Protecting S13's Green Belt together

Save S13 Green Belt welcomes everyone across Sheffield to help protect Handsworth Hall Farm and Bramley Common from the large-scale development proposed in the Sheffield Plan.

We want homes that people can afford, in places that can support them. We are asking for these two Green Belt allocations to be reconsidered, and for Sheffield's housing plans to be based on realistic evidence, suitable alternatives and the needs of existing and future residents.

Join the mailing list · Explore the two sites · Contact us

Open fields and hedgerows at Bramley Common, with hawthorn berries in the foreground, looking south from Grange Lane. — Bramley Common, looking south from Grange Lane.
Photo: Steph Oliver-Beech, October 2025.

Two sites. Connected communities.

The proposals put 1,697 homes on two Green Belt sites in Handsworth, with employment land at Handsworth Hall Farm and land set aside for a school and burial ground at Bramley Common. The map shows where they sit in relation to our neighbourhoods and the neighbouring Waverley development.

Location map showing Handsworth Hall Farm, SES29, north of Handsworth, Bramley Common, SES30, to the south, and Waverley to the north-east. A circle marks the two-kilometre study area around SES30. — From our July 2026 local-area briefing (PDF). Select the map to enlarge it. Site outlines show locations; see the September 2026 Policies Map changes for the corrected SES29 boundary.
Background map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Handsworth Hall Farm (SES29)

Farmland between Handsworth and Waverley, off Finchwell Road and Orgreave Lane. The proposed allocation includes 870 homes and 20 hectares of employment land.

Read the Handsworth Hall Farm briefing (PDF)
Bramley Common (SES30)

The fields between Bramley Lane and Beaver Hill Road. The proposal is for 827 homes, with up to five hectares set aside for a secondary school and four for a burial ground.

Read the Bramley Common briefing (PDF)

These are proposed Local Plan allocations. Allocation does not itself grant planning permission. Figures are from the Main Modifications; the Council's July 2026 housing update (EXAM 187A, PDF) confirms the corrected SES30 figure of 827.

What we stand to lose

132.5 hectares: 73.5% of the Green Belt within the locally drawn area on our map is proposed for removal. See the map, figures and what this means for our wider campaign.

Countryside on our doorstep. These fields help keep our neighbourhoods distinct. Handsworth Hall Farm lies in the remaining gap towards Rotherham; Bramley Common forms part of the open landscape between Handsworth and Woodhouse. Public and permissive paths give people a connection to this landscape.
Habitats that connect. Hedgerows, veteran trees, watercourses and adjoining wildlife sites form a network across these places. Our site-capacities representation, Appendix F, draws on the Council's ecological evidence to identify 3.38 km of hedgerows and nine recorded veteran trees at Bramley Common.
Productive land and local history. The Council's updated predictive farmland assessment places both sites in its higher-quality category. It still supports their allocation; we believe the value of this land deserves greater weight. Read the Council's assessment, EXAM 219 (PDF).

Photograph of the hedgerow beside Handsworth Beck before clearance, annotated with tentative identifications of several tree and shrub species. — The hedgerow beside Handsworth Beck before the September 2026 clearance. Image reproduced in the Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust response; species labels are tentative.

Can the claimed homes actually fit?

Housing numbers are part of the case for releasing Green Belt. They need to reflect the land that can actually be developed.

On 5 May 2026, the Sheffield Green Belt Alliance submitted a detailed examination representation testing all 11 additional Green Belt housing allocations. It compared the Council's capacity assumptions with the space needed for drainage, wildlife buffers, access, mining safety and other site constraints.

For Handsworth, the Alliance's assessment gave the following ranges:

Homes: Plan figures and the Alliance's May 2026 assessment
Site	Plan	Alliance assessment
SES29	870	550–600
SES30	827	480–560

Across all 11 sites, the representation estimated 1,234–1,521 fewer homes than the 3,906 claimed. It argues that this calls into question the housing supply used to justify releasing the land.

These are the Alliance's estimates, submitted to test the Plan. They are not findings by the Inspectors or proposals for smaller developments. Our position remains that these Green Belt sites should be protected.

Read the site-capacities representation (PDF, 40 pages)
Handsworth Hall Farm: pages 15–16 · Bramley Common: pages 17–19

This assessment records the evidence and arguments submitted in May 2026. Later examination documents are covered in our Further Main Modifications update.

The impact on our communities must add up too

The two S13 sites account for about 43% of the 3,906 homes proposed on the 11 additional Green Belt housing sites. Our concern is how this concentration of development would affect roads, health services, schools and access to green space, alongside growth at Waverley.

We are asking for the combined effects to be assessed and for necessary infrastructure to have clear funding and delivery commitments. Existing monitoring, forecasts and residents' observations each have a part to play; they need to be considered together.

Read our local-area evidence (PDF) · Explore the air-quality monitoring

What we are asking for

Protect these sites. Remove the Handsworth Hall Farm and Bramley Common allocations from the Plan and retain their Green Belt protection.
Make the best use of suitable urban land. Properly assess brownfield opportunities and well-designed development in sustainable locations, including whether suitable sites can accommodate more homes. Our brownfield initiative invites people to help identify alternatives for assessment.
Plan for the people who will live here. Deliver affordable homes alongside the transport, schools, healthcare and green space that existing and future residents need.

A campaign built by our community

Save S13 Green Belt brings residents together to gather evidence, support people taking part in consultations and make the case for our area. We work with communities across Sheffield through the Sheffield Green Belt Alliance.

We continue the campaign in memory of Sapphire McCarthy, who brought neighbours together and inspired this work. Our full campaign name is Save S13 Green Belt – The Sapphire McCarthy Campaign.

Residents with Save S13 Green Belt placards queue outside Handsworth Social Club for the public meeting. — Residents arriving at Handsworth Social Club, 13 June 2025.
From the campaign's meeting photographs.

Putting the evidence in front of decision-makers

May–July 2025: Campaign members and our planning consultants, James Bailey Planning Ltd, submitted representations to the original additional-site allocations consultation, which ran from 26 May to 11 July. Read a selection of the submissions.
Autumn 2025: Campaign members attended the Stage 3 examination hearings on multiple days. We also kept residents informed through our newsletter. Read our hearing report and further campaign updates.
May 2026: Examination representations on site capacities, brownfield land, infrastructure and other concerns, including professional planning advice.
August 2026: A visit to both Handsworth sites with Council leaders, supported by briefings on the land and the local evidence.
September 2026: The Alliance met Council leaders to discuss outstanding questions and next steps. Read the jointly agreed meeting notes.

Protecting S13's Green Belt together

Two sites. Connected communities.

Handsworth Hall Farm (SES29)

Bramley Common (SES30)