Residents and councillors fear an allotment company could be planning to build a new site in Ecclesfield, which they believe would be unfit for the area, causing traffic congestion and disrupting the privacy of homeowners in the area.
Community members believe Roots Allotments, which has nine sites nationwide, including one in Dronfield, plan to set up a new site in the North of the city.
As a local resident, Susan Davidson (also chairman of Ecclesfield Parish Council), 53, raised the issue at a meeting of the North Area Committee at Forge Valley School on Thursday, criticising Roots Allotments potential impact on the area.
She said: “We’re looking at potentially hundreds of cars coming to our community with no plan for parking, no real access.
“There’s only two ways into that field, there’s Loicher Lane, which is a very dangerous 60 mile an hour stretch with blind corners and then Butterthwaite Lane, which is a private road, only really supposed to be for access to the residents.”
In its other sites across the UK, Roots Allotments has an average of 27 plots per acre. On the proposed site in Ecclesfield there are 12 acres of land available.
Therefore, Roots Allotments could potentially pitch up to 330 new allotments neighbouring homes, attracting hundreds of people to the private area.
Mrs Davidson said: “Roots cram allotments into each acre, we are not talking about normal allotments.
“Every resident is worried that this is a business model to allow further development.”
However, Ed Morrison, founder of Roots Allotments told ShefNews that “time and time again” it has created spaces that are in line with “government sustainable farming incentives”.
No plans have yet been announced for the site.
Mr Morrison said: “We are helping new people enter the growing space at a time when there is an urgency for change.
“Our allotment sites are places of collaboration and connection, we partner with charities, CICs and schools to ensure that people have access to growing spaces and education.”
At the meeting, Sheffield city councillors also raised their concerns.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Robert Reiss, who represents East Ecclesfield, where the site will be located, said: “We are aware of the pressure of the number of allotments we have and the number of people that want it and I can see there might be a commercial driver in the area.”
Coun Reiss claimed the price of Roots Allotments are “extortionate” compared to what the city council offers.
He has pledged to work with Mrs Davidson to make sure that if any development does happen, any formal planning process and scrutiny will be applied.
He added: “We want to make sure we are not negligent in our responsibilities to local residents.”
Mr Morrison said previous proposals elsewhere in the country, including one in Leeds, have attracted opposition, but that it has always applied for planning permission where necessary.
He added: “If you were to start fresh you would need to buy all the tools, seeds, equipment and plants.
“Our members can turn up and get going without waiting years and wasting growing sessions and not taking part in something that’s incredible for your mental and physical well-being.
“Just because a potential location is XX amount of acres, it doesn’t mean it will all be patches. We have proven this time and time again by demonstrating we are creating a mixed use space that’s in line with the governments sustainable farming incentives.
“That means planting native hedgerow, sowing wildflower areas, establishing fruit trees and also native woodland on 10 to 20 per cent of the site’s location.”