City of Sanctuary First Anniversary

Please support this excellent event on Saturday. Wonderful music from East Handed and Body of Sound.Asylum Dialogues should prove to be interesting. Gondwanasound broadcast African music on Sheffield Live! and there's also some West African dancing.

Station Barriers

There was an excellent article on BBC Look North tonight about the new barriers at Leeds not working properly. They were tipped off by viewers that any ticket with a magnetic stripe would open the barriers. So a reporter travelled from York to Leeds with a 4 day old ticket (and a current one in case she got caught). When the ticket inspector came down the train she visited the loo, so wasn't spotted. On arriving at Leeds station the old ticket did indeed open the barrier. It also spits the ticket back out to you so you can use it again! The spokesperson from Northern Rail who has installed the barriers claimed this was just a teething problem- but I'm not convinced he wasn't covering up a much bigger problem.

I need to make clear the RASC campaign does not support fare dodgers- indeed we want the trains to improve their fare collecting systems so they don't have to keep putting the fares up. But we don't want any system to prevent people walking through the station which is now a vital pedestrian route for a very large number of people.

The BBC particularly requested viewers comments about the barriers, so please email harry.gration@ bbc.co.uk or christa.ackroyd@ bbc.co.uk and tell them about the Sheffield fiasco.

There is now a Facebook group called "Keep Sheffield Station open to the Public". Please join this and get all your friends to join too.

Privatisation and PFI meeting this Thusday

Please come along to a public meeting on the effects of the credit crunch and privatisation on the local economy, organised by Sheffield Green Party, will be held on Thursday Nov 20th at the Quaker Meeting House. The Green Party has strongly opposed the “creeping privatisation” of services like education and the NHS and is actively involved in Sheffield Communities Against Post Office Closures.

The key speaker will be Adrian Ramsay, the national party’s Deputy Leader, and Leader of the Opposition on Norwich City Council. At just 27 years old, he is also tipped to be one of the first Green MPs, having been selected to run against Charles Clarke MP in Norwich South Constituency.

Sheffield Green Party chair David Hayes said, “Privatisation benefits big business, not the ordinary people who depend on once publicly-owned services. Private Finance Initiative projects have been shown to be a very bad deal. There are examples of schools built under PFI lying empty but still paying cleaning and heating costs. In Sheffield, the 35-year waste contract with Veolia has left us having to pay extra for recycling and the Council is pressing ahead with a Highways PFI. Our Post Offices are now under threat because the Government puts the cost of running them above the public service they perform, despite finding tens of billions to bail out the banks.

In Sheffield we have already seen many of the schools rebuilt using PFI money- a decision that is bound to haunt us in the future. And now the roads are being improved with a similar scheme. Come and find out how the Greens plan to stop mortgaging our future and build a sustainable future by investing wisely in public services.

Parking restrictions

I continue to correspond with council officers regarding the new traffic restrictions. Here is the latest.People who have followed my campaigning will know I have been lobbying for many years to improve the safety of the 5 way junction between Stafford, Fitzwalter and Glencoe Roads. Making one side of Fitzwalter Road double yellow will I fear, result in traffic reaching much higher speeds on Fitzwalter Road, causing more danger at the 5 way junction. What do others think?
I wish the Council would talk about car crashes, not "vehicle conflicts"! I have still not discovered why this hasn't been discussed at the Area Panel.

Dear Simon Botterill

Please could you inform me of the Council's reasons for the new parking restrictions on the Stafford Road area? I am very supportive of any scheme that improves road safety, increase disabled access and encourages people to walk or use public transport. However I also think it is very important to consult with the local people before introducing such schemes. As an active member of the local community, attending Area Panel meetings and reading the local press, the first I heard of this scheme was a very uninformative notice on a lampost on Stafford Road. I only saw 2 such notices and the scheme covers 16 different roads. Lots of people asked me what the scheme involved, but I was not able to inform them until my wife went to the library to look at the plans for me. I hope any future planning issues in our area will involve real consultation with the residents.I have written about the scheme on my blog (I have failed to find anything about it on the Coucil website) and hope you will offer the Council viewpoint to inform my readers.

Many thanks

Graham Wroe

Dear Mr Wroe

Thank you for your email dated 6th November 2008, regarding the proposed Traffic Regulation Order affecting the Stafford Road area.

If I can first of all provide you with a brief overview of the scheme. It is an amalgamation of measures to address various parking problems reported by residents and commuters, as well as those observed and requested by Council officers. It features three key problem areas - Norfolk Park Road/Park Grange Road, Granville Road/Fitzwalter Road and Norfolk Road/Claywood Drive.

We have carried out detailed parking surveys, which have shown that these three areas are heavily parked in the day, which I believe is due to their close proximity to the City Centre, Sheffield College and Supertram. There is an additional increase in parked vehicles when Sheffield United are playing at home.

The proposed restrictions affecting Norfolk Park Road/Park Grange Road were decided upon after requests from local residents, commuters, Councillors and the Road Safety Team. This was due to the high volume of parked vehicles around Castle College and the Park Grange tram stop. This has lead to several pinch points being created at junctions and central islands, increasing the risk of vehicle conflicts, while creating a danger for pedestrians and cyclists. The proposed restrictions should alleviate these problems without affecting available on-street parking for residents, with some double yellow lines proposed to protect vehicle access points to communal parking areas.

With regards to the proposed double yellow lines on Granville Road, we are aware that parking is at a premium, so - without compromising road safety - we have generally only proposed restrictions at each junction along Granville Road. The exception is a 40 metre restricted length opposite the new vehicular entrance below the bridge that links the two campuses. This length of restriction will give increase visibility as well as creating a safe access to the college.

The double yellow lines at the junction of Farm Bank Road were requested by a disabled resident, who on occasions finds it almost impossible to cross the road due to inconsiderate parked vehicles, the original complaint was brought to our attention through an email from Cllr Jan Wilson. The double yellow lines proposed at each junction and the whole of the west side of Fitzwalter Road are intended to Increase visibility for drivers and pedestrians, while reducing the risk of vehicle conflict.

The proposed restrictions on Norfolk Road and Claywood Drive were determined after requests from local residents who were unable to gain access to their driveways and where concerned of the ‘gauntlet like’ run that had been created by excessive commuter parking. The proposed double yellow lines will provide vehicle passing places and ensure access to those driveways most affected by inconsiderately parked vehicles.

I have attached a drawing which shows the extent of the scheme. I hope this shows that we have tried not to be too draconian in our approach to double yellow lines but have tried to get the balance right with regards to road safety, residents' parking requirements and the need for spaces for commuters.

If you require any supplementary information, or wish to discuss the proposals further, then please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Matt Longstaff
Highways Technician
Traffic Management
Transport and Highways Division
2-10 Carbrook Hall Road,
Sheffield, S9 2DB
(P) 0114 2736177
(F) 0114 2736182

Congratulations President Elect Obama!

It's a great relief to know that the warmonger President Bush is soon to be replaced in the White House- and its a great historic day to be able to welcome the first black President of the United States. Barack Obama has immense challenges on his hands-continued war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the financial crisis and looming recession, climate change and peak oil- any one of these would be a difficult enough problem for a new President. I believe he is serious in his plan to free the States from its addiction to oil and to cut greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050, although this may still not be enough to save the planet from catastrophic climate change. See his energy speech here on You Tube Unfortunately a bit like Gordon Brown and the Labour Party there are lots of contradictions in what he says- for instance massive expansion of biofuels is not going to help food prices and the millions across the planet that are already in extreme poverty. More investment in nuclear power is not a good idea. Support for the car industry should not be a high priority if he is serious about reducing emissions. But the emphasis on saving energy with more efficient buildings and massive investment in renewables is just what the planet doctor ordered!
Let's act quickly to make sure the people of the world are heard as Obama makes crucial choices in the coming days on how to live up to his campaign promises to secure a strong global treaty on climate change, ban torture and close Guantanamo prison, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to make global poverty history. Rarely has a US President been more likely to listen to us.
You can send a message to Obama here.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/million_messages_to_obama