Sheffield Owlthorpe campaigners object to greenfield housing plan

The site is in located at Moor Valley in the Owlthorpe area of Sheffield

Campaigners objecting to plans to build more than 150 houses on a green "oasis" in Sheffield are to be contacted by the city council about their concerns.

A petition by Ecological Owlthorpe urging the council to protect a 22-acre grassland nature trail has so far attracted at least 1,300 signatures.

The authority earmarked the site at Moor Valley for homes in its draft local plan.

One campaigner said the green space was vital for people's mental health.

Meanwhile, Michael Meredith, who started the petition, described the site as a "rural oasis in the urban south east of Sheffield".

"Surely it is difficult to understand why Sheffield Council wishes to destroy our open space, used and loved by the local community," he said.

The site is home to the 22-acre Grassland Grazing Projec,t which incorporates a nature trail

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, another objector, Size Huggins, said: "I have walked here, laughed here, cried here and mourned here. It has saved my life and sanity.

"If it has done this for me, how many other people are mentally healthy because of this beautiful space?"

Sheffield City Council said the location had been proposed as a housing site for many years and several conditions to protect wildlife must be met for a housing plan to be approved.

Councillor Ben Miskell, chair of the authority's regeneration committee and climate change, said he would meet campaigners to discuss their worries about the plans.

He added that if the draft local plan was approved, it would be submitted to the government for public examination and a planning inspector would consider all the objections.

"Although a large proportion of the city's housing needs over the next 15 years can be met on brownfield sites, some development on greenfield sites is still needed to provide the new homes our city needs," Mr Miskell said.