River Walk Planning Condition Upheld at Millhouses
On Tuesday 15th October, two Trustees of the Sheaf and Porter and a representative of a Millhouses, Ecclesall and Carter Knowle residents’ group successfully won support of Planning Committee to enforce in full a condition to complete a section of the River Sheaf Walk at the STEPS medical centre off Troutbeck Road. ​​​
​The construction of a 3 metre wide riverside walk/ cycle way was a condition placed on the development of the ‘Jacobs Gate’ site back in 2013 but this condition has never been implemented or discharged at STEPS, although it has in the other two thirds of the site developed by Adlington Retirement Homes , leaving an isolated ‘path to nowhere’.
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​​In response to a series of approaches from the Trust to the Council from 2019, asking them to fulfil their obligations, STEPS were proposing a path varying between 2 and 2.8 meters wide with a significant ‘blind spot’ where the walkway narrowed suddenly and a poor quality surface of crushed limestone.
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This section is critical to the extension and completion of this section of the Sheaf Walk at Jacob’s Gate as it can potentially then be easily joined to the well-used path upstream alongside the Tesco store to Hutcliffe Woods or Millhouses Park and downstream from Troutbeck Road, to Woodseats Close, low trafficked Little London Road and into the city centre.​
​This has implications for both a ‘Garden Room’ building (see above) which was erected by STEPS without permission encroaching on the riverside after enforcement had already started , and a current application to build another extension also narrowing the space for the river and trail.
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The Trust has the highest regard for STEPS and the services it offers to its clients. We have therefore from the outset proposed a compromise solution which would allow them to retain the Garden Room but remove an apparently unused deck which unnecessarily blocks the walkway. We hope they now accept this reasonable suggestion.
The Trail, once completed, will we believe be of significant benefit to their clients and staff as well as residents of the Adlington sheltered housing.
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We thank the members of Planniing Committee and the over 50 people who also lodged objections but are left with just a question –
Should it really require five years of continued campaigning by the trust and other local people to get the Council to enforce their own planning conditions ?
​We put a strong case, highlighting how a consistent 3-metre width and adequate surfacing is needed for a path to fulfil its purpose of allowing bicycles and wheelchairs to pass freely. With additional support from Councillor Barbara Masters , LibDem member for Ecclesall, the committee decided to enforce the approved 3 metre walkway throughout the site on the grounds that the applicant’s alternative was not fit for purpose.
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