Letters, Thursday, March 3

When are the planners of Sheffield going to start joined-up thinking?

There is a proposal to bring HS2 into the centre of Sheffield, but since when has Victoria Station been in the centre of Sheffield? Surely the centre of Sheffield is from the Town Hall to the bottom of The Moor.

The disruption to the outer regions of Sheffield have not been mentioned because of the severity of the destruction involved.

This is a list of the areas that would be affected starting from Killamarsh, Beighton, Woodhouse, Handsworth, Richmond,Manor,Parkway from Prince Of Wales Road to Bernard Road.

Then from the Station to the Rutland Road bridge. From here it would need to be tunnelled under Shirecliffe,Southey Green,Parson Cross,Grenoside, High Green,Howbrook, then back through High Green, to then pass under the A616 link road from Junction 35A of the M1 to Tankersley roundabout.

It would then have to pass under the M1 halfway between junctions 35A and J36, to then link up with the proposed route under Nether Hoyland.

This amount of tunnelling is costing approximately £20 billion on the London Cross Rail Project.

This figure does not take into account the cost of the Victoria Station and alterations to Parkway and Derek Dooley Way, so where is this amount of money going to come from?

The Meadowhall Station is about on the level of the M1. A better use of funds, would be to build a multi-storey car park under the station so that anyone wanting to go to London could park the car and catch the train.

There is going to be a station somewhere between Nottingham and Derby, so why does Sheffield want to burden its citizens with this ridiculous proposal?

Ron Hardy

Glenwood Crescent, Chapleltown

Croissants may sway me

I must admit that my ignorance about the EU debate is evident whenever I hear various politicians pontificate.

Politicians are however, in the main and in my view, very poor communicators.

A couple of recent reports have however persuaded me that things are looking good to stay.

Firstly, one leading supermarket is now providing straight croissants.

Secondly, the new marking system for the Eurovision Song Contest would appear to include the general public’s vote, meaning that we have a greater chance of getting on the podium, possibly even meaning going back to the days when the Brits were applauded on arrival at continental campsites in 1967 when Sandy Shaw won gold with Puppet on a string.

Surely more concessions like these add to the Prime Minister’s arsenal to attack the Out campaigners.

Jeremy Biggin

Upperthorpe, Sheffield

Ghost town

I had a wander into town on a Sunday because it’s a quid all day parking.

From Haymarket right past Marks & Spencers we spotted six beggars – obviously slim pickings as the coffee cups were empty.

We went down to the Moor and I really wish I hadn’t bothered.

In the words of the Specials “This town is coming like a ghost town.

“All the shops are being closed down.”

Jayne Grayson

by email

Scandals will happen again

I feel relief rather than joy at finally achieving the convictions of child-rapists in Rotherham.

There are more to bring to justice, and more victims will need to show the unimaginable courage demonstrated during this trial.

There must also be a reckoning for those who condoned these crimes.

Unfortunately, your editorial does not help this process when it repeats the misinformation that police did not act “for fear of being seen as racist”.

Professor Jay found no cases where offences were not acted on owing to race, and concluded that ethnic issues did not influence decision-making in individual cases, nor did frontline staff report pressure to act differently based on ethnicity.

This misreporting diverts attention from a far more horrific truth: the police did not pursue cases because they did not care about the victims, and in this they reflected widespread beliefs in society at large.

The attitude of the police and the council is all one with a culture of painting the vulnerable as deserving their own misfortune and turning our backs in disbelief on the needy and oppressed, which extends far beyond those bodies.

Care, kindness and compassion are lacking in individuals as well as institutions, and without them we have not seen the last of such scandals.

J Robin Hughes

Towngate Road, Worrall

Build station in Sheffield

Can anyone tell me how building the HS2 station at Meadowhall will make it quicker and easier to get to and from London.

Firstly, after negotiating a detour off the mainline you have to get off the train and wait for another one which takes you to the ‘proper’ Sheffield station.

Even then you are left in ‘ no man’s land’ near no shops buses or facilities and a dual carriageway to cross if you can’t afford a taxi.

On the other hand you could clamber on to a tram with all your luggage, ending up behind the Sheffield station or in the middle of the poor mans shopping centre.

Not a pleasant experience, either way.

Please build Sheffield station in Sheffield.

Better than that, put more trains on, forget HS2 and spend the money on sorting out the NHS.

Alan Marshall

by email

Bus service is a total farce

It’s nice to see new scripts for the comedy series On The Buses are being written and being published in the Star.

95 per cent of buses running on time – what a load of twaddle. Reg Varney will be spinning in his grave.

Only today we went to catch the No 56 which should arrive at our particular stop on Leighton Road at 09:31.

By 09:41 it still hadn’t turned up, but the next one due did turn up and it was a sardine experience, but as we were getting on another No 56 came and drove straight past.

It was standing up only until Cherry Street, when a few got off.

One irate old chap got on. He was right to be annoyed, as it was 10:05 when he got on the bus and had been waiting 40 minutes.

Buses late again, late for work again, missed an appointment again, packed bus again, allowing two large prams on again, you just couldn’t make it up, it’s a complete farce.

I must also point out that the traffic lights at the Havelock Bridge and Queens Road junction do really need their timing looking at.

Traffic is backing up to Ann’s Roads school and when you do get near the junction there is hardly any traffic running on Queens Road and Havelock Bridge traffic is just held there when there’s ample time for more traffic to cross.

Sheffield is the trailblazer in how not to manage traffic flow and the Oscar goes to the First Partnership for their sheer inability to run a bus service that’s worthy of the long-suffering Sheffield bus passengers.

Vin Malone

by email

Whitworth was spot on

Well done Whitworth on his cartoon about the Ofsted report on Sheffield College.

I was lucky enough to retire from there last summer after working as a lecturer and over the years the staff morale has continued going down and down.

The reason for that is/was increasing pressure from the executive team, at the time I as there led by Heather Mcdonald.

These people distance themselves from staff and are out of touch with them and with students.

There are many good teaching and support staff who work very long hours under stressful conditions who have seen their workload increase while pay is eroded,and get very little support when dealing with problem students.

Perhaps on the repeat visit Ofsted could look at the extraordinary rate at which skilled staff leave and are not replaced on a like-for-like basis.

In conclusion may I give my best wishes to all those colleagues who are still stuck there.

Keep up the good work, the students do appreciate you.

Peter Mara

by email

Show fairness to candidates

I read with interest the column in Star Two on Tuesday March 1, written by Douglas Johnson, Green Party Candidate for City Ward.

I hope that to show fairness to other candidates contesting that ward and indeed other wards in the city, you will afford the same number of column inches to the other political parties.

Roger Bird

by email

Footnote: If other candidates approach The Star ahead of the council elections in May we will endeavour to find room in our columns.

Long wait for injection

My brother is a milkman and has to have injections in his knee from time to time to relieve the pain.

He was in a lot of pain a few years ago over a weekend so he went to the Northern General for an injection.

However, he was told that there were only junior doctors on duty and there was nobody there qualified to do it, so he had to wait until Monday to get it done.

John Hague

Studfield Hill, Sheffield