The Sheffield Local Plan consultation is open. The Plan sets the general areas for building new housing and new business premises, and the standards that these should meet to fit in with local areas and needs. If you are interested in contributing your thoughts and observations then please either come to the next Access Liaison Group meeting on the 8th of February at 10am on Zoom, or email your thoughts to us at Disability Sheffield by emailing consultations@disabilitysheffield.org.uk so that we can include them in our response.
Key input we’d like to hear from you:
- Have you had difficulty in finding accessible accommodation near your family or friends at any point? When, where in the city? The more information we can get from people the better to understand whether the percentages in the plan are correct or are too low (see next section).
- Parking policy – if you have any views/concerns about this particularly in private flat or apartment blocks then this will also be invaluable.
Current Plan contents
Currently, the plan includes the following requirements for housing:
- 100% of newly built housing must meet what can be summarised as the visitor standard for wheelchair accessibility meaning that access to the ground floor and toilet is provided.
- 2% of housing developments of more than 50 units must be built to either be fully wheelchair accessible or designed to be more easily and ‘cheaply’ adaptable to live in as a wheelchair or mobility impaired user.
Parking: There are policies for ensuring parking associated with accessible properties in all contexts. However, in a larger communal car park setting there are some aspects which are unclear or possibly contradictory so please get in touch if you would like to be part of working through this topic.
Want to dig deeper?
If you would like to look at the whole plan, or the bits you are interested in then it can be found here, alongside how to make representations directly if you wish. However, as you will see there are a lot of different documents and at this stage only certain forms of comment can be accepted and acted upon. This is why it could be very wise to work with us and send your thoughts to consultations@disabilitysheffield.org.uk as soon as possible but no later than the 10th of February.
