Earlier this month (September 2008) Sheffield City Council’s North and West Planning Board refused Bovis Homes Ltd’s application seeking the legal right to re-establish industrial activities on the former Hepworth’s Refractory site in the Loxley Valley.

The Council agreed with CPRE South Yorkshire’s view that, as the site had not been used for industrial purposes during the last ten years, industrial use has been abandoned.

This legal decision is supported by the condition of the buildings, which are dilapidated, and cannot be used without complete redevelopment, and the clear intention of Bovis Homes Ltd to develop the site for housing.

The refusal by the Council to grant legal rights for industrial use reduces the strength of Bovis’s planning claims when they come to apply for housing on the site. Without the re-establishment rights, they cannot claim that housing on the site would be more appropriate than a factory.

Picture top left: 'Hepworth's site' - for illustrative purposes only