A Liberal View Of Sheffield

A new Great Sheffield Flood

2007-06-26T00:11:00.000+01:00

Anyone who's been watching the news today will have seen the reports of terrible flooding in Yorkshire - and Sheffield has been badly hit.

What originally seemed like a mere repeat of the flooding 10 days ago has turned into a fully-fledged natural disaster. Initially it seemed the flooding would be a minor irritation as rivers burst their banks and caused several roads to be closed, leading to gridlock in the city centre and the Meadowhall area.

But as flood waters started alarmingly to take over the city's streets, many people abandoned their cars and headed for safety - a good move, as this picture suggests.

Defensive walls along the Lower Don are reported to have collapsed, and many of the city's bridges have been completely swamped. Persistent rumour has it that the ancient Lady's Bridge - which survived the 1864 Great Sheffield Flood - may have collapsed. We shall have to see in the morning what the damage is.

Hundreds of people are being evacuated from premises in the Brightside Lane area - including the city's main Royal Mail sorting office.

And two people - a 13-year-old boy and a 68-year-old man - sadly died after being swept away by flood waters.

A resident at Millsands took these dramatic pictures of the flooding, and people being winched to safety by a Sea King rescue helicopter:

A massive praise for the folks at Sheffield Forum who have set up a special forum and information service for people affected by the flooding.

And for once, I'm going to give the thumbs up to Sky News (shock horror) - they were covering the situation in Sheffield while BBC News 24 were still telling us about rain delays at Wimbledon. Grr.

Council AGM (and that Labour reshuffle in full)

2007-05-23T11:53:00.000+01:00

My colleague Anders has already covered what happened at the AGM in some detail, so I'll be brief:

Labour retained minority control of the Council after the Greens and the lone Tory abstained
Labour supported the Greens' bid for a position on the Transport Authority, as well as voting in the Tory as chair of the Resources scrutiny board.

This means we have an all-Labour cabinet, with some minor changes:

Cllr Tim Rippon replaces Cllr Robert MacDonald as Economic Regeneration, Culture and Planning spokesman. Cllr MacDonald moves to a sub-cabinet role - Cabinet Adviser for Personnel.

Cllr Terry Fox leaves the Transport portfolio and the Cabinet. Cllr Fox is replaced by Cllr Bryan Lodge, who will take expand his existing Streetscene portfolio to include Transport.

Astute readers will notice that both members who are leaving the Cabinet are up for election in marginal wards next time - Terry Fox in Gleadless Valley and Robert MacDonald in Hillsborough.

Cllr. Jan Wilson has been re-elected as Council Leader, and Cllrs. Jones, Harpham, Weldon, Rooney, and Lea have retained their respective cabinet positions. Cllrs. Price and Barton stay on as Scrutiny Board chairs, for Culture, Economy and Sustainability, and Successful Neighbourhoods respectively.

On the Lib Dem side of the aisle, Cllr. Clive Skelton replaces Cllr. Roger Davison as chair of the Health Scrutiny Board. Cllr. John Knight remains chair of the Children and Young People (i.e. education) Scrutiny Board.

There are no changes to the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet team, with Cllrs. Scriven, Sangar, Anginotti, McCann, Auckland, Mohammed, Baker (David), Dunkley and Clement-Jones poised to continue their excellent work.

You can view the full list of portfolio-holders here.

Labour start education climb-down

2007-05-23T11:14:00.000+01:00

Well, it's finally happened - Sheffield Labour have realised that closing a well-liked local school is actually unpopular.

Labour councillors are now planning a "review panel" to examine deeply unpopular plans to close Wisewood and Myers Grove schools.

There will be three members of the panel in total:

" a senior city educationalist"
"a leading parent-governor", and
"a recruit from the public sector"

although it remains to be seen who they actually appoint to these positions - and who will make the appointments!

The alert among you will have noticed that Labour have promised very little here - merely that they will look again at "all the options".

What "all the options" are is left to interpretation - local parents will remember well that last year the options given at consultation were

a) closure and merger of the two schools, or
b) there is no option B...

(In fact, Hillsborough Labour Councillor Robert MacDonald was quoted at the time as saying it was "the only option" - how they've changed their tune!)

They have also stopped short of restarting the public consultation process - a key step demanded by local parents' group Save Our Community Schools.

But by far the most comical part of the announcement has to be this - the sheer naked self-interest that has motivated it. Labour leader Jan Wilson goes so far as to admit that this apparent re-think is motivated by one thing alone - their defeat in Hillsborough Ward (and ergo the desire of the remaining two Labour councillors to save their skins...)

"It is absolutely clear that we lost due to new voters voting against Labour on the school amalgamation issue - we need to take notice of this," said she.

Be in no doubt, local parents will not be fooled by this - they will want to know categorically that their local schools are safe before they even consider voting Labour again.

Labour's press release leaves no doubt whatsoever: if local residents in Hillsborough had not rejected Labour so overwhelmingly on May 3rd there would be no question of any re-think of these plans whatsoever. Good for them I say.

Sheffield Labour lefties - read this and despair

2007-05-18T17:25:00.001+01:00

Sheffield Labour MPs nominating Gordon Brown:

David Blunkett (Sheffield Brightside)
Richard Caborn (Sheffield Central)
Angela Smith (Sheffield Hillsborough)
Meg Munn (Sheffield Heeley)
Clive Betts (Sheffield Attercliffe)

Sheffield Labour MPs not nominating Gordon Brown:

(none)

Any Labour members out there who wanted a contest - you know who to blame...

Also I read that Meg Munn (edit: and Angela Smith and Clive Betts) supported today's thoroughly shameful attempt to make MPs exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Not a good day for what the Labour Party is meant to stand for, really.

Labour lose control of Sheffield

2007-05-06T05:31:00.000+01:00

Superb - simply superb.

Labour 41 seats (-3)

Liberal Democrats 39 seats (+4)

Green Party 2 seats (-)

Conservatives 1 seat (-1)

Independent 1 seat (-)

Congratulations to the following new Lib Dem Councillors:

Councillor Steve Ayris (member for Hillsborough - LD gain from Lab)
Councillor Denise Reaney (member for Gleadless Valley - LD gain from Lab)
Councillor Penny Baker (member for Walkley - LD gain from Lab)
Councillor Mike Davis (member for Dore & Totley - LD gain from Con)
Councillor Colin France (member for Nether Edge - LD hold)

Sheffield, Hallam - notional majority increased

2007-05-06T05:20:00.000+01:00

In keeping with the theme of Lib Dem held seats doing rather well at the local elections, here is the full vote share for Sheffield, Hallam on the new boundaries. Changes from last time are in parentheses.

LD 44.1% (+2.6)
Con 21.3% (-1.4)
Lab 10.7% (+0.4)
Grn 7.2% (-0.5)
UKIP 0.8% (-0.1)
Others 0.0% (-0.8)

Also, all five Council seats were won by over 1,000 votes - including a gain from the Tories. Councillors in the constituency now stand at LD 14, Con 1, Others 0.

The final remaining Tory is up for election next year, where they could be wiped out in Sheffield district for the first time since its creation.

Congrats to Nick Clegg and his excellent organiser Anders Hanson!

Greens vote against recycling

2007-04-30T13:39:00.000+01:00

This letter was printed in the Sheffield Telegraph on the 27th April.

I was amazed to learn that the Greens had voted against the Lib Dem proposal for an extra £1million for recycling in Sheffield. I used to be a big supporter of the Greens, and stood for them in the local elections a couple of times. I stopped supporting them when I realised that their hostility to business and trade, although well-intended, would condemn millions to poverty, billions if followed worldwide.

On reflection, Green Party policies like the 20 mph speed limit throughout built up areas – making cars less efficient and bus services much more expensive to run – were always about getting the basics wrong. So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by the recycling vote.

If greens – of all parties and none – have succeeded in something it is in winning widespread agreement that environmental challenges exist and should be faced up to. But the way to face the challenge of global warming isn’t to stop the city moving – to demand that we sit at home and forego the delights that this fantastic city has to offer us. There are other challenges we face too: poverty, education, healthcare, threats to peace and freedom. Failures on these can be just as deadly as failures on the environment.

Equipping ourselves to face all these challenges means getting the city moving, working and studying hard, supporting science and defending liberty, as well as saving energy, cutting pollution and spending an extra £1m on recycling. I fear the Greens would sacrifice the tools needed to do the job properly.

Calling all Crookes residents: the Tories are trying to con you

2007-04-12T09:31:00.000+01:00

Oh dear oh dear. We're barely a week into the new campaign and already I'm going to have to dust off the Golden Porkie award - and since the Tories romped away with it last year it's only fitting that the Tory candidate for Crookes should be the first one out of the gate this year. And it's an absolute stinker.

The latest "inTouch" from Tory Robert McIlveen - which I feel looks uncomfortably like a tax return form - bears the headline

Only the Tories offer value for money here

And goes on to scaremonger about how those nasty Lib Dems are going to raise your Council Tax.

EXCEPT: the Conservatives in Sheffield proposed RAISING the Council Tax by 2.9%, which is ABOVE the rate of inflation. The Lib Dem budget contained a below-inflation rise of just 1.96% - a cut in real terms.

The Tories have a real problem in Sheffield. People have started to realise that this election is about Lib Dem vs. Labour in the Town Hall. They want to vote for a party that can win - and all the evidence shows that the Tories could be completely wiped out by May 2008. But if these bare-faced lies are all they can offer in response to genuine community action by the Lib Dems, it will be well deserved.

There you go my friend - wear it with pride.

e-voting and a delayed count

2007-04-10T09:38:00.000+01:00

For those who aren't aware, Sheffield will be conducting a second e-voting trial at the upcoming local elections.

Between 7.00 am on 26 April and 7.00 am on 30 April, those who have registered in advance for a password will be able to vote on the Internet or over the telephone.

There will also be an early voting "kiosk" at the Town Hall available between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm on 26 to 29 April.

I will myself be sticking with a postal vote. I, like the rest of the Lib Dem group, have grave concerns over the ability to verify or challenge the e-vote: you are quite simply given a piece of paper with the result on come the day of the count.

The complexity of the new system means that the count will be held on Friday morning - a system which just seems wrong to me! I doubt I'll be able to muster much sleep, even after an exhausting 17-hour polling day.

However, there is a silver lining for us activists - for once we will be able to watch the election coverage on TV!

You can still register for a postal vote if you need one.

No Respect?

2007-04-06T18:27:00.000+01:00

I see that Sheffield Respect candidate Maxine Bowler has a new blog set up for the local elections.

Unfortunately, she has chosen not to enable comments on her blog, so I will have to respond to her here.

First: Maxine, you need to get an election imprint for your blog!

Second: Your latest election leaflet says the following:

"Maxine from Respect is the only politician who has committed herself fully to the plight of these earthquake victimes. She has taken time to visit people there."

Will you now apologise to Lib Dem Cllr. Shaffaq Mohammad who spent three weeks living with and helping earthquake victims in Kashmir following the disaster? I understand that Respect's contribution was limited to a five-day whistle-stop tour of the region.

Let's have respect where respect is due!

Conservative leader conspicuously absent from Internet debate

2007-04-05T00:22:00.000+01:00

City institution SheffieldForum.co.uk is breaking new ground this election by conducting interviews with the leaders of local political parties. Site users will suggest questions, and the best will be put to all of the politicians who are taking part.

Site founder Geoff says:

"So far, apart from the Conservatives who haven't replied yet (hint, hint), the leader of Sheffield's Liberal Democrat, Labour and the Green party have all agreed to field questions put to them by the users of Sheffield Forum."

It would be nice for the Sheffield Conservatives to put in an appearance. After all, David Cameron promised us that we would all get a local manifesto from our local Tory group. I'd been looking forward to hearing some actual Tory policies this election!

This post marks the beginning of the election period - don your hard hats everyone!

Father of five shot dead in Pitsmoor

2007-03-14T09:19:00.000Z

This is appalling: Taxi driver dies in city shooting (BBC)

I am simply furious that this sort of thing can happen in the city where I live.

From the BBC's description it sounds like he was the innocent victim of a road rage attack! I can't get my head around it if that's true.

My deepest sympathies to his family.

Consultation, Labour style

2007-03-05T11:13:00.000Z

There is a report on the outcome of the consultation to replace Myers Grove and Wisewood schools with a single school on the Myers Grove site.

Now there never was any secret that parents are against the proposal to close one school and have the other taken over by friends of Tony Blair. So we might wonder what nuances of opposition a consultation exercise might usefully discover. If you are determined to do what parents don't want anyway, it is smug and condescending to go through a consultation exercise - to pretend to be interested in what people think before saying how much cleverer you are.

So let's have a look at what the report on this consultation exercise says:

3.13 The Governors of Wisewood Secondary surveyed the opinion of parents through a letter and ‘tear-off’ slip response. A total of 130 responses were forwarded to us, of which only 1 was broadly in favour of the proposals.

Note the extra qualification "broadly" in favour. At least one person in 130 will sugar coat their objections with "It's a good idea, but...". I expect that counts as being broadly in favour.

4.23 The reaction to the question of whether the Local Authority should submit a bid to run the new school as a Community school was overwhelmingly in favour of a Community school. Most written responses were absolutely categorical about wanting only a Community school whether or not they were opposed to the reorganisation. The debate at the meetings was more sophisticated. People that attended had the opportunity to understand the Trust model in more detail and perhaps gain some reassurance about it (although this was not voiced)....

Perhaps the council has realised that the people of Wisewood do not want their school closed. (Although this has not been voiced.) Good grief. How smug and patronising can you get?

4.27 The Council has listened to a very clear response during the consultation on the issue of bidding for a Community school. At this stage it is proposed to seek the Secretary of State’s consent to enter the competition but this position will be reviewed if there are indications that one or more alternative providers will come forward that will meet the aspirations of the community.

We will do what the people want only as a last resort, if there is absolutely no other choice.

We are told that the new school under these proposals will be able to "develop links to the community" (section 2.6). But the trust and academy models are about breaking links with the community, having unaccountable Tony's cronies guaranteed able to outvote parent and community governors. And the idea that the new school would have better links with the Wisewood community is laughable in the extreme. What planet are these people on?

"I doubt I will live to see this seat elect another Conservative" - former Hallam MP (well, maybe)

2007-02-15T21:18:00.000Z

Have just seen this very interesting post on the Sheffield Hallam page of the UK Polling Report blog. It purports to be from a certain Sir Irvine Patnick whom you may remember as the former Tory MP for Sheffield Hallam:

Sputnik-1 in orbit.
Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"As a former MP for this constituency, it is interesting how the electorate has changed quite significantly in this constituency even in the last 10 years. Whereas in 1997 there was a strong anti-Conservative swing nationally, and a particularly strong Lib Dem campaign, where the Labour vote actually fell, there has been no evidence to suggest that the Conservatives are in any better position here than they were in 1997- in fact our vote has fallen even further.

"I do firmly believe that there has been a recent demographic shift here from the ‘old money’ that got me elected in 1987, to a substantial public sector proportion of the electorate who feel naturally inclined to the Liberals. Whether or not the Conservatives can reverse their downward trend remains to be seen, but I doubt I will live to see this seat elect another Conservative. Both Richard Allan and Nick Clegg have managed to cultivate a strong personal following in Hallam, something which is hard to break when their party has never been in office and is thus totally unaccountable."

Nice bitter parting shot there!

It may also interest readers to note that another commenter on the blog has confirmed that Tory Mike Waters will be stepping down from his council seat in Dore this may. I'll pass no comment on the alleged reasons for his retirement at this stage!

Nick Clegg is the sexiest male MP according to Sky

2007-02-14T16:06:00.000Z

Apparently.

*waits with bated breath for the Sheffield Star's take on this...*

Less than half satisfied with Labour's city council

2007-02-09T09:38:00.000Z

Have just stumbled across some figures on the the Local Government website that relate to Sheffield. According to the latest satisfaction ratings, only 49% of people are satisfied with the overall service provided by Labour-run Sheffield City Council.

Compare this with Lib Dem-run Newcastle where the rating is a healthy 64% - well above the national average.

Who knew that selling of their schools and closing their roads would make people unhappy?

New campaign website

2007-02-08T16:34:00.001Z

You can sign our petition against the closure of Wisewood School by going to www.savewisewood.com.

Local labour not listening

2007-02-08T16:28:00.000Z

Have just heard through the grapevine that there was another Lib Dem amendement on the schools issue at Full Council yesterday. Basically, we were supporting the idea of two small schools on the Wisewood and Myers Grove sites. Once again, all three of Labour's Hillsborough councillors voted it down.

This is despite more warm words in public meetings suggesting that certain of them were opposed to the plans!

One wonders how long they can keep up this utter contempt for the people that voted for them in the first place...

Local schools under threat

2006-11-07T18:59:00.000Z

You may have noticed there has been a great deal in the local press lately about the school rebuilding plans in north-west Sheffield. The Labour plan is to knock down Wisewood and Myers Grove schools and build a new "super-school" on the Myers Grove site.

On reading the documents, my first reaction was "stitch-up" - that the decision had already been made to create a new Trust school in North Sheffield in line with the Government's wishes.

The fact that the funding has already been applied for (a decision will be made before the consultation period is finished) suggests to me that this has been in the pipeline for a lot longer than Labour would have us think

Indeed, a letter in the Sheffield Star seems to confirm this:

[...]

"I was told about the merger of Wisewood and Myers over a month ago by a Sheffield MP but was asked not to 'quote' her because it was only an idea in its early stages."

[...]

(Angela Smith is the current MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, which contains both Wisewood and Myers Grove.)

A Lib Dem councillor confided in me that they had heard rumours of the closure "months ago". Another said that the odds were "so heavily stacked against the LEA" that the new school would almost certainly be a Trust school.

There is a consulation period starting on November 13 (next Monday) and finishing on January 31, but it contains no alternative plans - just an opportunity to approve the one scheme on offer (or not!)

Teachers at Wisewood have already come out against the plans.

For what it's worth, this blogger will be getting squarely behind the parents' and teachers' efforts to keep Wisewood open.

The Mary Lea Greenwash

2006-09-28T15:57:00.000+01:00

At Wednesday's Council meeting, Labour's Mary Lea will move a motion containing the following:

That this Council:

(a) confirms that Sheffield is the greenest City in England

Hurrah! That was easy! What's next?

(Pssst - Isn't Sheffield's household recycling rate still well below the average for England?)

You can read the full Notice of Motion here, if you're inclined to believe that sort of thing.

Update: I really should read the whole Council Summons, because if I had I would also have noticed Bryan Lodge talking about "Sheffield’s reputation as England’s greenest City". Winning a gold medal for Entente Florale is a laudable acheivement, but it still isn't going to create a reputation out of thin air.

If they spin any harder they're going to fall down...

Labour - always "listening"

2006-07-13T00:21:00.000+01:00

Word reaches me that Sheffield City Council is conducting a "consultation" exercise this Friday and Saturday at the Town Hall. (See image right - as a rigid grammarian, this blogger is never more delighted than when the perpetrators of punctuation abuse become the unwitting victims.)

For those who haven't been to one of these before, the usual format is that you are asked to fill in a questionnaire (this time on street cleansing, recycling and anti-social behaviour) and then the Labour Party uses the results of that questionnaire for political purposes. Oh, and you have to foot the bill for the publicity for the event, rumoured to be up to £100k. (Don't worry about the precedent though, you're already paying for the "Your Council" leaflets that are going around....)

The good news is, however, that there is a part of the event where you can go along and meet local councillors, not all of whom are members of the Labour Party - so if you have a genuine question to ask, get yourselves down there and don't take no for an answer. It's in the Town Hall square - look for the Political Big Tent.

Not The World Cup Final

2006-06-29T22:47:00.000+01:00

For those Lib Dem Bloggers who are in the Sheffield area, we are running an event on the evening of Saturday 8th July called Not The World Cup Final, where there will be an opportunity to watch the penultimate game of the World Cup (the 3rd/4th place playoff) and chat with some local Lib Dems. (For those non-Lib Dem readers of this blog, you may make your jokes about the Lib Dems' interest in third place in the comments...)

Food, drink and half-time entertainment will be laid on, as well as (of course) some light political discussion. You don't expect us to talk about football all evening, do you?

The event is at the Princess Royal on Slinn Street in Crookes, and starts at 7.30 PM. All are welcome. Details on Flock Together here.

Also, fellow Sheffield blogger Joe Otten is organising a Sheffield Liberal Drinks meeting on July 18th - details here. Again all are welcome.

Tags: Sheffield, Liberal Democrats

Localism, Cameron-style

2006-06-15T11:08:00.000+01:00

Today's Yorkshire Post carries the risible news that David Cameron has appointed Oliver Heald MP as the Tories' "Shadow Minister for Sheffield" - presumably to investigate ways of buying back support in the city and convince us all that the Conservatives "aren't all about the Home Counties any more".

Yes, that's Oliver Heald, Member of Parliament for North East Hertfordshire, who as far as we can tell has absolutely nothing to do with the city whatsoever.

Well, Mr. Heald, A Liberal View of Sheffield cordially welcomes you to your new post, invites you to inspect the 2006 result in the only seat in Sheffield where you hold councillors and offers the propitious suggestion that you start work now.

To our regular readers - any sightings of Oliver Heald actually within the boundaries of Sheffield will be appreciated (as well as greeted with an abundance of raised eyebrows).

Rob Cole bolts piano to pavement

2006-06-08T16:10:00.000+01:00

We are assuming that this story from StreetPianos.org (yes, really) is referring to Sheffield Hallam's Green candidate in 2005, Rob Cole: -

Anyway, Doug and I and housemate Nick picked up Jane's piano with the help of our mate Rob and his van. Rob, a young dreadlocked hippie, professional kitchen-fitter and Green Party candidate also helped us bolt this piano to the pavement.

It's nice to get these rare insights into what the opposition are doing with their spare time.

I for one would like to see more street orchestral facilities in Sheffield - just imagine the possibilities! Timpanis in Tinsley! Gongs in Gleadless! Church organs in Chapeltown! And all free from the threat of petty theft. I'm drafting a motion as we speak.

Rob Cole (left), musical instrument security
for hire

Keep up the good work, Rob!

City Council to congratulate Sheffield United

2006-06-07T09:50:00.000+01:00

Notice of Motion 16 for today's Full Council:

That this Council:

(a) congratulates Sheffield United Football Club on its promotion to the Premier League;

(b) also recognizes Sheffield United Football Club’s involvement with the local community, particularly by:

(i) partnership working with Sharrow Community Forum and the work done in attracting funding from Europe for the Enterprise Centre, resulting in the Community Room being provided in John Street;

(ii) supporting Football Unites Racism Divides for the last 7 years by providing unique facilities for their Community Day and supporting other anti racist activities;

(iii) sponsoring the Annual Sharrow Festival;

(iv) working with St Mary’s Church and Community Centre and providing facilities for worship when redevelopment work was taking place; and

(v) visiting users of St Wilfrid’s Day Centre on a regular basis; and

(c) directs that a copy of this Motion be sent to Sheffield United Football Club.

I'm sure Joe Otten, being as he is from the red-and-white half of the city, will be more enthusiastic than I - nevertheless I can get behind it and congratulate them on their albeit temporary success.

Might I suggest one small amendment though?

The deletion of (c) is to be replaced by: -

(c) directs Councillor Peter Price to deliver by hand a copy of this Motion to Sheffield United Football Club.