Voltage Management System off Club Mill Road

There has been a recent planning application for the construction of a Voltage Management System (VMS) on the site of the former Neepsend Power Station cooling towers. The system will be of significant size and occupy quite a large area. The site is between the industrial area and the travellers camp on Club Mill Road. The development is required to manage the effects of the increase in renewable power generation on the national electricity grid. You can see full details on https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk , look for application 24/01514/FUL.

Our attention was drawn to the proposal in June, and as an interested neighbour the Friends group felt we should comment on the application. We discussed the matter with the Upper Don Trail Trust (UDTT) and the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery, and agreed to follow the lead of the UDTT in jointly objecting to the proposal.

We don’t object to the need for the VMS installation, but we do feel that the proposed implementation requires the loss of a significant area of green open space and fails to fully address its location in one of the most important green-blue corridors in the city.  We have sought modest mitigation measures to the proposal which would greatly increase its contribution to enhancing the Upper Don green-blue corridor and its contribution to active travel and wider amenity without affecting the operational functions of the facility. In particular we feel that such measures would be complementary to the work being proposed in connection with the Parkwood Springs LUF 3 award to continue the development of the Country Park in the City, as incorporated in the forthcoming Local Plan.

The application has yet to be decided by the Planning Committee, but we understand that a similar proposal for an alternative site between the Owlerton Stadium and the Mondelez site has already been given permission and there is also an outline application being considered for the site of the car scrapyard at the end of Livesey Street. Neither of the latter two applications requires the loss of green open space, so we do not have the same objections to them, but nor do they offer the same opportunity to contribute to active travel and wider amenity. Each of these proposals is by a different organisation, we believe that they are all competing for the contract to install the equipment, and that the contract award will be decided shortly. We will monitor the situation and keep people informed about the outcome.