Hollywood star accuses Sheffield City Council of ‘wanton hypocrisy’ as residents warn that plans to build 3,500 homes on 800 acres of greenbelt will devastate wildlife habitats, ancient woodland, and the green spaces communities rely on for wellbeing

Sheffield has long been known as one of England’s greenest cities. But a battle is now raging over plans that campaigners say will destroy wildlife habitats, threaten ancient woodland, and strip communities of the green spaces that sustain both people and animals.

Sheffield City Council’s local plan proposes building 3,529 homes across 14 greenbelt sites, consuming around 800 acres of land. For the wildlife that calls these spaces home – and the communities that share them – the stakes could not be higher.

Now, Hollywood actor and Sheffield native Sean Bean has thrown his weight behind the campaign to stop it. Bean, who grew up in the S13 postcode area and credits the greenbelt with helping shape his career, donated £5,000 to the campaign’s fighting fund.

“This should have been a moment of reflection. Instead it feels like history repeating itself and we have to remember when areas of the greenbelt have gone – you cannot replant them – they are gone forever,” he said.

A tale of two campaigns

The timing of Bean’s intervention is pointed. Just last week, Sheffield City Council unveiled a commemorative plaque at the Town Hall celebrating the residents who fought to save thousands of street trees from wrongful felling between 2012 and 2018. The council was found to have ‘behaved dishonestly’ during that programme, in which more than 5,000 trees were axed – with plans to fell 12,000 in total. Campaigners faced threats of legal action and even the possibility of prison sentences.

The 2023 Lowcock Report, commissioned as an independent inquiry, was damning. Elected members and council staff were accused of ‘failed leadership’ and ‘abuse of power’ in how they had misled the public and the courts while plotting to destroy healthy trees alongside diseased ones.

At the plaque unveiling, Council Chief Executive Kate Josephs – who previously made headlines for her involvement in Boris Johnson’s lockdown gathering in 2020 – struck a conciliatory tone.

“This is a moment to pause to reflect and to acknowledge a really difficult chapter in the city’s recent history. One that caused real hurt division and the loss of trust for many people for too many people,” she said.

She added: “It also serves as a reminder of how important it is that public institutions work hard to listen carefully to the communities they serve.”

Council leader Tom Hunt echoed the sentiment: “I will never take the trust of the people of this city for granted. We have worked hard to change how we communicate, to be more open, more honest, and today is an important step forward in continuing to learn the lessons of the Lowcock Report.”

But for the thousands of residents now fighting the greenbelt plan, those words ring hollow.

Wildlife at risk

This is where the story becomes especially relevant for anyone who cares about animals and the natural world. The greenbelt sites earmarked for development are not empty land. They contain mature trees, hedgerows, and wildlife corridors that are home to a wide range of species. Campaigners say the sites contribute to biodiversity, carbon storage, air quality, landscape character, and flood mitigation.

Large areas of greenbelt farmland will be lost under the protested plans, ancient woodland habitats are threatened, and many species of wildlife will be at risk.

Ironically, the council – in the wake of the street trees scandal – now describes Sheffield’s trees as part of the city’s ‘character and heritage.’ Yet campaigners argue the greenbelt sites proposed for development contain precisely the kind of mature trees, hedgerows, and ecological corridors that such rhetoric is supposed to protect.

A community fighting to be heard

Residents across Sheffield have now formed the Sheffield Greenbelt Alliance, a pressure group uniting the city’s various action groups in an effort to get the council to withdraw the plan and seek alternative sites.

Their grievances go beyond environmental concerns. Campaigners say the council’s site selection was based on undocumented political discussions, with no opportunity for public engagement before the plans were announced via a report in the local newspaper in April last year – not through any formal notification.

Public consultation was limited. Meetings were hastily arranged in affected neighbourhoods only after demands from residents, who say their concerns were dismissed. At a full council meeting in May last year, residents were told by council leader Tom Hunt they could ask questions and present their case – only to be told on the day that their questions would not be answered. They still remain unanswered.

Significant documentation was published during the examination process with Government inspectors rather than during original consultation stages, leaving residents scrambling to read lengthy technical documents with little time to respond to substantial changes.

A spokesperson for the Sheffield Greenbelt Alliance said: “The speech by the council chief executive effectively sets out three principles emerging from the Street Trees experience – one that the council recognises that failing to properly listen to residents led to a loss of trust, two that residents who raised concerns are now acknowledged as having helped the city learn important lessons and thirdly trees are a valued part of Sheffield’s identity and these are presented as lessons they have learned for the future.

“The council might apologise for their failures around the tree-felling but they do not seem to learn.”

An unfair plan

The proposals raise sensitive questions of social justice. Most of the planned housing is set to be built in already disadvantaged areas, which have a large proportion of existing low-cost housing, with little development planned for the city’s more affluent neighbourhoods.

In the S13 postcode area alone, the council plans to remove 90% of its greenbelt, with almost half the city’s entire greenbelt housing allocation concentrated in this already deprived community. Residents say these sites are a haven for wildlife and nature, are well used by locals for their physical and mental wellbeing, and that losing them would force people to drive elsewhere to access green space.

Campaigners stress they understand new housing is needed but are calling for a fairer allocation across the city and for alternative sites to be explored. They are conducting their own audit of brownfield locations that could serve as viable alternatives.

Hunt himself has gone on record stating the allocation is ‘unfair,’ yet has failed to act on the matter.

Political support – and political contradictions

Labour MP Clive Betts, Sheffield South East, has joined the campaign in opposition to the plan. In a letter to constituents this month, he wrote: “I will be honest with you. I am incredibly skeptical that this is a meaningful consultation given the way the council and the inspectorate have refused to take account of alternative views so far.

“I want to reassure you that I remain opposed to this Local Plan. It does not serve the area or any residents and only adds to the inequality between the East and the West of the city. The council must reject this local plan and I will be campaigning to this end over the coming months. There is still time to prevent this injustice.”

Meanwhile, the city’s Green Party has drawn criticism for celebrating the street trees campaign while voting in favour of the greenbelt housing plan – despite the national party’s declared position that ‘building homes must protect green spaces,’ adding ‘we all need nature in our backyard.’

Lessons unlearned

Last month, Government planning inspectors found the proposals acceptable except for minor changes. Consultation has been announced around modifications, but the plan is essentially set for approval. Residents are angered that inspectors failed to address fundamental challenges around some sites or explore why more suitable locations and a fairer allocation were not pursued.

The Alliance spokesperson put it plainly: “The general perception is that key concerns raised by communities – particularly about green belt loss, infrastructure capacity and alternatives – have not been fully addressed. For many residents, this has created a feeling of being excluded from decisions that directly affect their communities, which clearly echoes concerns highlighted during the Street-Trees dispute.

“The residents concerned about the greenbelt destruction do not seek a blue plaque and an apology in five years time from the Chief Executive. They seek to be heard to protect the environment they live in. They are no different to those who resisted the tree-felling.”

Sean Bean had the final word: “They need to take heed of this message now and listen to these very real concerns before our amazing greenbelt is destroyed.”

THE PLAQUE READS:

‘In recognition of the courageous campaigners who saved thousands of street trees from wrongful felling by Sheffield City Council, and as a reminder to all that such failures in leadership must never happen again. 2012–2018.’