Litter pick

I do a litter pick for St Mary's Timebuilders on Bramall Lane every Wednesday 10am to 12pm which is very rewarding but annoying.
Litter pickLitter pick
Litter pick

When I’m walking back home to find more rubbish on the ground where we have just picked up. Why can’t people just use a bin or take their rubbish home?

Nigel Laycock

by email

Stomach churning

Having read the news that Sarah Champion has had to resign as shadow equalities minister, I was infuriated and very sad for Sarah that she had been railroaded by do-gooders and the likes of MP Naz Shah leading the backlash, and for what?

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For speaking out and I quote “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”.

For Christ’s sake, of course we do, never in our history have we had such numbers of men involved in child sex exploitation, jailed for many years and yes they were far and away men mostly from Pakistani heritage.

She then said: “There I’ve said it now”. There lies the crux. What is wrong with telling the facts as they most certainly are?

I thought we had moved on from “we don’t want to upset the community by sounding racist”, a quote from Rotherham Council and Social Services.

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I cannot remember in history that a full Labour Council, the head of Social Services, and the Police Crime Commissioner all lost their jobs over the cover-up because most of these despicable crimes were committed mostly by men from Pakistani heritage.

How any person with an ounce of decency would protect and cover up these truly sickening crimes is totally stomach churning.

Mr PG

S10

King’s Lynn’s experience

Having read about your city’s tree-felling programme in the Guardian, I am wondering whether King’s Lynn’s experience would be of interest. Clearly there are differences as the numbers are smaller and our trees are in a small park close to the town centre.

When in 2004 it was estimated that 44 per cent of these trees would be lost to disease over the next 15 years, the borough council decided to fell and replace about 120 that were planted in the 19th century courtesy of previous councillors who probably never saw them mature.

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A year of public protest followed, then, after employing another arboriculturalist the council decided that the trees would only be removed singly as and when necessary.

In the past 13 years two or three have gone but the remainder appear unchanged and continue to improve our air and environment.

John Marston

Old Brewery Court, Kings Lynn, PE30

Areas would be safer

Over the weekend a very large branch broke off the horse chestnut tree in my son’s garden, no gale, in fact hardly a breeze. Why?

Less than 12 months ago this tree was pruned and declared fine by the “expert”. Tuesday this week another “expert” showed him the rot inside the tree that was not apparent from the outside. The tree is going.

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Luckily despite the tree damaging three gardens and a fence no one was around at the time, so no injuries. So all the so-called experts criticising SCC do not always know what they are talking about.

The best answer to Sheffield’s street trees would be to remove them all putting replacements off the roadsides.

Trees in gardens and open spaces clear the air in just the same way that street trees do, probably better as they do not cause a closed in canopy.

If all the trees were removed the areas would be safer in the autumn and winter when the leaves, that are rarely cleared, become a danger when wet or frosty.

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Trees removed from verges could also help with road safety as the verges could be gravelled over and become off-road parking places, in particular where rows of terraced houses have no off- street parking.

Despite what the tree huggers will think I love the dozen or so trees in my own garden but have removed them in the past if no longer safe or diseased.

S Thompson

by email

Litter problem solved

Why doesn’t Nancy, The Star’s editor get her considerable team together and start litter picking?

She knows how to write about it but she and her team do very little to put words into action. As they are in the city centre they could nip out and litter pick to their heart’s content. Sheffield city centre litter problem solved.

EB Warris

by email

Get shut of council

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A few words that sum Sheffield City Council and it’s contractors up. Not fit for purpose. Get shut of them.

MD

S10

Can’t trust the council

We clearly can’t trust Sheffield City Council about it’s tree replacement programme. For a long time now they have been unnecessarily cutting down some lovely trees which a small amount of repair work to the pavement could have saved.

I believe it is wrong for Councillor Bryan Lodge to assert that the law is somehow obliging the council to do that, as he did in The Star on August 12. With other choices available to the council the law does not specify that a tree must be cut down.

I read in the Star that the council is claiming to be working with the Woodland Trust in this, as if the Woodland Trust is supporting their actions when it is not.

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Could the reasons for the council’s behaviour lie in its contract with Amey? What are the details of this that the council is hiding from Sheffielders for reasons of “commercial confidentiality”?

Why is the agreement threatening the city with the “catastrophic financial consequences” that Coun Lodge has referred to, reported in the Star on August 16? Is that just scaremongering or have the council got into a financially dangerous and irresponsible contract with Amey? Our council should be working in the best interest of the people of Sheffield, not in that of a private company. We deserve to know how our money is being spent.

Paul Heaton

by email

City of Parks and Trees?

Apparently the city council thinks delays to removing trees may cost it millions. What sort of muppets signed the PFI contract that led to this fiasco in the first place?

Not cutting trees down is often cheaper than digging them up and then replacing them later, because the only new ones that will survive today’s vandals will need to be 10-12 ft high, and they cost plenty. The problem is that the contractor would have to dig round the tree’s tap roots instead of using a digger to munch straight down the entire worksite. It’s easy enough if you do it right.

Paul Hofmann