Green Belt · Sheffield
If your home, farm or land lies in the Green Belt around Sheffield, building there is closely controlled, and it is natural to wonder what is possible. National policy does allow some kinds of development, such as replacement homes, certain rural buildings and limited infill. The first step is finding out whether your plans could fit one of them.
In most cases we can let you know at an early stage whether your site has a Green Belt case worth making. If it does, we will help you make the case carefully, with the evidence it needs.
Managing Director – Chartered Town Planner
Where we can help
If your site is in the Green Belt, these are the routes most likely to be open to you. We will help you work out early which of them, if any, fits your plans.
If your house no longer suits the way you live, replacing it is a route national policy recognises in the Green Belt. We will work with you on a design that gives you the home you need within the limits that route sets.
Buildings for agriculture and forestry are among the exceptions national policy allows, and some rural and leisure uses can be supported where they are carefully justified. We will help you make the case for a building that suits the work you need it for.
If your plot is a small gap in an otherwise built-up frontage, a new home may be possible where policy allows infill. We will look at the plot and its neighbours with you and tell you whether the case is there.
Where a scheme does not fit an exception, it can still be approved if the harm it causes is clearly outweighed by other considerations. It is a demanding test, and we will only recommend it where your evidence can carry it.
Local context
If you are thinking about a project on Green Belt land, it helps to start with what the designation is for. Green Belt exists to keep land open, so that the city does not sprawl and neighbouring towns do not merge. The Council’s decisions come back to that purpose, rather than to how attractive a particular field looks.
The Green Belt projects we take on tend to be of a few kinds. You might be replacing an existing home, planning a new building for a farm or rural business, or looking at a small gap in an otherwise built-up frontage. Occasionally a scheme needs a case for ‘very special circumstances’, where the harm to the Green Belt, and any other harm, has to be clearly outweighed by other considerations.
We start with the planning position rather than the drawings, because the policy route decides what the design has to achieve. Once that is clear, we work with you on the size, siting and appearance of the building, and our planners and architects shape it together.
Not every Green Belt site has a case, and if we do not think yours does, we will say so early, before you have spent money on it. Where there is one, we will help you build it on evidence, from the size of what is there already to the need your proposal meets.
National policy treats most new building in the Green Belt as 'inappropriate', meaning it is harmful by definition and should only be approved in very special circumstances. The exceptions that policy lists are the usual way through, and we can usually see early on whether your plans could fit one.
The Council will judge your scheme on its effect on the openness of the Green Belt, and not only on its appearance. We help you find a size, height and position for the building that keeps that effect as limited as possible.
Policy limits how much larger a replacement home can be than the house it replaces, and infill generally means a small gap in an otherwise built-up frontage. We establish the starting point with you, such as the size of your existing house, and design within it.
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Common questions
National policy allows several kinds of development in the Green Belt, including replacement homes, buildings for agriculture and forestry, and limited infill. Where a scheme falls outside those exceptions, there is a further route through very special circumstances. What is realistic depends on your site and your plans, and we are happy to give you a first view.
It is the test for development that would otherwise be refused in the Green Belt. The harm to the Green Belt, and any other harm, has to be clearly outweighed by other considerations, and the case needs real evidence behind it. We will give you our view of whether your circumstances are likely to meet it.
A replacement home in the Green Belt should not be materially larger than the house it replaces, and how much larger is acceptable is a matter of judgement. With the size and position right, a replacement can be one of the more achievable Green Belt projects. Once we have seen your house and plot, we can give you a realistic sense of where the line sits.
They are separate designations, with different policies and different decision makers. Sheffield City Council decides applications on Green Belt land within the city, while applications inside the park, further west, are decided by the Peak District National Park Authority. Your address is enough for us to tell you which one applies.
Green Belt protects the openness of land rather than its scenery, so an untidy field is protected in the same way as an attractive one. What matters is how your proposal would affect that openness, and careful siting and design can help you with that.
A refusal does not have to be the final word on your site. Depending on the reasons given, a revised scheme or an appeal may be the right next step, and we will go through the decision with you and explain your options. There are strict time limits for an appeal, counted from the date of the decision, so the sooner we see it, the more choice you keep.
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Find us
Planning & Design Practice — Sheffield
The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX
Sheffield and South Yorkshire
Green Belt advice
Is there a house, a field or a farm building you would like to do more with? With the address and a little about your plans, we can give you our view on whether there is a Green Belt case worth making, at no charge for that first conversation.
