The Sheffield Local Plan: where we stand and what happens next

8^th February 2026

📌 Two weeks since the Planning Inspectorate’s letter, and the position is clear: the Plan is largely unchanged. All the proposed Green Belt sites remain in the plan.

What's deflating isn't just the outcome, but how little the Inspectors have engaged with detailed community evidence on flooding, ecology, heritage, pressure on local public services, loss of green space, and what these spaces really mean to us.

• 🧭 Quick recap - what’s happened so far:
  
  ✅ May-July 2025: Public consultation
  
  ✅ Autumn 2025: Stage 4 hearings, where independent Inspectors heard evidence (including from S13 residents)
  
  ✅ Nov-Dec 2025: Second consultation due to amount of late evidence produced by Sheffield City Council
  
  ✅ Late Jan 2026: Inspectors’ post-hearing letter published.

Before the Stage 4 hearings, the Planning Inspectorate said it wanted to ensure everyone gets a "fair crack of the whip" in the Examination process. Many residents feel that hasn't happened in practice, because the post-hearing letter gives little indication that detailed community evidence was tested or addressed.

Clive Betts MP has said this week in his January 2026 Constituency Newsletter that he’s "bitterly disappointed" and "surprised" by the letter, and highlighted the "total lack of reasoning or detail" in response to objections. He described the absence of a reply as "deeply unsettling" and said it "does not honour the process" this Local Plan should be going through.

Since the letter was published, the S13 campaign has been working to understand the next steps and to pull together a timeline of what’s coming and how residents can take part.

👇 What happens next:

• 🗓️ Early March
  
  Consultation opens on the Inspectors’ “Main Modifications”. This is for a period of six weeks. At the moment we know very little of what this entails, but we’ll share the details as soon as they’re published, including how you can take part.
• 🗳️ On 7th May (in twelve weeks)
  
  Local council elections. This is a chance to make the Local Plan a clear election issue: ask candidates where they stand and whether they will oppose the Plan at Full Council. We’d encourage you to support candidates who are willing to state that publicly.
• 🏛️ June/July
  
  Full Council vote on whether to adopt the Plan. This is now the key moment. Councillors need to understand clearly how residents feel about the loss of S13's Green Belt, and why.

A timeline is also on this website here.