AREA CO-ORDINATOR’S PAGE

This is Stuart Bolton, your Area Co-ordinator, reporting back to you on what your Area Panel have been doing for you over November and what we will be up to in the New Year.

Don’t forget you can contact me at: Christ Church, Pitsmoor Road, tel. 276 9134 or write to me at: Room G44, Sheffield City Council, Old Town Hall, Sheffield, S1 2HH 

FAREWELL AND HELLO 

The Area Panel says farewell and thank you for all his work to Mr Iqbal who recently stood down as Chair of the Burngreave Community Action Forum and New Deal for Communities Partnership Board. And we say hello and good luck to Councillor Steve Jones, member of the Burngreave Area Panel, who has been voted in as the new Chair of the New Deal Partnership Board. 

WHAT A TIP 

On 22nd November a joint meeting of Burngreave and Southey and Owlerton Area Panel talked about the future of the Shirecliffe Dump-it site and Parkwood Landfill site. Mr Michael Doherty from the Council was able to answer some but not all of your questions. A lot of your questions went unanswered to everyone’s frustration, including the Area Panel’s. The Environment Agency who are responsible for controlling Parkwood Landfill site did not come to the meeting. The Area Panels supported your demands to move the dump-it site and close the landfill site and have recommended what that they want to see happen to the Council’s Cabinet. Burngreave Area Panel is now working to arrange another meeting to help get your questions about the Parkwood Landfill site answered. 

FIR VALE VOLUNTEERS 

Things are happening in Fir Vale as 9 local people have volunteered to be on a special committee to set up the Fir Vale Community Forum. There are many more people who have been working hard to get the Forum going and I hope a lot more of you will get involved in the future. Another bit of news is that the Council’s Housing service have sent a bid for £60,000 to the national Housing Corporation for money to help you put together a regeneration plan for Fir Vale, so we are waiting to see if it has been successful. 

OSGATHORPE PARK PRIDE 

Your Area Panel has been supporting work by local people and groups to improve Osgathorpe Park. The Council has helped by drawing up the plans for the idea of a new all-weather tarmac sports pitch. A group that is looking at how this could be paid for has identified £100,000 which has been given by a trust-fund to the Council to help improve the parks in the area. It is hoped that this money will help attract other funding and that this will be used to improve Osgathrope Park for the benefit of the whole of the community. 

A FUTURE BURNGREAVE 

Do you have ideas of what Burngreave could be like in the future? Yes? Then your Area Panel would like to hear what you think. We are having four afternoons between January to April 2002 across Burngreave and Fir Vale where you can drop-in and talk, write, draw to tell us what’s wrong in Burngreave, what would put it right and what living in Burngreave could be like in the future. This is all part of the review of the Unitary Development Plan which says what can and can’t happen to buildings and land in Burngreave. We will also be working with your schools and youth groups to get the ideas of young people and children and with local businesses to get their views. If you want to know more we will be talking about this at the next Area Panel meeting on the 10th January 2002 (see below) so come along. I hope to be able to offer free training in community consultation for people who are interested in helping to run the drop-in sessions. If you would like to know more about this then please contact me or come to the Area Panel meeting on the 10th January. 

WHAT A PROBLEM? 

It seems that in the last issue the wrong number got printed for the Streetforce hot line and I hope this has not caused any problems. The right number is 273 4567

HAVE YOUR SAY - NEXT AREA PANEL MEETINGS

Thursday 10th January 2002 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm - Pitsmoor Methodist Church, Burngreave Road. We will be talking about what you hope Burngreave will be like in 10 years? This meeting is the start of the public consultation on the new Unitary Development Plan that covers Burngreave. Tuesday 19th February 2002 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm - venue to be arranged. This meeting will include an update on the improvements to street cleaning in Burngreave