Hearing FAQs
4. Who are the Planning Consultants who are working with us on our community objection?
5. What has the GoFundMe money raised been spent on?
6. What other support would help us at the hearings?
7. Where Are We At With the Barrister?
8. What Difference Will Having a Barrister Make To Us?
9. How Did The Planners Decide What to Object On?
10. Is it just one day of the hearings that affects us?
11. What Happens After the Hearings?
12. What If The Plan Goes Ahead?
- 🌿 What are the hearings?
Local Plan Hearings are public meetings where an independent inspector checks the council’s plan for future homes, jobs, and services, and listens to community views.
These hearings will assess whether Sheffield City Council’s proposed changes to allow 3,500 houses on green belt land in the north and south-east of Sheffield are legally compliant and sound. - 🌿 When are they?
The high-level schedule is:
Week 1 Date Mon 29 Sept – Fri 3 Oct 2025 Venue Sheffield Town Hall Focus Site allocations (strategy, legal/procedural, housing, education, burial, viability) + Grenoside & Chapeltown/Ecclesfield site issues. Week 2 (Part 1) Date Mon 13 – Wed 15 Oct 2025 Venue The Showroom / Workstation Focus Site issues in Handsworth, Wharncliffe/Oughtibridge, Gleadless Townend, Dore, Lodge Moor. Week 2 (Part 2) Date Thurs 16 – Fri 17 Oct 2025 Venue Howden House Focus Stage 3 hearings – development management policies (design, climate, natural environment, housing, economy, retail, transport, monitoring). Week 3 (Provisional, Closing) Date Fri 21 Nov 2025 Venue Venue TBC Focus Supply updates (housing, affordable housing, employment land) + closing session. - 🌿 How can I watch them?
Click this link to see all the live stream links. - 🌿 Who are the Planning Consultants who are working with us on our community objection?
As previously stated in the brief on the planning consultants we sought 3 quotes from different Planning Consultants in the UK and engaged one to work on the S13 total objection for us. All of the quotes ranged from £3,500 - £7,500. None of the firms we approached were local to Sheffield as when we sought other professional advice we had it from multiple sources that Sheffield did not have the level of expertise that we needed to fight this.
We have engaged with the firm that was recommended by other planners and a government body. They reduced their rate for us from £150 to £100 per hour and we have committed to 50 hours to pull together the objection. The firm we are using is called James Bailey Planning Limited. James Bailey Planning Limited is a UK-based private planning consultancy founded in 2019. The firm specializes in providing tailored planning advice and project management services across a wide range of development types—from small household projects to large-scale residential and infrastructure schemes.
With over 20 years of experience in both public and private sectors, JBPL prides itself on combining local intelligence with strategic insight to deliver successful outcomes. Their approach is highly personalized, aiming to understand each client’s unique circumstances and provide cost-effective, honest guidance.
JBPL are based in East Anglia and both the owner/founder and the person constructing our objection have held senior positions in Council Planning departments which means that they are perfectly placed to approach our objection with an unbiased view purely looking at creating the strongest representation for our community (as they are not from here) plus they are well versed in council planning as they have done those roles previously. They have a wealth of experience in attending hearings and putting across their case and they work with the Government Inspectors on a regular basis so are very familiar with all of the things we need to do to set ourselves up in the best position possible with our community representation. - 🌿 What has the GoFundMe money raised been spent on?
To date the professional objection has been invoiced at £100 per hour for 50 hours work plus VAT which equates to £6,000 of the funds raised.
The £6,000 has been paid to JBPL who have worked with us on this. They have done a huge amount of work on our community wide objection and as well as reducing their normal fee of £150 per hour to £100 they have also spent countless hours of their own time working on the 40 page community objection that they have submitted on our behalf. The work that they have done would likely cost more like £40k plus so we have been very lucky that with their support (in spite of not being from the area or knowing any of us prior to this) we have put such a wide ranging and compelling objection for the funds that we have.
The funds will also be spent on having JBPL represent us at the Autumn hearings. We have now had the estimate of the cost for JBPL representing us which us £6,500 exc VAT. This cost covers preparation and the senior planners attendance at the 3x hearing days (29th, 30th September and 13th October 2025):
✧ Review of other representations and correspondence submitted in relation to the new allocation’s consultation.
✧ Review of other relevant submissions and Examination documentation, as well as refresher of our submissions.
✧ Liaison with the Program Officer (Ian Kemp) as necessary.
✧ Liaison with Counsel (the Barrister) as necessary, including organising and attending virtual conference(s) and issuing instructions relating to the legal matters identified.
✧ Attendance at the 3x hearing days, assumed to be all day including evening preparation.
✧ Ongoing client engagement and dialogue including meetings/calls prior to and during the hearings.
Continuing their overwhelming support of us the owner of JBPL is also attending free of charge on all 3 days to ensure we have the strongest representation. This would cost us an additional £3-4k but is FOC.
In addition to the professional fees there are fees associated with the GoFundMe portal which as of the end of August equated to £326.75 of the funds raised. - 🌿 What other support would help us at the hearings?
We have been in contact with 4 Planning Barristers in order to try to have the most robust representation at the Autumn 2025 hearings that we can.
Unfortunately, these Barristers are also very busy given that there are people up and down the country in the same position as we are in Sheffield. This means that some of the Barristers who have been recommended to us are not available on the dates of our hearing. Having a Barrister represent us will give significant weight to our community objections but we do already have our very experienced planning consultants representing us at the Autumn hearings so if we cannot get a Barrister we will still be in a lot better position than many other community groups. However, given that bodies such as Sport England, Major Building firms etc will also be engaging in these hearings (and they will definitely have a Barrister) a Barrister will add significant weight to our representation so we will continue to work hard to add one to the group of professionals representing us at the hearings. - 🌿 Where Are We At With the Barrister?
As with the planners, a member of the working group has volunteered to underwrite the Barrister which has enabled us to instruct a Barrister. The cost of the Barrister for all 3 days of the hearings including advice, conference(s), any drafting, the brief fee, and up to two refreshers (if required) and attendance at the hearings is £17.5k Exc VAT and travel. We will not give any further details on the Barrister at this point as if we make it public other parties would be able to research this person and potentially dilute the impact. - 🌿 What Difference Will Having a Barrister Make To Us?
Aside from the above the combination of having the Planners and a Barrister will mean that we will be unlikely to get further opportunities for representation at some of the hearing dates, particularly those that are hearing elements of the plan which applies to all of the Greenbelt sites.
To give some confidence these people are professionals who are all highly accredited and well regarded in their profession. They attend these hearings and work on these types of consultations all of the time so they have the knowledge and experience to represent our case in the best way possible. Having said that the representations from S13 will be available to them and if they feel that an individual representation from the community will add weight and value by having that person speak at one or more of the hearing days they will flag that so we can approach that person and utilise all of the knowledge and expertise, including local knowledge at our disposal in the hearings. - 🌿 How Did The Planners Decide What to Object On?
As has been the position all along by engaging professional Planning Consultants there has been no “decision” on what to object on as such. The Planning Consultants have reviewed all of the documentation relating to the SCC Local Plan and the Additional Allocations (which is the part that the 2 S13 sites are in) and constructed our objection based on what is not “Sound” or “Legal” according to planning law and the NPPF policy.
Essentially the 2 key areas which form the majority of the S13 Community objection are about objecting against the allocation of both SES29 (Handsworth Hall Farm/Finchwell) and SES30 (Bramley/Beaver) on the basis that the plan is not sound or legal. There are then references to site specific challenges such as the fact that SCC do not have access to the piece of land that would form the access route into SES29 and that SES30 is a major flood risk, has been drift mined etc. The entirety of the objection is evidence led and where there was evidence to show the SCC was in breach of planning legislation or that a certain factor would make either site unable to be brought forward for development, it was included.
The S13 task group asked repeatedly for evidence for both sites and people from all over S13 sent in all sorts of evidence and points which we sent to the planners to help formulate the objection. If you sent it on Facebook or to our email it went to the Planners.
Outside of the community wide objection we also supported the S13 community with their individual objections and found key individuals whose own objections may have a bearing on the process. All in all we as a community have done all that we can to object against the massive over development being suggested in S13 and we will continue to do that at the hearings in October 2025. - 🌿 Is it just one day of the hearings that affects us?
No, there are 3 to 4 days that potentially affect us. This is because whilst the 13th is specifically focused on SES29 and SES30, the first two hearing sessions on the 29th and 30th September 2025 are geared around procedure and the site selection process more generally. Given that our community objection is heavily focused on objecting to both S13 sites on the basis that the planning around selecting those sites was not sound or legal the first 2 hearing dates are crucial for us to attend and as such we have requested that we have spaces for our representatives on those dates. There is then the 13th October 2025 which is the S13 specific hearing session and then there may be a further date in November 2025 where we have a further opportunity to represent our overall case.
We have asked for James Bailey Planning to represent us on all three key dates and potentially the fourth. The Barrister is to be confirmed but as with the planners at the start of this process we may well provide no further update on this to ensure that we do not give SCC or the SCC Planners additional information about how we will represent ourselves in the hearings. - 🌿 What Happens After the Hearings?
Post the hearings the Government Inspectors will go away to consider all of the evidence and the feasibility of the plan. It is not the Inspectors job to make the SCC Local Plan better and if there are too many flaws in the plan they will fail it but they also may be able to work with SCC to develop the plan to get it to a better place.
At present the latest information shows that there will be no further update on the SCC Local Plan as a whole until February 2026 and if it is accepted the SCC Local Plan (in whatever form it ends up in by February 2026) will go back to Sheffield City Council to be voted on again. If it is voted for it will be adopted around July 2026. However, the hearings will not end now until around mid November then the Inspectors have to go away to consider everything, there is the Christmas / New Year break so the February 2026 decisions may be pushed out.
If the SCC Local Plan fails the SCC Planning Team will be tasked with going back to work on a new plan or it could be that the Government step in and they look at creating the Sheffield Local Plan. That will not be known until February 2026. - 🌿 What If The Plan Goes Ahead?
If our representation is not taken onboard and the sites continue on we can apply for a Judicial Review. We have to do this within 6 weeks of the February SCC Local Plan update.
The decision currently is to remove the SES29 and SES30 sites Greenbelt designation. If one or both sites remain in the plan post the hearings they will still have to follow the normal planning route so we can (and should) continue to object to any planning application for either site based on the objections we have already raised. - 🌿 What Else Can We Do?
On the 12th of August 2025 some of the members of the S13 task group met with the Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard and members of his team plus Clive Betts, MP. We are proposing that the areas of Greenbelt in S13 be considered for part of Mayor Coppards “Nature Recovery Plan”, particularly Bramley/Beaver as SCC own that land so they actually have control over what happens to it.
In addition to this we have also written to “Fields in Trust” to understand if we can try to work with other groups to protect both SES29 and SES30 in any way. This work is ongoing.