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?