Calls for a planning review after councillors approve new Aldi, Taco Bell and Costa Coffee development opposite Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium

A new Aldi, Costa Coffee and Taco Bell are among the retailers set to open on derelict land between Penistone Road, Herries Road and Herries Road South.

But the Upper Don Trail Trust and Cycle Sheffield are calling on the council’s Executive to review the decision because they are unhappy about the way the application was handled and presented to the committee.

The two organisations say they welcome the redevelopment but are disappointed and concerned that the committee did not take up their suggestions for improved active travel facilities.

In a joint statement, they said: “After the pandemic and a summer of terrifying disasters driven by climate change there is widespread hope and expectation that we will at last start to take sustainable travel seriously.

“The committee suggested sadly otherwise with only the most minimal concessions to support sustainable travel by foot or cycle.

“We had requested the redevelopment should include an upgrade of a section of the notoriously substandard Penistone Road cycleway which borders the site, to install a controlled crossing for pedestrians and cyclists at the dangerous Herries Road South junction, and that the historic Wardsend Mill Goyt which runs through woodland at the north end be properly restored and opened to public access and stewardship.

“Some widening of the heavily used but seriously substandard Penistone Road cycleway will be delivered but only along a part of the site frontage, an unsegregated 4m.

“The opportunity to provide a consistent full standard, fully segregated walking and cycle route along the whole site frontage on an important radial route has been thrown away, as was the chance to get the developers to pay for a sorely needed controlled crossing of the Herries Road South/Penistone Road junction.

“This decision looks like a massive and dismal step backwards. We would call for a serious review by the Executive.”

Sheffield Council declined to comment and said the reasoning was set out in the officers’ recommendation and the committee’s decision.