Campaigners urge council to protect countryside from housing development

COUNTRYSIDE campaigners have called for redundant former sites of industry and business to be used for critically needed affordable housing in a Yorkshire district to prevent urban sprawl eating into the countryside.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Nov 2013, 00:01 BST

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has spoken out against the development of swathes of Green Belt land around Rotherham as part of a proposed development strategy spanning the next 15 years.

The charity has claimed that Rotherham Council has faced calls from developers to release Green Belt sites for housing schemes, which would allow large-scale construction to take place in more rural locations including Dinnington, Wickersley and Treeton.

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The plans to build thousands of new homes in the district is the latest move by councils across the region to tackle the affordable housing crisis, although concerns have been expressed that developers are capitalising on the problem to push ahead with construction schemes in inappropriate areas.

The CPRE’s planning officer, Andrew Wood, said “We may 
need more housing in South Yorkshire but it must be in the right places.

“This means concentrating on brownfield sites and achieving much better public transport. Letting new housing sprawl out into the countryside just makes matters worse, by not recycling derelict sites and housing people further and further away from public services.”

Latest figures from the National Housing Federation have shown that while the average house price in the Rotherham borough costs £127,599, average wages are just £18,455. Rotherham Council is currently undertaking work on a draft Local Plan which sets out a vision to build 14,500 new homes by 2028, with greenfield sites earmarked for development.

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However, the CPRE has called for a “phased approach” that 
ensures brownfield sites in Waverley and central Rotherham are developed first, and greenfield sites are only used if and 
when they are really needed. 
Mr Wood said: “The house builders claim that building in the Green Belt will fix the housing crisis, but in reality they simply have their eyes on juicy development sites.

“The real crisis is in affordable housing, and these proposals do very little to address that.”

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Related topics:YorkshireRotherhamRotherham CouncilGreen BeltLocal PlanSouth Yorkshire