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.