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Local people must be heard
THE creation of an independent panel to look into radical proposals to close a Sheffield secondary school can be seen as a major victory for People Power in the Hillsborough area of the city. They continue to campaign against the decision to close Wisewood school and move the pupils to a new school on the Myers Grove campus, outside the suburb.
This is an early indication of a mood of conciliation that Labour must adopt as it hangs on to a delicately balanced hold on power at the town hall. It is also a belated sign that the party is prepared to swallow its pride and admit it badly misjudged the people’s mood.
However, there is more to this than asking a panel to look at what is best for the pupils. The battle was a wider one and ignited a community’s anger. They felt they were being ignored and their children’s futures manipulated to satisfy figures on a balance sheet.
For faith in local government to be reinstated, the panel must also take into account the grassroots feelings that the views of local people really matter.
Fining motorists is only part of answer
THE proposed clampdown on people flouting tram gates at Hillsborough Corner is only part of the answer. For the fact that as many as 5,000 drivers a day break that particular law shows that something is drastically wrong.
Otherwise law-abiding citizens break these rules due to mounting frustration and annoyance at a road layout which fails to take into account the vast majority of users. Fines will merely alienate a large number of people unless their reasons for breaking the rules are taken into consideration when the time comes to evaluate the clampdown.
Soapy ever after...
THE BBC has decided, to abandon an EastEnders baby kidnap plot in the wake of the disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann. But isn’t it time for the Walford writers, and those on the other soaps, to take a long hard look at all their other story lines? Wouldn’t it be nice after the near daily diet of rape, murder, adultery, deceit and despair to have at least one show where someone lives happily ever after?
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
