03/09/2026
🚨 HOYLAND COMMON RESIDENTS ARE ASKING QUESTIONS. THEY DESERVE ANSWERS.
Over recent days we have been contacted by residents deeply concerned about what has happened, and what may still happen, to Hoyland Common and the surrounding area.
Their concerns are not simply about one planning application.
They are about the cumulative effect of years of housing, industrial and warehousing development.
They are asking about the loss of green and open land.
They are asking whether roads, GP services, schools, SEND provision, drainage and public transport have genuinely kept pace.
They are asking about the future of Rockingham Sports Ground, the money previously invested there, possible covenants and restrictions affecting the land, and why existing facilities are being relocated.
They are asking what happened to the promises made alongside development.
And perhaps most importantly, they are asking:
WHAT CAN STILL BE CHANGED?
We listened.
We then began examining the planning history ourselves and wrote formally to the Leader of Barnsley Council, Cllr William Brown, together with the relevant Cabinet members and local councillors.
We deliberately made one thing clear.
Many of the Local Plan allocations, masterplans and planning decisions affecting Hoyland were established under the previous Labour administration.
We are not going to falsely blame the new Reform administration for decisions it did not originally make.
But Reform UK took control of Barnsley Council in May.
That means responsibility for what happens NOW rests with the administration currently running the Council.
So we asked some very straightforward questions.
Does the new administration support the existing Hoyland North, South and West masterplans?
Are any of them being reviewed?
Will the cumulative impact of all this development on Hoyland Common finally be assessed?
Will the future of Rockingham Sports Ground be reviewed before anything irreversible happens?
Will brownfield land be prioritised where realistically possible?
And will the Council Leader or relevant Cabinet members sit down with affected residents?
The first response from the Council Leader declined to answer our extensive questions individually and directed us towards Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations procedures for recorded information.
Fair enough.
We therefore separated the political questions from the information requests and went back with just TEN clear questions about what the CURRENT administration intends to do.
The Leader has now replied again.
He says the administration will review inherited policies and programmes.
He supports meaningful community engagement.
He recognises that infrastructure and public services must be considered alongside development.
He supports the effective use of brownfield land where viable.
Those are welcome principles.
But the specific questions remain unanswered.
We still do not know whether the administration supports Hoyland North in its present form.
We still do not know whether it supports Hoyland South in its present form.
We still do not know whether it supports Hoyland West in its present form.
We still do not know whether any review of those frameworks has actually been commissioned.
We still do not know whether a cumulative assessment of development and infrastructure pressures across Hoyland Common will be undertaken.
We still do not know whether Rockingham Sports Ground will be reviewed before any irreversible disposal or redevelopment.
And we still do not have a commitment that the Leader or relevant Cabinet members will meet residents specifically about these concerns.
Cllr Brown has now said he does not propose to enter into further correspondence on the individual questions outside formal Council and information processes.
We respect that position.
So that is exactly where we go next.
We are now preparing carefully targeted Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations requests covering:
• Rockingham Sports Ground ownership, covenants and future use
• public and grant money invested at Rockingham
• the financial case for relocation
• Hoyland North, South and West development
• cumulative traffic and HGV movements
• greenfield land loss
• brownfield capacity
• Section 106 and developer contributions
• highways and infrastructure commitments
• drainage, flooding and sewerage
• public consultation and objections
• schools, SEND and healthcare pressures
We will also use the Council’s formal democratic processes to pursue the questions of political accountability which FOI cannot answer.
This isn’t about opposing every new home.
It isn’t about opposing every new business.
And it isn’t about pretending every decision made under Labour can simply be torn up by Reform tomorrow.
It is about something much more basic.
RESIDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THEIR COMMUNITY, WHAT IS STILL PLANNED, WHAT INFRASTRUCTURE WAS PROMISED, WHAT WAS ACTUALLY DELIVERED, AND WHAT THEIR NEW COUNCIL ADMINISTRATION INTENDS TO DO DIFFERENTLY.
Hoyland Common has already absorbed enormous change.
The people who live there should not be spectators to what happens next.
If you live in Hoyland Common, Hoyland, Birdwell or the surrounding area and hold planning documents, photographs, correspondence, petitions, information relating to Rockingham Sports Ground or evidence about infrastructure problems, please contact us.
We are building the evidence.
And we will keep asking the questions.
Making Common Sense, Common Again.
Restore Britain
Barnsley, Pen*stone & Stocksbridge Branch
Barnsley Council Barnsley Chronicle We Are Barnsley Restore Britain Restore Britain Wakefield Restore Britain - Sheffield Restore Britain Tameside Restore Britain Barnsley, Pen*stone & Stocksbridge Branch
