Bawtry Road runs along the bottom of the image. Credit: planning documents

New dawn for Tinsley social club site

Working with Sten Architecture and Sheppard Planning, Barratt wants to build 160 homes on former playing fields off Bawtry Road in Sheffield.

Outline plans have been submitted to Sheffield City Council.

Signage at the site exists associating it with Rotherham United, dating back to a 2018 plan by club chairman Tony Stewart to make it the Millers’ training ground, but the club has since invested in its facilities at Roundwood.

Up until around 2009, there were pitches marked out at what was known as Tinsley Social Club, but the site has lain unused for some time – this is evidenced by a series of aerial photographs that show cricket, football and bowling facilities marked out until around 2015.

The site is located close to Meadowhall, and lies to the east of Junction 34 of the M1, a few miles to the east of Sheffield and west of Rotherham. It is around 14 acres and is surrounded on three sides by existing housing.

With access intended to come from Bawtry Road, Sten said there will be a focus on landscaping and green edges, and that “important natural features and trees are retained wherever possible”.

As outlined in the planning statement, Barratt has “supported the site’s proposed allocation in the emerging draft Plan and consider this site to be a sensible proposed allocation, which can deliver much needed housing, without affecting the open countryside.

“They also consider it to be an important part of the wider strategy to meet housing need through utilising spare urban capacity as much as feasibly possible, before looking to Green Belt releases.”

The housebuilding giant, the statement goes on to say, is “cognisant” of Sheffield’s ongoing issues with housing supply.

The proposed allocation in the Local Plan is for around 147 homes.

Although it is acknowledged that Sport England could raise an objection due to the loss of sports fields, it is pointed out that the site has not been accessible to the public for more than a a decade, and that the sporting body would not be a statutory consultee on this project anyway. Freeths has provided legal advice on the matter.

Barratt’s planning statement said; “It is neither feasible, nor likely, that this privately owned, abandoned site will revert to a sports use. Its protection for future potential sports uses would simply divert 160 houses from this site into the Green Belt- or leave the extant need unmet.”

All documentation relating to the application can be viewed on SCC’s planning portal with the reference 24/03448/OUT.

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