Planning and development affects everyone in the area. House extensions; people wanting to use a shop as a take away; opening up a car wash; building multi-storey office blocks. Previously to find out more you had to go to Howden House in town and ask to see the planning application. Now on the internet, you can see all current and past planning applications with a few clicks.
Remember, if you don’t have internet access, you can use one of the Burngreave Library’s seven machines free for up to one hour at a time. They’re open daytimes on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays (closed for an hour at dinnertime), and on Saturday morning.
Go to the Council’s website at www.sheffield.gov.uk. On the home page, click on ‘in your area’ in the left menu; then again on ‘planning and city development’; then again on ‘planning applications on line’. On this page, scroll down to near the bottom where it says ‘proceed to planning applications online’ and click.
From the menu on the left you can search for applications by their number, look at the history or applications of a particular address, or see what decisions have been made or are coming up on the weekly list. The database also contains applications’ supporting documents.
There is now a special map feature that you may find useful. You will need to have broadband access and Internet Explorer for this to work well. And make sure the ‘pop up blocker’ is turned off – this can be found in ‘Tools’. Click on ‘view map’ in the left menu. This will show a map of Sheffield. Put your icon/crosshairs just to the right centre of the map with the right button on ‘zoom in’. Next page, in the centre near a green ‘4’, click again – and again. Now you’ll see ‘Pitsmoor Cemy’ click again on the white area, and again, and now you’ll start to see street names, keep going until you see red circles appear, this signifies which properties have applied for planning permission. If you click on ‘identify’ button, you’ll see ‘properties and planning applications’ in the drop-down menu at the top. Click on – ‘planning applications’ and put the icon over any red circle, just you will be able to read the planning history of that site.
So using the pan button on the right, go down towards Spital Hill. Here you’ll see one red circle on its own half way down Spital Hill. Click on this and you should see planning application 05/03185/OUT. ‘Click to view’ on the arrow – click on ‘associated documents’ – click ‘view associated documents’ button. On the third entry down – ‘25/Jul/2005’ click on whole doc. And then you’ll see five pages of how the local skyline might look. And you can also make a comment on the proposal.