We Shall Not Be Fooled

On Sunday 21 September, letters from Sheffield City Council Housing & Direct Services were pushed through doors of houses and maisonettes right across Pye Bank and Woodside.

Titled in bold The Future of Woodside the letter called for two public meetings.
On the letter from Burngreave Housing Office several suggestions were as follows:

• Clearing some of the empty maisonettes and flats before landscaping the sites?
• Clearing and redeveloping homes for sale, along with possible Housing Association homes?
• Total clearance of all council housing stock and landscaping the sites?
• Total clearance of all council housing stock and selling out the land to private development!

At the meeting the Council representative suggested that the land we live on is worthless. People inside the meeting began to show discontent, not everyone wants to leave Woodside. We know it's a mess but maybe we can change things in our favour. Gleesons produced a strategy for redevelopement which envisages designer houses that we could own as a New Deal Housing association or Co-op, worth thinking about!

"Future of Woodside" surgeries to be held at Woodside Community Centre, Andover Drive:

• Wed 10 October 10:30 - 12:00noon
• Wed 17 October 3:30 - 5:00pm
• Wed 24 October 4:30 - 6:00pm
• Wed 31 October 3:30 - 5:00pm
• Wed 07 November 4:30 - 6:00pm

On Pye Bank and Woodside there are many derelict and empty properties and this was forecast to be the main issue at the two meetings held inside Woodside Community Centre on Wednesday 26^th Sept at 9.30am and again at 6.30pm. Drawing a small turnout in the morning the questions began on demolishing properties around Pye Bank and Woodside. Some people attending showed interest in suggestions of compensation for relocation.

I went along to the meeting held at 6.30pm which I believe drew a larger turnout than the morning session. Sheffield City Council's representative began by saying that consultation and involvement of residents on Pye Bank and Woodside was a main priority. This is the reason for them calling what will be a series of meetings and consultations in the area.

was a question to a restless audience who, through past experiences, was well primed to any tactics from Council policy makers. Cleaning up the area was a suggestion from one of the residents.

Many questions were raised. Why has Pye Bank been allowed to run down? Why has housing policy been to close the list for the area when properties lay empty?

When a vote was taken most people were in favour of demolishing empty maisonettes and upgrading the Italian designed ‘upside-down’ houses. The suggestion of demolishing the whole lot was not fully supported.

"We were not Fooled By the Council Representative's Suggestion"

People were not fooled by the suggestion that the land we live on is worthless. With this suggestion people inside Woodside began to show discontent and voice past experiences and distrust of any real consultation being done. We are aware that the properties on the land have been rendered worthless, but any private property developers in their right mind would see this empty land as very profitable.

Are Housing Services selling us out?

The Council policy of closing the list for the area and not encouraging people to move into Woodside and Pyebank may well have contributed to the decline. While it may seem Housing Services could be selling us out, it is also a fact that some of us in our ignorance are sadly helping every step of the way.

Vandalism is the main cause of our downfall and some of our own children that dismantle a firm foundation that should truly be theirs in the future.

It's a beautiful place

From the upside-down houses and maisonettes our view looks out across the whole of Sheffield. Living on high ground so near the City Centre, will most definitely become an asset.A Strategy for Woodside Estate’ is a report worth looking at. Commissioned by the council in October 2000 and carried out by Gleesons it sets out a strategy that at £4 million is affordable to NDC in conjunction with other funding bodies like Objective 1 and Yorkshire Forward. We could have the designer houses and we could own them as a New Deal Housing Co-op or Association for this community, worth thinking about! Our first step in that direction is representation from within. And our children must stop shitting on their own doorstep.