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Take a look, through some of the common species of wildlife that live in the South Yorkshire area around Sheffield and Rotherham.
A recently extended patch of heathland and woodland, neighbouring Wyming Brook.
Information and resources about actions you can take for nature's recovery in Sheffield and Rotherham.
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Find out more about the Sheffield Local Plan and our views.
In January 2023, Sheffield City Council published their long-awaited Local Plan. Since then, there have been many proposed changes open to consultation, which Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust has reviewed and commented on.
The Sheffield Local Plan shapes the policies and locations for developments and other land uses in the city (excluding the Peak District National Park) until 2039. What will this mean for Sheffield’s natural environment? See our latest responses below!
Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust has reviewed the latest proposed changes (known as Main Modifications) to the Sheffield Local Plan. While some of these changes appear to strengthen wording around nature, biodiversity and green spaces, our overall view is that they do not go far enough to protect wildlife in practice. In many cases, stronger language has been added, but there is little evidence that this is being properly applied when deciding where development should happen.
A key concern is that the Plan still allows development in sensitive locations, including parts of the Green Belt and areas important for wildlife. The approach often relies on trying to reduce or fix damage later, rather than avoiding harm in the first place. Important issues, such as protecting habitats, managing pollution, and maintaining wildlife corridors, are frequently left to be sorted out at the planning application stage, rather than being built into the Plan from the start.
We are also concerned that the Plan may be overestimating how much development can take place on some sites. When you properly take into account environmental constraints, access issues and the need to protect habitats, many sites may deliver far fewer homes or jobs than currently expected, and some may not be suitable for development at all. This raises questions about whether the Plan can meet its targets without causing unnecessary harm to nature or releasing more Green Belt land in future.
Overall, we believe the proposed changes do not yet provide enough certainty that Sheffield’s wildlife, habitats and ecological networks will be properly protected. For the Plan to be sound, nature needs to be treated as a fundamental constraint from the outset, with clear, enforceable measures to avoid harm and support long-term nature recovery.
Sheffield City Council (SCC) recently announced proposed changes to the Local Plan, which outlines how and where development will take place in Sheffield through to 2039. A shortlist of 14 sites were proposed to be released from the green belt and used for development. Of the 14 sites identified, 10 are for housing development, 3 are for employment and 1 for mixed-use housing and employment.
In February, Government Inspectors laid out recommendations to Sheffield City Council including the need to provide more housing, and concluded that 38,012 additional homes are needed over the Local Plan period to meet needs – this is more than was initially set out in the Draft Local Plan. Thus the Council were tasked with identifying land for an additional 3,529 homes and an additional 53 hectares of land for employment uses.
The Council explained brownfield sites are explored in the first instance, but that all of those options have been exhausted, so the demand for more housing must be met on green belt.
As national planning rules (National Planning Policy Framework – NPPF) only allow green belt land to be released in “exceptional circumstances”, SCC assessed the impact of releasing the proposed sites and deemed them to be low scoring against the purposes of green belt, thus justifying their release. However, some higher scoring sites are also identified for development.
On 14th May, Sheffield’s councillors voted on the proposed plans to release the green belt land for development: 45 supported, 31 opposed and 4 chose to abstain. The next step is a public consultation which will run until the 11th July.
Whilst we understand the need for further development in Sheffield, this must not come at a cost to local wildlife, and must not impact nature’s recovery or people’s access to nature.
At Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, we are working towards a “30 by 30” goal, aiming for at least 30% of land and water to be in great condition for nature by 2030. This requires protecting and restoring existing habitats to ensure nature is in recovery.
Development on many of the proposed sites could be detrimental to this goal.
We have analysed each of the proposed sites and the evidence available, to determine the impact of the proposed development on nature. As a priority, we have considered the proximity of each site to Local Wildlife Sites – these are designated by Sheffield City Council to protect areas of special interest for biodiversity. These sites have been selected based on the significant habitats and species they contain and are deemed locally important as contributing both to local and national biodiversity, but are not legally protected. Further, we considered proximity to other priority habitats that we have identified (of varying conditions), impact on connectivity of habitats, and impact on people’s access to nature.
We intend to object to plans to develop on the proposed sites which contain or envelope Local Wildlife Sites or other high priority habitats in good condition for nature (Land between Creswick Avenue and Yew Ln – SCC site ref NES37; Holme Ln Farm and land to the West of Grenoside Grange, Fox Hill Rd – SCC site ref NES38; Handsworth Hall Farm, land at Finchwell Rd – SCC site ref SES29). We believe that development on or surrounding such sites would negatively impact wildlife by degrading, fragmenting, or destroying vital habitats.
Where proposed development sites partly border a Local Wildlife Site (Land at Forge Ln – SCC site ref NWS30; Land between Storth Ln and School Ln – SCC site ref NWS31; Land to the South of M1 motorway J.35 – SCC site ref NES36; Land at Wheel Ln and Middleton Ln – SCC site ref NES39; Land between Bramley Ln and Beaver Hill Rd – SCC site ref SES30; Land between Lodge Moor Rd and Redmires Conduit – SCC site ref SWS18; Land to the North of Parkers Ln – SCC site ref SWS19; Hesley Wood, North of Cowley Hill – SCC site ref CH04), we will consider whether the proposed buffers are enough to ensure development does not negatively impact the nearby habitats and wildlife, and campaign for adequate buffers to be put in place if necessary.
For the remaining sites, we will make recommendations for proper mitigations to be put in place in situ to prevent impact on nearby habitats and connectivity, and encourage nature-friendly and sustainable development, including increased access to nature and greenspace for people.
We are concerned that the current plan does not reflect the ‘brownfield first’ policy that the Council have previously committed to. Once these Green Belt sites are released, there is no provision to ensure that the allocated brownfield is developed prior to the Green Belt sites.
We will be submitting a response via the consultation, and will publish this in due course.
Following the Inspectors Hearing (September-November 2025), a significant amount of new information was released. As a result, Sheffield City Council launched a new 3-week consultation inviting comments on these specific documents.
Our response can be read here.
We will continue to be involved in this process.
If you have any questions, please contact the Advocacy team at takeaction@wildsheffield.com
In January 2023, Sheffield City Council published their long-awaited Draft Local Plan
In August 2023, Sheffield City Council released their response to a consultation. The papers went to the Strategy and Resources Committee who approved the suggested amendments, and it went to full Council on 6th September.
We submitted a large number of representations and are pleased to see that several of these have resulted in policy wording amendments and strengthened site conditions to protect and enhance ecological networks. We would have liked Sheffield City Council to go further – including using the most up to date nature recovery maps available to them and to be clearer and more ambitious about where more and improved green infrastructure should go.
However, we look forward to continuing to work with the Council and other partners on the South Yorkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy and how this integrates into the planning system.
We would like to thank all our members and other environmental groups across the city who also submitted comments which have improved the plan. Your engagement in this process will have a long-lasting influence.
What we have done previously:
On Thursday 19th January we hosted a ‘Wild Night In’ online Zoom event to explain what the Local Plan is, the key draft natural environment policies and site allocations and how you can most effectively respond to the consultation.
We also submitted a response to the consultation – you can see our top asks and our full response here. We also shared our headline messages in the event, which you can watch a recording of here:
The Draft Local Plan and supporting documents can be found here, along with details about a series of public drop-in events about the Local Plan being held across the city.
If you have any questions for us about Sheffield’s local plan, please email takeaction@wildsheffield.com