'How the chickens have come home to roost on Sheffield council housing' - Reader's letter
Mary Steele of Deerlands Avenue on the council housing situation in Sheffield...
I would like to reply as follows to H.J. Greaves' letter (27.8.2026):
On the 16th January 2020, I had a letter printed in The Star entitled 'A most callous act of wanton destruction'.
A letter bemoaning the threatened demolition of hundreds of solid, double-brick council houses on Parson Cross. Many of which had been partially modernised. An act defended (or maybe proposed?) by some existing Councillors at the time but how the chickens have come home to roost!
In my understanding, the government gave thousands of pounds to improve conditions for those living in almost 'slum' conditions and ageing, decaying properties but, it seems, the council, at the time, had their own ideas for the money because the exact same properties that stood alongside are still tenanted and look far better than many homes to be seen around Sheffield today.
It did not, however, go unnoticed that not one property in the then existing Councillors' wards were demolished despite their more advanced age!
Along with many others, I spent years attempting to stop the demolition and witnessed the raw pain and anguish of people ejected from long-standing homes that had provided the stability and comfort for so many years.
People who had lived in those cramped hovels of old and appreciated the luxury of spacious council houses with gardens and modern facilities only dreamed of in the past.
In fact, 10,504 council properties across Sheffield were demolished at that time, but only 339 rebuilt so where was the foresight of those Councillors in which so many placed their faith?
Maybe lost in the thought that 'I'm alright, Jack' while homeless people now sleep on the streets in all weathers.
Sadly, some of those small, derelict sites on Parson Cross have, over the years, been rejected by developers because they did not prove large enough for them to create their planned, new communities.
What a waste!!!