Campaigners call for rethink on plans for 350 homes on former brickworks

COUNTRYSIDE CAMPAIGNERS are urging property developers to reconsider plans to build up to 350 homes on a derelict site on a Yorkshire city’s Green Belt land.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has warned that building the new properties on the Hepworth’s ‘brickworks’ site in the Loxley Valley near Sheffield would create an isolated village and an unsustainable enclave, forcing people to rely on cars for transport.

Developers from Patrick Properties have announced plans to build a sustainable new community on the long-abandoned factory site along the River Loxley, less than half-a-mile from Sheffield’s border with the Peak District National Park.

They have claimed that it is the only way of funding a clean-up of derelict refractory works that were abandoned by Hepworths in the early 1990s.

However, the CPRE is calling for the plans to be scaled back so they are more in keeping with the landscape and residents would be less dependent on car journeys.

“Patrick Properties asked for residents’ views, now we encourage them to listen to them and to heed their concerns,” said Andy Tickle, the head of campaigns at CPRE South Yorkshire.

“This large new housing estate would fundamentally change the character of the Loxley Valley for the worse.

“While the proposals could improve some aspects of the site itself, the wider impacts on local communities and the National Park have been either under-estimated or ignored.”

Dr Tickle welcomed some features in the draft scheme, including extensive tree planting and enhanced rights of way alongside the River Loxley.

But he warned of the over-reliance on cars and the impact on carbon emissions.