Dear Messenger,

As a user of Abeyfield Park I feel the need to write to you in the hope that by airing concern over the park you can facilitate change. Timeline of Neglect follows.

1. "The Future of Abbeyfield Park" (issue 18 December 2001)

"After a site meeting with Ian Mitchell from the Sheffield City Council, he was shocked by the state that the playground had fallen into. He said that broken pieces of equipment will be repaired and that there will be a general clear up of the area. All the equipment will be given a coat of paint in the spring." No action or change taken.

2. Letter to the Messenger "Playgrounds and facilities for children in Burngreave" (Issue 29, March 2003)

Results, I recieved a telephone call from James Barnes, a council bureaucrat with some responsibility for the Parks, who passes on a tale of funding woe and good intentions. He invites me to participate in an environment theme group, and promises a phone call from the person with responsbility for Abbeyfield Park. The call never materialises, and I fail to see why I should invest my personal time making sure that paid officials perform correctly, I already invest a number of hours in community projects and have little spare time as it is. Again no action or changes result.

3. 21st June 2003, Abbeyfield Park. Further decay of the playpark and its equipment. The coat of paint that was promised in Spring 2002 still has not arrived. There is damage to the equipment with a metal fixing being completely broken off leaving a sharp stump which could injure a toddler.

Is Sheffield Council going to do anything about this, inside 5 years? This is the way that the Andover street play area went with deterioration over a number of years until eventually the site was removed.

Alan Dawson

The latest information on the painting of the play equipment is that a group of volunteers, working with Green City Action, are considering taking on the job in conjunction with Burngreave Rangers, although we’re still waiting on the official update from Sheffield City Council.
The Friends of Abbeyfield Park group meets monthly, call Corrine Muir, Burngreave Ranger, on 257 8840, to find out the date for the next meeting. [Ed]

Dear Messenger,

Residents of Firshill Road are very sorry but for the next few months your view of idyllic Firshill Road will be spoiled. There will be men, machines and mud not to mention the noise. So it maybe far safer to take your children on another route to school or the bus stop.

Why? Because Firshill Road is to receive a facelift. This was promised to residents in 2001 but never happened. Two years of individually corresponding with the Council and getting nowhere, we came together to form the Firshill Road Community Association, and to hold the Council to it’s promise of our inclusion in the facelift scheme. It took us three months, and some fantastic letter writing, and we got results.

Firshill Road Community Association would like to thank everyone who has supported them in getting the facelift scheme implemented, especially Cllrs Jackie Field and Ibrar Hussain.

Fiona Lewis,
Firshill Road Community Association