Skye Edge field

I had a letter today from a future voter. It said

Dear Mr Wroe
I am hoping you will help my friends and me.
I would like you to put more youth clubs for us 12 years olds.
The older kids are mixed in with the younger ones so there is a little bullying so to keep the ages separate we need a bigger place.
We also need Skye Edge field cleaning up as there is glass and rubbish there and spray paint.
We would like a bigger place as well for skate boarding and biking. Our neighbours get annoyed if we play in the road. So we need better lighting and better security. Skye Edge field would be ok.
A future voter
...........

Skye Edge field is definitely a problem. I am asking the council to pay a visit and do a clean up, but what the area really needs is some local people who will take real care of it- like the Friends of Norfolk Park and the Friends of Sheaf Valley Park. And people need to feel safe there. I have been intimidated there before with youngsters on motorbikes driving at crazy speeds across the field and on the footpaths. The next Victoria Environment Group litter pick is this Saturday-meet at Victoria Methodist at 10am. If enough people come who are concerned about Skye Edge we could send a team in that direction.

As for facilities for youngsters, I must admit I am a bit out of touch on this. My kids have now all grown up, so I am not sure what is available in the area.There are sports activities at All Saints (contact Vicky Joel on (0114) 274 3529 or email v.joel@allsaintslearning.co.uk)and Green Watch organise football coaching at Park Academy on Monday evenings 5.30-6.30, for 10 to 18 year olds.(Jake Bonsall on 07769 912 872)Jake’s also looking for volunteers to work on environmental projects on the Manor and Arbourthorne estates.If readers know of other good activities for young teenagers in this area please add a comment to this article and inform everybody.

There is a list of Youth Clubs in Sheffield here-
http://www.finder.co.uk/b2b/Sheffield/Youth-Centres-And-Associations
I assume you go to the Park Centre? Have you asked the leaders there about the possibility of a group for you younger ones? What did they say? And have you told them about the bullying? If they know about it hopefully they can do something about it.

I think your idea for a skate park on Skye Edge is a good one. We will need to convince the people that hold the purse strings, as it would be expensive. Maybe you and your friends could put a petition together and present it to the Council. Ask me if you want some help with this.

Housing list problems

The news that Sheffield tops the UK waiting list league for houses is a big cause for concern. However it may not be as bad as the headlines suggest. According to Mark Hookham in the Star "The number of families registered as waiting for a council house in Sheffield is higher than any other local authority in the country. A total of 87,773 households are recorded by official government figures as waiting for social housing in the city last year. This represents almost 40 per cent of the total number of households in Sheffield.

In contrast, there are 87,565 households waiting in the whole of Greater Manchester, 40,697 in Merseyside and 24,780 in Leeds. But the figures include tens of thousands of families who have historically registered for local authority housing but who are no longer actively looking for accommodation... A Sheffield Council spokeswoman said: "Sheffield maintains a policy of having an open housing register. The housing register is not the same as a waiting list. So, whilst there are over 80,000 people registered, less than a quarter of this number are actively seeking rehousing.""

This doesn't mean we can be complacent. According to Shelter there are 287 families currently homeless in Sheffield. Since 2000 house prices have risen four times faster than wages. Nearly two thirds of Sheffield households are priced out of the market and the number of people accepted by the council as homeless is growing year on year. In the renovation of Park Hill, 80% of the properties will be turned into luxury flats which most of the people living there will not be able to afford. Meanwhile, Sheffield Homes continue to perform badly on their Decent Homes Investment Project. Owner-occupiers and leaseholders are being left out, the quality varies a great deal between different areas and some basic repairs and improvements are not included in the project.

What is the Green Party doing?

·Pushing the Council to repair leaky roofs and walls under the Decent Homes scheme.

·Calling for a full review of the council’s lettings policy to make it fairer and more transparent.

·Calling for the repair and renovation of council properties.

·Helping to develop planning guidance requiring at least 15% affordable housing in all large developments, while continuing to push for 40%.

·Lobbying to keep the current programme of tenancy support services in place, and for more sheltered accommodation for vulnerable people.

·Pushing the Council to give advice on insulation and grants to all householders.

How should Trade Unionists vote?

Tomorrow I will be on strike from my job at Sheffield College. Under the Labour Government public sector workers like teachers and lecturers continue to be offered pay deals well below the rate of inflation. At the same time Gordon Brown attacks poor people by removing the 10p band of income tax.

Unison however still think it is a good idea to spend their members contributions on a letter from Jan Wilson, telling them to vote Labour! Trade Unionists would be far better off supporting a party that wants to put an end to poverty, stop the oil wars and the creeping privatisation of our schools and health service.

SOME IMPORTANT Green Party Policies:
The Green Party:
• Opposes privatisation of public service and the Private Finance Initiative.
• Campaigns for fair pay and decent conditions for all workers.
• Opposes the sale or privatisation of council housing.
• Campaigns for an extensive programme of affordable social housing.
• Campaigns for a massive increase in investment in public transport within a publicly controlled integrated transport system that makes car use less necessary.
• Campaigns for healthy public services such as health, education and transport, funded through adequate taxation, in which the well-off pay their fair share.
• Campaigns for fair trade that promotes concrete improvements in the conditions of workers in developing countries without hurting workers in the industrialised West.
• Supports the Charter Of Workers’ Rights endorsed by major trade unions
• Encourages un-unionised, temporary, and migrant workers to join trade unions
For more reasons why Trade Unionists should vote Green see
http://brentandharrow.greenparty.org.uk/GPTU_release.pdf

Demo at Station

There was a very successful demonstration at the station this morning, to protest at East Midlands trains plan to install barriers and prevent pedestrians walking through.There must have been about 50 people there, including representatives from all 4 political parties, Transport4All,Friends of Sheaf Vally Park, Friends of Norfolk Park, Park Community Action, Victoria Methodist Church, Grace Owen Nursery and probably other organisations I wasn't aware of. When was the last time all 4 political parties in Sheffield came together on the same demonstration? I have just been forwarded another email from East Midlands trains, which is much clearer about their plans. It says

Dear ***** *****

Thank you for your email of 24 February 2008.

I can confirm that we are installing ticket barriers at Sheffield on a
trial basis- these have been well received at the stations at which they
have already been installed e.g. Leicester.

These barriers are intended to reduce the amount of fare evasion taking
place, and this is one of a number of measures we have implemented to
ensure this is the case - ultimately, this is to benefit the travelling
public by helping to keep fare rises to an absolute minimum.

If the installation is successful the barriers will become permanent.

Thank you for your enquiry.

Kind regards

******** ***
Customer Relations Officer

What is rather ironic is that even though it is the clear democratic will of the people to keep free access to the station, because it is now a private concern, in the end East Midlands trains can do what they like. We need to renationalise the railways to bring them back into democratic control.

I have had a letter published in the Telegraph about the station access, which is at http://www.sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/archives/letters/2008/080413eastmidlandstrains.htm
and Rob Murphy, Green candidate for Sheffield Central, has written about the demo
http://www.sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/archives/letters/2008/080418demo.htm

The coverage on Radio Sheffield was a little disappointing, as it gave all the publicity to Jan Wilson, when the hard work that has been done by local campaigners bringing this to everyone's attention was ignored. However it has sent a very stong message to East Midlands trains- lets hope they now reconsider and come up with a sensible alternative.

Bernard Street/Duke Street traffic lights

Further to my earlier posting I took a few pictures of the junction at rush hour this morning. True, there weren't many pedestrians- but is that surprising when crossing here is such a nightmare? It is enough to persuade even the most conscientious climate change campaigner to resort to using a car.

Here a van mounts the pavement to try to turn left up Duke Street.




The top picture shows how busy the junction has become. It has been made more difficult to cross because of the bus gate at the bottom of Duke Street. As traffic can't continue down the hill to town, everything is channelled along Bernard Street.

Here a pedestrian dashes across the road between traffic, as there is never a gap in the traffic going along Bernard Street.

Maybe we need to start a local petition to get a pelican at this crossing. What do you think? Maybe with more Greens in the Town Hall we could secure more finance for pelican crossings.

When the junction is right next to the Trades and Labour Club, you would think the Labour Party would be sympathetic on this one!

Station access protest

Jan Wilson, Labour leader of the Council and Councillor for Manor Castle ward, has called a protest at Sheffield Railway Station on Monday 21st. She writes

Dear All

You all know about the intention of East Midland Trains to make Sheffield Station a 'closed' station.

I am organising a protest there on Monday 21st at 11.00, meeting at Supertram stop at rear of station - we are going to go through with a placard saying 'Don't stop Access through Station' or something like that.

Would anyone like to come? and can you inform anyone you think might be interested.

I will try to get the Sheffield Star to come with photographer

I have also emailed the Chair of the Transport 4 All group, which is active on issues which affect people with disabilities

Best wishes

Jan Wilson
Council Leader

I will be joining the protest and I have challenged the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to get involved too. This must not be an election stunt, it must be a powerful show of force from a united community, determined to keep pedestrian access to the station.

Party Election Broadcast

See our innovative Party Election broadcast here
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3381

Postal vote?

Wednesday 16th April (this Wednsday!) 5pm is the deadline for postal vote applications. You can download the form at
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/elections/voting-by-post and send it back to Electoral Registration Department, Sheffield City Council, Town Hall, Sheffield, S1 2HY.

Pedestrian Crossings

I have been investigating the Councils priorities for new Pelican crossings in our area. There is a city wide scheme where any proposal is listed and scores points according to various criteria. Here are the possible places in our area along with the current score.

Granville Road (by All Saints School) 10
Manor Oaks Road/Wybourn Primary School 9
Prince of Wales Road/Castlebeck Avenue 9
Manor Lane between Manor Park Road and Seaton Crescent 8
Bernard Road (by Megacentre) 7
Bernard Street at Cricket Inn Road signals 7
Bernard Street (between Cricket Inn Road and Duke Street 7
Norfolk Park Road/All Saints School 7
City Road near Stafford Lane 6
Duke Street at Bernard Street junction 6
Duke Street south of Manor Oaks Road junction 6
Bernard Street at Duke Street signals 6
Manor Lane/Warley Road 6
Duke Street nr Red Lion pub 6
Stafford Road/Fitzwalter Road 6
City Road / Manor Lane 6
City Road between Park Grange Road and Wulfric Road 5
Cricket Inn Road/Whites Lane 5
Shrewsbury Road/Granville Street 5

Around the city there are 6 places that score 10 like Granville Road, so these are the top priorities for the Council. The Granville Road crossing is scheduled to be built in 2010-11. It seems unlikely that crossing possibilities scoring less than 9 will be built unless there is a big transfer of funds from road building to road safety, which is what I would like to see. There are 244 places around the city where people have requested the Council install a crossing and 19 of those are in our area.

Sheffield currently has a 'hung' council with no party in overall control. This has enabled the Green Party to get funding for 10 extra pedestrian crossings into the 2008/9 budget.

If you feel strongly about where we should have new crossings, please reply to this article and send an email to John.Bann@sheffield.gov.uk who is head of Transport at the City Council.

One of the important criteria is the number of accidents, so it is very important that all accidents get reported.

My pet hate of a junction at the moment is Bernard Street/Duke Street, where there are traffic lights for cars, but no pelican crossing for the pedestrians. This has become a very dangerous crossing in recent times. I am surprised there haven't been more accidents there.

The junction between Stafford Road and Fitzwalter Road is on the list, but I don't think this needs a crossing- it would be better to have some sort of mini roundabout, and measures to slow down cars on Fitzwalter Road . At present, if motorists obeyed the highway code they would never be able to turn out of Glencoe Road onto Fitzwalter Road, because if you stop at the Give Way line you can't see on coming traffic coming up the hill along Fitzwalter Road. But it is clear we need some accidents here before the Council will be prepared to do anything about it.

So, over to you- how can we make our roads safer? Where would you put a crossing if you could decide where to put it?

Area Panel meeting

I went to the Area Panel meeting at St Swithun's last night. We had a good discussion about the stations plans to restrict pedestrian access. There is massive local feeling against these proposals, yet in the end it seems that East Midlands trains could do it, as the land belongs to them. It is very important that we keep up the pressure on them so that they realise we are not a walkover. We don't want to have to organise demonstrations at the station, but we will if we have too! The main result of the discussion was that the station manager would be invited to the next area panel meeting which we think will be on Tuesday 3rd June. Urban Flash will also be invited to this meeting, so they will hopefully further reinforce how unpopular the station will make itself if it goes ahead with the plans. We will also get a chance to question Urban Splash on their latest plans to make the Park Hill redevelopment more environmentally friendly, something I have been lobbying for since the plans were first published.

The main item on yesterday's agenda was the new Area Action Plan for Manor, Castle and Woodthorpe. This is now in its second draft. The main theme in this is to develop a local worklessness programme. This is a worthy idea, but we shouldn't just be challenging worklessness, as many of the jobs created by multi national corporations still leave people with little sense of self worth. We should be promoting "good work", work that will improve our communities, and make them more sustainable and self sufficient.
I suggested that the Area Panel should seriously look at promoting schemes to make our housing stock, both private and council housing, more energy efficient. This would create jobs, alleviate poverty and reduce our carbon emissions all at the same time. A first phase might involve ensuring all roofs are properly insulated, but then we could go on to consider cavity wall insulation or enveloping for older houses that don't have cavity walls. Individual householders are unlikely to tackle such a project, but if a scheme for a whole street was organised it might then become very much more affordable.

If you would like more information about making your home more environmentally friendly, pay a visit to South Yorkshire Energy Centre at Heeley City Farm. This is the centre that the Green Party ensured funding for in the Council budget- without the pressure from the two Green Councillors its future would be completely uncertain.

Area Panel and litter pick

If you are able to join Victoria Environment Group for the litter pick we will meet as usual, at Victoria Church at 10.00 on Saturday 5th April. Litter pickers and bags are available. Please bring gloves.

Jan Wilson will be giving an update on her discussions with East Midlands Trains about the proposal to stop pedestrians using the station, at the Area Panel meeting next Tuesday 8th April, at St Swithen's Church, Cary Road. Refreshments are available from 6.00pm and the meeting starts at 6.30pm. I understand that this is due to be the first item. All are welcome.