More than 100 retirement homes replacing Dore Moor Garden Centre in Sheffield blocked

An application for new retirement homes was refused at a planning meeting.

Councillors on the planning and highways committee have discussed the application for 125 extra care units following the demolition of the garden centre on Brickhouse Lane in Dore.

Applicant Senior Living (Dore) Ltd was seeking permission to remove the garden centre and build a so-called integrated retirement community (IRC) with 125 units with ancillary communal and care facilities and green space on a 2.5 hectares of land.

The plans included a four-storey Village Centre building, three-storey high blocks of flats, two-storey homes and some bungalows being built.

However, hundreds of people submitted a letter to object to the proposals.

The main argument was that the new estate would be in the green belt and that the new buildings would change the visual impact with some four-storey flats “blocking the openness of the area”.

The area’s three local councillors (Liberal Democrats) all objected to the plans also – as well as the Sheffield Wildlife Trust and the Peak District National Park Local Planning Authority, among others.

Planning officers recommended this application for refusal.

At the meeting, among the public speakers was the Lord Mayor, Cllr Colin Ross.

He told the members that the application was against “planning policies, both at the national scale, the existing local plan and the emerging local plan, as well as the Door Neighbourhood Plan”.

Cllr Ross said: “Essentially, this is a development in the green belt, and I don’t want this committee to set a precedent (where you’re allowing a development in the green belt) which will affect the whole of the city right around the area.”

A representative from Inspired Villages, an operator and developer of integrated retirement communities, told the committee that the need to provide specialising housing “for older people is critical”.

Members accepted the argument that there was a need for retirement homes but Cllr Peter Price said Sheffield folk were “proud” that a third of the city was in the green belt and this should be protected.

Cllr Laura Moynahan said she would echo what Cllr Price said and she wanted to protect the green belt too.

She said: “If we lose that, we lose part of the soul of the city.”

She added there was a need but these homes should be built outside of the green belt.

The members voted against the proposal with one councillor (Cllr Garry Weatherall) abstaining.