Letter: Sheffield is run by ideological idiots

When Sheffield Council decided to allow the fire station to be built on greenbelt land by the side of the Sheffield Parkway there were several caveats in the plans to offset the damage that would be done to the area, there would be a wet area and there would be verges planted with wildflowers as well as a green roof, bird boxes and bat boxes.

Obviously, those that service the environmental part of that contract consider the people that use the area to be either blind or stupid.

The wet area is an abject failure, it is virtually bone dry for most of the year and only constant heavy rain ever results in standing water, so the amphibians and dragonflies that were shown to inhabit the area are now gone.

The wildflower verges were originally planted with the wrong types of wildflowers, which resulted in a catastrophic drop in butterfly species however after three years of dropping seed bombs and replanting by myself and several others the balance was just about getting somewhere close to what it should be… And then just as the wildflowers were about to bloom the contractor mowed the vast majority of it down to lawn level and in doing so destroyed this years wild flower display, robbing the pollinators of a precious feeding zone and once again ensuring the butterflies have nowhere to breed.

To say that I am angry and disappointed with the environmental outcome of the Sheffield Parkway Fire Station is an understatement unfortunately I am not surprised, I am not surprised because everything in Sheffield is done in such a manner as to invite disaster, Sheffield is run by ideological idiots that lack any level of coherent, cognitive planning ability where the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing and what will be the eventual outcome will be.

What needs to be done to make things right?

Repair the wet area so that it stays wet for the entire year as it did before the Fire Station was built and only mow the verges in early February and very late October, leaving the clippings where they fall so that they can self seed, that is it, nature will do the rest. It isn't rocket science.