City folk only happy having a good moan

Central Library and Graves Art Gallery. Picture: Andrew Roe

The current debate about converting the Central Library into a five-star hotel, for instance, is already attracting cries of foul, when it would be a much-needed asset to the city. The crumbling library building would be lost anyway without a huge investment of capital which the city simply doesn’t have.

The people of Rustlings Road moaning about the loss of eight trees which are to be replaced with 17 new ones and moans about the loss of 4,000 trees across the city which are being replaced with 50,000 new ones is well documented. People have moaned for decades about the state of the city’s roads and footpaths and now moan that they are being done.

Sheffielders moaned about the World Student Games. Yet the facilities have raised the city’s reputation as a city of sport and brought in millions of pounds over the years. Without the Student Games other newer facilities would not have come to fruition, such as Ice Sheffield, Institute of Sport and the current Olympic Legacy and FA-sponsored projects at Don Valley, Graves, High Green and Westfield.

There were vociferous moans about keeping Park Hill Flats, yet it is already providing much-needed homes and business spaces with more on the way.

There were moans about the University of Sheffield’s new Diamond Building, yet this state-of-the-art facility is educating the much-needed engineers of tomorrow.

Ironically, the people of the city bemoan the progress and forward thinking of other cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham, yet they moan, object and complain over every project or investment decision ever made.

I was brought up to appreciate the things in life that others did for me. I am just an ordinary joe, born and bred in Sheffield, I am not linked to the council, Amey, or associated with any of the aforementioned projects.

Come on Sheffielders, stop sitting on your hands, stop expecting the rest of the world to fit in with you, begin to appreciate which side your bread is buttered, or should that be dripping? Show some civic pride and let’s get this not quite perfect city up amongst the best.

Ooh, did I just moan?

S Miller