PAUL LICENSE: Wicker traders left to go to wall
REMEMBER the fuss over Wisewood School? How the Lib Dems pulled off a political coup by reversing a decision over closure, only to have their hopes shattered?
They managed to marshall a couple of opposition votes to their cause and demanded that officers go away and come up with a plan for keeping open the highly popular, successful and much respected school.
Of course, they were more than a bit naive in expecting this to happen.
When the report came back, it was far from the expected list of must-do options to achieve what the political wing of the council had demanded.
Before them was a stark statement of why the plan simply could not happen.
And it all added up to a clear reminder of who was in charge - and it wasn't the politicians.
And so to the present...
This time councillors have voted quite clearly to relax the rules for the Wicker Bus Gate.
At present it is operates 24 hours a day. That's right, even when there are no buses, we still have a bus gate.
With a refreshing flash of common sense, the decision was taken to try reducing the number of hours that the restrictions apply.
Pressed by local traders who have seen customers desert their businesses, councillors said the bus gate should only operate during the busiest part of the day: all traffic should be allowed to travel directly along the Wicker between 7pm and 7am.
Go away and find out what work would be needed to make this happen, officers of the council were told.
Those who thought that may be the end of the matter simply underestimated our town hall bureaucrats.
Instead of a list of jobs that may need doing, councillors next week will sit down to consider a report which once more simply tells them that they cannot have what they want.
And, in turn, that the people of Sheffield cannot have what they want - because that is the way democracy works.
We elect people to make decision on our behalf and they tell officials to do what they think we want.
In my humble opinion, the arrogance of the report going to councillors next week is astonishing.
We are told not what is needed to make this happen but are once more reminded that there are major road safety problems.
You see council officials are worried about people driving away from the city and making an illegal left turn in the centre of the Wicker.
By doing so, they then cross a pedestrian crossing and put lives at risk.
How do they know?
Because people have already started doing this. And if the regulations are relaxed, even more people will do it!
That exposes the huge chasm between reality and the municipal world.
A survey has shown that among the vehicles which illegally turn left are some taxis.
What has been done about this?
Have the officers hauled the Taxi Owners Association over the coals over this and read the riot act to them?
Have they had someone posted at the corner to get a few numbers and stripped the taxi licence from offenders?
Of course they haven't.
They have, in fact, only just got round to saying that something should be done about offenders.
The police were consulted and they, not surprisingly, seem to have to have thrown their hands in the air and admitted there is precious little they can do about it.
Hang on! Isn't this a serious situation? A danger to pedestrians? A disaster waiting to happen?
Or is it just a nice convenient way of reminding councillors who actually runs our council?
Let us be clear. The only danger comes when people disobey the rules (and there is a strong suspicion the majority who make an illegal turn do so because they become 'trapped' in the Wicker road network and fear driving through the all-seeing CCTV cameras).
I thought that people who broke rules were punished.
Not in Town Hall-ville. They are treated to a blind eye while the rest of us are inconvenienced.
And the Wicker traders are left to go to the wall.
What do you think? Add your comment below.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 24 May 2012
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