House building in Loxley (or not it seems)

[RazorSHarp 10]

The words SOUR and GRAPES comes to mind

 

You never driven up Loxley Road past stacey bank then sassy?

 

Or even Rodney Hill/Ben lane, what about hallowmoor road?

 

All of them are a disgrace and I live on Ben Lane

[sanman 10]

Sandpiper

 

You really need to get your facts right before posting such tripe. As others have already pointed out, Loxley School is very much in demand with most years being over-subscribed. It does not need another 300-500 houses building in valley to secure its future.

 

Orginally posted by Sandpiper

There is land at the side of the Chapel, some opposite the old paper shop, land off Hanson Road, all crying out to be tidied up, all available as small brownfield sites, all designated in the Sheffield Unitary Plan as building land.

 

None of the sites you mentioned above are designated as building land, in fact the land off Hanson Road has just been made Greenbelt.

 

The Loxley area as defined by SCC comprises of around 800 houses, therefore the scale of development currently being talked about at the Hepworths site is completely out of keeping with the current environment.

 

We recently conducted a village appraisal in Loxley and the overwhelming majority of respondents are opposed to any development on the site; we will therefore be opposing Bovis on this matter.

 

This is obviously a very emmotive issue and I have a great deal of sympathy for people who would like to live in the area but cannot find a property. However increasing the number of house by 40-60% is not a panacea. The risks are that the area ceases to be what attracts people in the first place and that the infrastructure just cannot cope with this level of increase.

[Greybeard 10]

The words SOUR and GRAPES comes to mind

 

The words BROKEN and SUSPENSION are nearer the mark. From Malin Bridge up to the Admiral Rodney the road is falling to bits. A winter of hard frosts and that road will be back to the cart track it used to be.

[firethorn 10]

Hmmm, I grew up in the Wisewood/Wadsley area and I am old enough to remember when none of the newer housing surrounding the Loxley and Wadsley Common area was there. Of course, it is always regrettable when chunks of beautiful greenbelt is used for building on - be it roads, housing, commercial property, etc, but in my opinion, we shouldn't be too hasty when saying "all greenbelt is sacrosanct and must never be built upon". If our ancestors had taken this view, we would still be living as we did in the middle-ages.

 

I don't think any reasonable person would seriously deny that the country needs new housing - and of course, all the peripheral amenities required when new housing is built - ie more shops, more frequent public transport, more school places, etc. The difficulty is - where do you build all this new housing? Ideally, you build on brownfield sites, you make use of derelict areas within inner cities and abandoned industrial sites. But does this mean that you should never, EVER build housing on greenbelt land? Should ordinary working people, who may not relish living in inner city areas, be denied the opportunity to rent or buy reasonable-cost homes in semi-rural "outskirts" of their cities?

 

In my opinion, for what it's worth, I think we need to find some sort of compromise, whereby a carefully controlled amount of building is allowed to take place in greenbelt areas, making sure that a minimal negative impact on the local area is achieved. The decision to build housing on the old Marshall's site is just such a reasonable compromise as I see it. The old Marshall's site was a bloody eyesore for years - a huge piece of "brownbelt" in the middle of a greenbelt. If you have to build homes in the Loxley area at all, the Marshall's site is an ideal place, as far as I am concerned, because what you are actually doing is building on brownbelt land - that just happens to be in a pretty greenbelt location. Can a small-ish, reasonably well-planned housing development really be any less attractive to the Loxley area, than a grim, abandoned, industrial wasteland?

[sanman 10]

Originally posted by Firethorn

Can a small-ish, reasonably well-planned housing development really be any less attractive to the Loxley area, than a grim, abandoned, industrial wasteland?

 

I have a lot of sympathy with your views however I think we need to clarify a couple of points. Under planning law the old Marshalls site is not brownfield, its an area of non-conforming land within the greenbelt. People talk as though the greenbelt has been in place for years and years. Indeed greenbelts first made their appearance in England in the 1950s, however it wasn't until 1983 that the greenbelt around Sheffield came into force.

 

How do you define small-ish, something half the size of the current community?

 

You make much about affordable housing and this is a major problem in all rural areas, however I think you'd find the the sort of houses that would be built on the Hepworths site would struggle to fall into this category.

 

You are right the country does need new housing, however I don't believe that Sheffield has a desperate need for new housing; most of this countries demand is in the South East and building houses in Loxley isn't going to help

[DancingDave 10]

The real problem, apart from all of the above, such as the roads being totally inadequate. Is there is no SEWER connected to the site, and there is no way to put one in, witout digging up over 3 miles of open countryside, alongside the river Loxley, and Bovis won't pay for it. They have suggested building a huge cess pool, at the side of the site ... MMM nice ... and pumping the cr*p up to the main sewer on Loxley road at night time. Which is ridiculous and impossible. This is the main reason why the development won't go ahead. Plus where there was previously a large scale factory making Firebricks, the land is contaminated with all kinds of waste, such as chrome, and will need to be cleaned up first, again Bovis won't pay. They are proposing a scheme where they can throw up a load of houses at a cost of around 30 K each and flog them on for 250 - 300K each. But they aren't prepared to do it properly.

[sandpiper 10]

Sandpiper

 

You really need to get your facts right before posting such tripe.

 

We recently conducted a village appraisal in Loxley

 

1 - Tripe is it, or did I touch a raw nerve ? ouch!

 

2 - Village appraisal, but what was the return address ?, was it to an independant body ? no it was to your address, mmmmmmm

[tulip 10]

Even the old Marshall's site was more attractive than that LEGO atrocity that now stands there, enough land has been ruined by the spread of the human kanker. Where is it going to end and what is up with people who don't understand that "green belt, greenfield, brownfield and butterflies" are far more important than a bunch of ugly houses for a population that is growing like a plague of locusts?

Move to Idaho - lots of wide open spaces, unfortunately we get real plagues of crickets and grasshoppers that devastate any plant life!

[tulip 10]

Hmmm, I grew up in the Wisewood/Wadsley area and I am old enough to remember when none of the newer housing surrounding the Loxley and Wadsley Common area was there. Of course, it is always regrettable when chunks of beautiful greenbelt is used for building on - be it roads, housing, commercial property, etc, but in my opinion, we shouldn't be too hasty when saying "all greenbelt is sacrosanct and must never be built upon". If our ancestors had taken this view, we would still be living as we did in the middle-ages.

 

I don't think any reasonable person would seriously deny that the country needs new housing - and of course, all the peripheral amenities required when new housing is built - ie more shops, more frequent public transport, more school places, etc. The difficulty is - where do you build all this new housing? Ideally, you build on brownfield sites, you make use of derelict areas within inner cities and abandoned industrial sites. But does this mean that you should never, EVER build housing on greenbelt land? Should ordinary working people, who may not relish living in inner city areas, be denied the opportunity to rent or buy reasonable-cost homes in semi-rural "outskirts" of their cities?

 

In my opinion, for what it's worth, I think we need to find some sort of compromise, whereby a carefully controlled amount of building is allowed to take place in greenbelt areas, making sure that a minimal negative impact on the local area is achieved. The decision to build housing on the old Marshall's site is just such a reasonable compromise as I see it. The old Marshall's site was a bloody eyesore for years - a huge piece of "brownbelt" in the middle of a greenbelt. If you have to build homes in the Loxley area at all, the Marshall's site is an ideal place, as far as I am concerned, because what you are actually doing is building on brownbelt land - that just happens to be in a pretty greenbelt location. Can a small-ish, reasonably well-planned housing development really be any less attractive to the Loxley area, than a grim, abandoned, industrial wasteland?

Humph, people should live in holes in the middle of road or septic tanks covered with sheets of tarpaulin in the middle of lakes instead of destroying the green belt area!

[gizzy 10]

I used to live at Wisewood when I was a bit younger and It was the most picturesque place that exists in Sheffield I think.

 

If people start building more new houses in Loxley then in 20 years time there will be no country left or nice views. The good thing about living so close to the country is that people can walk to Bradfield and get the healthy fresh air and people who havent got cars who live in the near vicinity havent got far to go.

 

The other problem is polloution. The more house that are built the more the landscape and lovely area which are left in sheffield will have gone soon.

 

When I go into town there are no old buildings left as they have been knocked down and made way for these new trendy flats which cost a fortune. It really maddens me. If people have children they will not be much of Loxley left if we carry on letting these money grabbing ****s get their own way.

 

I believe nature is important and so are wild animals like butterflies and birds etc. The very sad thing about it is, if man carries on knocking down and building these new fangled houses and flats, then as I said in 20 years time there will be nothing left which we can look at and appreciate the view. future generations of children will not know what a green field looks like or a butterfly.

 

People we all need to think we are turning this world upside down with all our efforts at trying to make life more convienient and more easy going. It needs to stop as its so sad. I remember Wisewood/Loxley been a lovely valley where you could see for miles, the carbrook dam and the nice walks which was a good way to get away from the toil of life and its not too far from where you live. It was also nice having a green field and valleys as a view from your window.

[Tony 10]

Gizzy, people had that same viewpoint 20 years ago, and 20 years before that, and 20...

 

Nothing changes, except that there are more people and fewer places to put them. There has always been a need for new buildings and old buildings have always been demolished when they get past their useful lifespan. No building is designed to last forever.

[RazorSHarp 10]

Gizzy, people had that same viewpoint 20 years ago, and 20 years before that, and 20...

 

Nothing changes, except that there are more people and fewer places to put them. There has always been a need for new buildings and old buildings have always been demolished when they get past their useful lifespan. No building is designed to last forever.

 

It's not so much the destroying of grreen belt land (as the site already has a run down factory on it) it is the fact that the roads cannot accept 500 new homes, it takes me 20 minutes to get out of malin bridge now, and look at what has happened down hillsborough while bradfield road is shut, it's at gridlock most of the day.

 

People can find affordable housing all over Sheffield at the moment and there are plenty for sale in Loxley and Wisewood aswell, it is down to large corporates making money, NOT helping the community, as they write in their bulletins