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Dear Messenger I write with regard to the general state of the area. Since Labour regained control of the council, the amount of street cleaning in the area has drastically reduced. Gower Street, between Earsham St and Carlisle St East, is never cleaned and Rock Street and Brunswick Road are a mess. It seems that the council concentrates its meagre efforts on the green at Ellesmere and totally ignores the rest. There are a number of areas that appear to have been deliberately planted with shrubs that add nothing aesthetically but trap litter, which is never cleared. No wonder house prices are so low when the place looks such a dump. I feel like I am being defrauded of my council tax. Having said that, if people didn’t drop litter, the money spent on street cleaning could be spent on other services (or a council tax cut – I wish!). What I find most distressing is that a large number of residents take no pride in their properties. It is a shame to see the work of the enveloping schemes being undone by home owners not maintaining their gardens and the failure of the council to enforce it’s own tenancy agreements. A significant number of council houses have disgraceful gardens. It won’t cost the council any money to change this, they just need to have some backbone. As far as owner occupiers are concerned, I don’t expect everybody to be Alan Titchmarsh but it is in home-owners own interest to keep their gardens tidy. It adds value to properties and make the area a more pleasant place to live. Lastly, I cannot comprehend why, with a few exceptions, local businesses insist on making their premises so unattractive to potential customers. I have ignored shops because they were in such a state, I didn’t realise that they are open for trading. It doesn’t take a lot to maintain attractive shop windows, pick up litter and weed frontages. The neglect all adds up to a lack of pride, in themselves, their businesses and the area. We don’t need New Deal money to greatly improve Burngreave, we just need the council to do what we already pay it to do, people to accept some personal responsibility and a little bit of effort. Yours
faithfully, Dear Messenger, After reading and wholeheartedly agreeing with Mr A. Dawson's letter in the March issue, I feel that I must bring up the issue of the bowling greens in Abbeyfield Park, which concerns the other end of the age range. There were 2 greens in the park up to a few years ago, when one was so badly vandalised that it has had to be abandoned and is now just a muddy patch of grass. This, obviously, leaves just one serviceable green which has been used every season since, and has too been ruined during the closed season by youths playing football on it. This now means that local bowlers from our own community now have no-where to bowl, as other greens in the area have also succumbed to vandalism and abandonment. Having been resident
in the Pitsmoor area for over forty years I know many members of
the Abbeyfield bowling club who are very angry at being deprived
of their sport. Anyone who knows anything at all about bowling greens
knows that correct foot wear is essential when walking on these
greens so as to prevent damage, and it All we ask is that people young and old not to walk on the greens if and when they are repaired and for parents to ask their children not to play on them. Maybe some of the money being spent in the area could be used to fence off the bowling green so that it is not destroyed again when it is left unattended. yours
sincerely, (See this month's article Green with envy for the latest developments regarding the Abbeyfield Park bowling green). "Film Review" Those Burngreave residents who stayed in to watch "The Guns of War" or "Coronation Street" on the first Monday of Spring had a tame evening compared to those who witnessed the drama and raw passion on the silver screen at the Verdon Street Multiplex. Superintendent
Brennan (South Yorkshire Police), a compulsive movie goer, said
he hadn't seen such a gripping and exciting film for years! The referee, of impressive physical stature, had trouble when the actors started flinging verbal accusations and insults at each other and had to call in his deputy, who wore a different hat. The film was about making Burngreave a better place and all the actors knew how to do it - provided their plans weren't sabotaged by some of the other actors. 'Film
Critic'
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