Residents pledge to fight new rail centre

The 'Stop Them In Their Tracks' campaign is fighting Network Rail's plans to build the centre – which will cover nine and a half hectares and stand 57ft high – on the old sidings, off Woodhouse Lane, Beighton.

Residents last night packed into Swallownest Community Centre on Rotherham Road for a public meeting to "formalise" their campaign and urge more people to get on board.

Chairwoman Sylvia Sellars, whose bungalow in Woodhouse Lane would be just metres away from the new development, said: "Everybody here tonight needs to use their voice in the community in order to raise awareness of this campaign.

"Everyone needs to be an objector. We have to deluge them with objections and stop them from building this. This is a cause close to my heart – I walked those meadows as a child and I do not want anything to happen to them."

And she added: "This does not only concern people in the area. That green belt land belongs to everyone, that valley belongs to everybody. If this building is built it will ruin that valley and that view for everybody."

Scott Garratt-Pearce, a lawyer who has recently moved to Queens Road, Beighton, from London, urged people to put pen to paper and send their objections to Sheffield Council which will make a decision on the plans.

He said: "It's now or never time, even if it's just a one page letter, that's what is going to be the most effective. The residents of the area are the people who carry the most weight."

John King, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), added: "Because it is green belt land they have to prove there are special circumstances – that the harm is not as great as the benefits.

"What everybody needs to do is talk about the harm it will do. I can quote the planning law, but what you need to do as residents is talk about how it will impact on your lives."

Concerns about the new centre include the loss of green space, the increase in traffic to the area, and the noise and air pollution they say it will bring.

Attercliffe MP Clive Betts has said the centre will boost the area by bringing 200 highly skilled jobs – but campaigners hit back saying employees will simply be redeployed from other towns and cities.

Angela York, who lives just 150 metres from the proposed site, said she was worried about the effects and dangers for her children, aged six and 10.

She told the meeting: "I have to put my children to bed early enough so they can get up for school the next day – how are they going to sleep with that centre operating until 10 o'clock at night?

"There are going to be chimneys pumping out pollution. My children are both healthy at the moment and Network Rail has no right to make them unhealthy. Clive Betts said I was over-reacting – but who am I going to go to when I am visiting my children in hospital?"

Local Labour councillor John Swift recommended asking for a site visit where some members of the committee could voice their objections in person to planning board councillors.

He added: "I understand all your feelings."

See Viewpoint by campaigner Sylvia Sellars in The Star tomorrow.