, including two-, three- and four-bedroom houses and one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Access to the site will be taken from the existing entry and exit on Midland Road, with a further two new accesses taken from Union Street.

The applicant will be required to fund double yellow lines on Union Street, as well as a 20mph zone on roads within the development.

Three objections were submitted, raising concerns about congestion, air and noise pollution, increased demand on GPs and schools, and the loss of a bus depot.

Two councillors have supported the application, stating that the site has been derelict for the last seven years, and has been a target for anti-social behaviour

The developer will be required to contribute £500 per home towards sustainable travel, £26,000 to bus stop improvements, and an as-yet uncalculated sum towards school places.

A quarter of the homes would be designated ‘affordable’ housing.

Although the site was designated for business use in Rotherham Council’s local plan, planning officers say the site has been on the market since 2019, with ‘no formal offers’ to use the site for employment purposes.

The officer report adds that using the site for housing has the ‘potential to relieve deprivation [in] one of the economically poorer areas of the borough’, and will ‘contribute towards regeneration of the Masbrough area.’.

Full plans can be seen on RMBC’s website

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