Residents raise traffic concerns over new micro pub planned for Sheffield

Parked cars along Cross Hill where the pub will be

An application was submitted to Sheffield Council to convert a former retail unit into a pub, licensed to hold 40 people on Cross Hill in Ecclesfield.

But many people living close by have written to the council to say they do not want the development to go ahead.

Yvonne Ridgeway, aged 39, is one of the hundreds of people who has objected to the plans during a year-long fight against the proposal.

She raised concern over traffic and parking along the road.

She said: "The proposed micro pub is in the middle of residential housing, on the busy main road of Cross Hill, which is also a strategic road for emergency services vehicles, according to the Sheffield Unitary Development Policy.

"Most of the houses are Victorian, with tiny front gardens and there is on street car parking only, which is already a huge problem for residents.

"The Planning Officer has recommended that the pub is granted planning permission. However, it is proposing to cater for up to 40 customers - and yet will only provide two off street car parking spaces."

In a statement uploaded to the council's planning portal, applicant Shaun Price said "I will be promoting and advertising bus timetables for people to use. Being a bus stop on either side of the road, this coupled with attracting local customers on foot, should make very little difference if any to traffic problems.

"Any beer deliveries will be once a week delivered in a small transit van that can pull up on the premises forecourt not in lorries as it is with full blown pubs.

"I am Ecclesfield born and bred and I own a property in Ecclesfield which I intend to move back to. I care about where I live and in no way would I want to run an establishment that brings problems to a village I live in."

Sheffield Council planning officers have recommended that the application is approved in a 'trial period' basis but the final say rests with the planning committee, made up of elected councillors.

The decision to approve or reject the plans will be heard at 2pm at Sheffield Town Hall tomorrow.