Handsworth Hall Farm / Orgreave Park - How to Comment
Sheffield City Council has received EIA Scoping Opinion request 26/02374/EIA for Handsworth Hall Farm / Orgreave Park.
The scheme being considered could include up to 900 homes and up to 20 hectares of employment land.
This is not a planning application. It is an early technical stage where the Council considers what environmental information should be included in any future Environmental Statement.
If you would like to comment, this is an opportunity to ask the Council to make sure the environmental assessment covers the issues that may matter locally.
Is It Worth Commenting?
This is not the same as the consultations or planning applications you may have responded to before.
A scoping request is not subject to statutory public consultation. There is no legal requirement for the Council to invite comments, and no legal requirement for it to take account of any comments it receives. It is a technical decision by planning officers about what a future Environmental Statement must cover.
That means numbers do not help here. What helps is a small number of responses that identify something specific the Council would find difficult to overlook - a gap in the evidence, an out-of-date survey, an effect left out of the proposed scope.
If you only have time for one response, please save it. The main modifications consultation on the Local Plan, and the consultation on any planning application for this site, are both formal stages where every comment must be considered. Those are the stages where weight of numbers counts.
If you do want to comment now, please make it specific. The sections below set out where we think the proposed scope falls short.
On this page
- What should I write?
- The evidence behind the scoping request
- Other development around Handsworth
- Agricultural land and Grade 3a
- Traffic and local roads
- Wildlife, woodland and streams
- Construction, water and drainage
- Keep it simple
- How to comment
Choose one or two of the issues that matter most to you. You do not need to cover them all.
What Should I Write?
You could start with:
"I am commenting on EIA Scoping Opinion request 26/02374/EIA. I would ask Sheffield City Council to ensure that the future Environmental Statement considers the potentially significant environmental effects of the development, including relevant combined effects with other development around Handsworth, S13 and Waverley."
The opening is the technical bit - it is fine for everyone to use the same wording there. Everything after it should be in your own words.
Then choose one or two issues that particularly matter to you.
1. The Evidence Behind the Scoping Request
Most comments on a scoping request argue about what should be assessed. There is a prior question: is the description of the site itself accurate and current?
A scoping opinion decides what needs assessing on the basis of what the applicant says is already there. If that description is wrong or out of date, everything that follows inherits the error.
The only ecological assessment for this site in the public domain is the landowner's 2023 baseline biodiversity net gain assessment. On its own terms:
- It is dated 11 December 2023, and states that its findings remain valid for 18 months in accordance with CIEEM guidance, after which advice should be sought on updating work. That period expired in mid-2025.
- It uses Biodiversity Metric 4.0, which has since been superseded by the statutory biodiversity metric.
- It is informed by a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal carried out in May 2021, with an updating site visit in November 2023. That appraisal has not been published alongside it.
- It states that it was prepared for the sole use of The Norfolk Estate and may not be relied upon by any other party without written permission, and that resurvey is recommended to any third party seeking to rely on it.
The report also identifies gaps in its own coverage:
- The watercourse is recorded as requiring a full MoRPH survey, which had not been carried out.
- Individual trees were assessed as a group rather than individually. There is no published arboricultural survey of the site.
- Several habitats are recorded with condition assessment not applicable.
The Scoping Report refers to further ecological work said to have been carried out during 2025/26, including a preliminary ecological appraisal and a biodiversity net gain assessment. None of this has been published, so the baseline it describes cannot be checked by anyone outside the applicant's team.
"Please require the applicant to publish the ecological survey work relied on in the scoping request, including the preliminary ecological appraisal and any 2025/26 survey work, so that the baseline can be independently checked. The only ecological assessment currently in the public domain is dated December 2023, states an 18-month validity period which has expired, uses a superseded biodiversity metric, and is based on field survey carried out in 2021."
CHECK BEFORE PUBLISHING The 2023 assessment records zero irreplaceable habitat units across habitats, hedgerows and watercourses. If any part of the woodland on this site appears on Natural England's Ancient Woodland Inventory, that baseline is wrong on its face. Verify on the Defra MAGIC map and against Sheffield's local inventory before this claim is made publicly, and cite the reference if it holds.
CHECK The 2023 assessment covers a red line boundary of 62.73 hectares. The SES29 allocation is around 57 hectares. If the areas differ materially, this is relevant to the boundary and housing numbers now being promoted.
The report is also useful on what the site contains. It records 1.03 hectares of lowland mixed deciduous woodland and ponds identified as priority habitat, both of high distinctiveness and both requiring like-for-like replacement if lost, together with 507 metres of watercourse. It notes that several habitats fall within a Local Wildlife Site. And it concludes that development of the site is likely to require offsetting losses elsewhere, because the loss of that area of open farmland could not be compensated on site while still delivering a net gain.
2. Other Development Around Handsworth
This proposal would sit within an area where other development is also continuing or planned.
The Sheffield Local Plan changes increase planned housing supply in Southeast Sheffield from about 1,640 to 3,013 homes - around 84% more. SES29 and nearby SES30 are proposed for 1,697 homes between them. Waverley, immediately across the Sheffield/Rotherham boundary, is also still being built out.
The Scoping Report already proposes to consider a number of other developments. Residents may simply wish to ask whether the assessment gives a realistic picture of development expected around the wider area.
"Please consider the relevant combined effects of this development with SES30, the continuing development at Waverley and other nearby planned or committed development, where these could affect the same roads, communities, landscape or wildlife."
3. Agricultural Land and Grade 3a
The Scoping Report proposes to leave agricultural land out of the detailed EIA. It notes that the land is broadly Grade 3 and suggests historic mining means a significant proportion is unlikely to be higher-quality "Best and Most Versatile" (BMV) farmland.
However, newer Defra predictive mapping shows most of SES29 as predicted Grade 3a, which falls within the BMV category. The predictive map is not a detailed field survey, so it does not settle the question. It does, however, give a reasonable basis for asking whether more detailed evidence is needed.
"Please consider whether a site-specific Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) survey is needed before agricultural land is excluded from the EIA, so that the amount of any Grade 3a land and the potential loss of agricultural soil are properly understood."
4. Traffic and Local Roads
The developer's initial assessment estimates the development could generate up to 6,258 two-way vehicle movements a day, including up to 335 HGV movements.
Nearby SES30 and continuing development at Waverley will also place traffic on some of the same roads. Separate Local Plan work has already identified the Retford Road / Beaver Hill Road junction as requiring mitigation, with modelling showing queues remaining even after improvements.
Traffic is already proposed to be included in the EIA, so the question for residents is mainly whether the assessment covers the right area and the right future assumptions.
"Please ensure the transport assessment considers relevant traffic from SES30, Waverley and other nearby development, as well as HGVs, construction traffic, school peaks, pedestrians and cyclists."
The Scoping Report also discusses the possibility of a future Waverley railway station reducing car travel. As the station is not currently committed, residents may wish to ask that the assessment also considers circumstances in which it has not been delivered.
5. Wildlife, Woodland and Streams
The landowner's 2023 baseline biodiversity net gain assessment recorded lowland deciduous woodland, a pond and a stream, together with hedgerows, trees and scrub. The current Scoping Report also identifies a Local Wildlife Site within the site and another immediately alongside it.
Ecology is proposed to be assessed. However, some related matters, including lighting and certain air-quality effects on wildlife, are treated separately or more narrowly in the proposed scope.
Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust has previously raised issues including artificial light, traffic pollution, noise and the way development can affect connections between habitats.
"Please ensure the ecological assessment considers not only direct habitat loss, but also relevant effects from lighting, traffic pollution, noise, increased activity and changes to the connections between woodland, the stream, pond and other wildlife habitats."
If you regularly use this area and have seen particular wildlife, it is useful to mention what you have personally observed.
There is also a question about how current the ecological evidence is, covered in section 1 above.
6. Construction, Water and Drainage
Across a large site like this, the development could take place in phases. The Scoping Report proposes that construction noise and vibration do not need a separate detailed EIA assessment because these effects can normally be managed through construction controls.
The site also contains a stream and pond, and the EIA will consider drainage and the water environment.
Residents may wish to ask the Council to make sure the proposed scope is sufficient to consider the interaction between construction, nearby homes, surface water and wildlife.
"Please ensure the assessment takes account of the likely duration and phasing of construction, together with construction traffic, noise and dust where relevant, and fully considers runoff, the stream and pond, surface-water drainage and sewer capacity."
If you have personally experienced flooding, standing water or drainage problems locally, describe what you have seen and where.
Keep It Simple
You do not need to cover every issue, and you do not need to write a technical response.
One or two points in your own words are more use than a long letter. If you have local knowledge - for example about traffic, wildlife, drainage, footpaths or particular locations - include it where relevant. First-hand observation is the one thing a consultant's report cannot easily contradict.
The purpose at this stage is simply to help the Council decide what needs to be properly assessed if a planning application comes forward.
How to Comment
Quote the reference 26/02374/EIA and say that your comment concerns the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
Comment here:
Sheffield City Council Planning Applications Online
Search for 26/02374/EIA, then use the "Comments" tab. You will need to register on Public Access before you can comment.
Deadline:
DEADLINE TO CONFIRM
The Council normally has five weeks from receiving a scoping request to issue its opinion, unless a longer period is agreed with the developer. We are currently confirming with Sheffield City Council how long public comments will be accepted.
Before you send, check that you have:
A short, specific response is worth more here than a long one - and worth more than a large number of general ones.
We will update this page when the Council confirms the relevant dates and submission arrangements. Watch for website updates, or subscribe to the email list to be kept up to date.