Planning 27th June

The weekly planning list mostly shows applications for extensions to dwelling houses which are put as 'Likely Delegated Decision', while anything with wider implications is put down as 'Likely Planning Committee Decision. 'But there are some that might slip by. One such is the application for the building of a 'recording studio' in the garden of a house on Dobcroft Road. This is down as 'Likely Delegated' but might repay closer scrutiny. The submission from the agent is up online and it makes much of the fact that the householder currently uses a studio near the city centre and using a new studio in the garden would mean considerable savings in travel and thus carbon emissions. It is also stated that there is no intention to use drums as the use will be purely for vocal recording and the accompaniments will be added digitally later. Hmmmm! And should this be granted what force would this commitment have legally, in, say, 5 years time?

You can read the details of this and other applications by following the link on this document.

Mylnhurst School Meeting

From a resident of Woodholm Road

On June 11th a meeting was organised by residents of Wooodholm Road to discuss proposed developments on the site of Mylnhurst School. These plans include ‘demolition of existing nursery block, erection of replacement nursery and reception block, formation of new access road and construction of multi-use games area with associated car parking’. The main concern of residents is the construction of the new two-way road into the school from Woodholm Road, by means of which parents will drop their children off at the school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon.
There are existing traffic problems in the morning and afternoon during term-time, when Woodholm Road and adjacent roads are full of cars. At such times it is difficult and hazardous for residents to attempt to exit from their driveways into the road. Residents fear that the developments will greatly aggravate existing difficulties of congestion and hold-ups because the volume of traffic using Woodholm Road will increase substantially and will continue to do so as, as is intended, the new nursery expands. Moreover it is understood that parking spaces at Mylnhurst School itself will mainly be restricted to evenings and weekends.
There are some fine mature trees where it is intended to build the access road. There is a preservation order on these trees but residents are concerned that the proposed road cannot be constructed without avoiding damage to the trees and to their root systems, thus placing the health and viability of the trees at serious risk.
Considerable anger was also expressed with Mylnhurst School for the school’s failure to keep informed of their plans those residents who are the ones most likely to be adversely affected.

Michael Heap.

Mylnhurst School and Local Residents

There was a meeting last week for residents of Woodholm Road and Button Hill who are concerned about the plans for major developments to Mylnhurst School. Those who already feel some unhappiness about the level of school related traffic are now wondering about the impact of the new work which could mean even more traffic and other problems. The plans and comments from residents can be read on the online planning website here.

Community Assembly Meeting

Some information on the agenda of next week's South West Community Assembly meeting is on the poster below. It's not a lot and the more detail should be available in the next day or so which should be on this page of the council's website. The key things here are that there will be something about Highways priorities in the area and something about parks and green spaces.
The meeting will be preceded at 6 pm by a presentation about the future of Forge Dam.

NB The link to the page for Community Assembly Agendas is here. Why it is that there have to be two pages on the council website on the same topic disgreeing with each other is a mystery.
The direct link to the agenda for next Thursday is here.

Now You Choose, Now You Don't

The You Choose event previously notified has been cancelled due to 'uncertainty' about the funding. Small grants up to £2000 were applied for by local groups and the event was to be a chance for local people to vote for their preferred recipients and their projects. This will now be done by a group of councillors on their own. Not much advance there. But some always thought the You Choose idea was something of a distraction from what local involvement and participation should be about (-"throwing trinkets to the natives" was how one citizen described it).

Some accounts are now suggesting that funding for community assemblies and their devolved schemes is to be reined in as a policy of the new Labour administration. The result would be that more decisions would be taken centrally. As Labour have said they have abandoned their 'favoured areas' strategy this, if true, would hold open the back door to the same thing. This information came from councillors of the Lib Dem opposition so we should perhaps not take it as gospel until confirmed.

Community Assembly Meeting 23rd June

So far no news about the agenda of the South West Community Assembly meeting on 23rd June. This will be at Totley Primary School. The agendas and reports are usually published a week before the meeting on the council's website. Some of us have asked for more advance notice about what is due to come up with so far no success. It would be useful for the public within community forums to have the chance to get a grass roots view beforehand. When I've raised this before I've been told that the public Community Assembly meetings are not primarily a forum for the public but just a meeting of councillors at which the public can see them in operation. I still think we should expect something better. This would be no progress from the old Area Panels at a time when participation is what all parties claim to want. And what happened to the general consensus around more local paticipation going back even before the 2009 Sustainable Communities Bill?

Crime Wave

Local police are saying that there is an unusual amount of 'new' crime taking place in the Sheffield area. Theft and burglary are of a kind that they find different to the kind they have been familiar with. Often crimes immediately suggest the style of certain known culprits and this is not the case with the recent increase, suggesting criminals have moved in from elsewhere. People are being advised to take more care in locking cars and houses and being generally on the alert.

My own recent experience may also be instructive. The Tesco Abbeydale Road Store's RBS cash machine held on to my debit card the other day. It later transpired that a device had been attached to the machine and a villain nearby had been watching to discern my pass number. After I went to inform the Store Manager the card was taken out in my absence and over the next hour or two attempts were made to withdraw a lot of money from machines around the city. Fortunately I had been very careful to make sure nobody could see my number being punched in and the bank quickly spotted unusual activity and stopped the card.