“Things can only get better” – Star readers’ discuss their feelings after the local elections

After having the weekend to reflect on the news that the Labour party has lost its majority for the Sheffield Council, we asked our readers what they thought and whether they were feeling positive about the city’s future as a result.
People walking on Sheffield's FargatePeople walking on Sheffield's Fargate
People walking on Sheffield's Fargate

This is what our readers’ had to say on the matter:

Janet Cleminson-Chapman is of the opinion that, “No council should be run by the same party year after year after year when council change every few years it keeps them on their toes and do the best for the city” and a few of our readers agreed with her take on things.

Christine Plews said, “Let’s hope a change will be for the better . Sheffield and Sheffield people deserve better.”

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Meanwhile, Philip Carr was scathing in his assessment of the previous council leaders, saying; “The new council would have to be dire to be any worse than the last Labour controlled council, who simply lost focus. With a year dominated by covid Sheffield people expected more than a cycle lane obsessed council.”

Paul Metcalf wasn’t feeling too positive; “Not very, you'll find out why soon enough when people start complaining”, and June Humphreys isn’t quite sold, just yet; “All the same promises promises.” Quite a few weren’t particularly positive, like Mark Gooney; “Not positive at all, Sheffield has been going down the drain for year's from local transport to the council. Not fit to run a p*** up in a brewery”, which was responded to by Shelley Cockayne who aimed a firm rebuttal at the Labour-led council; “or even get your postal votes out in time. Pretty basic democracy and they had an extra year to plan it!”

David Booth delivered what can only be described as a pretty extensive takedown of Labour both regionally and nationally; “Let's be clear, there are certain things councils have no control over, but. "Labour" have been in control of Sheffield for far too long, they have become stale with no real sense of direction, but then what is Labour? anyway. One part of the party is trying to drag the party back to the discredited Blair years by being more Tory than the Tories, another part of the party want to take the party back to the failure of the Corbyn era, Starmer is stuck in the middle, an establishment liberal who is swayed more by minority groups than Labours former core supporters. The unelected unions hold the balance of power and their influence has been to the detriment of the party as a whole. The party is a mess and that is reflected in almost all Labour councils. You can't be all things to all men, you have to make a choice and Labour are incapable of making it. Better to split into their particular factions and reform as new parties rather than trying to take over the main party which they have destroyed in the process. It makes each and every one of them show to the public how false they are, with no true commitment to their true beliefs, charlatans every one of them.”

Michael Frank said; “Whoever you vote for the council gets in. It's a bit like brexit syndrome, people think that if they vote for something different things will change for the better. When will people realise that it doesn't work like that?”

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Joining in on the pile on, Alan Rattenbury spoke of the city as a whole, saying “It took long enough to realise the Labour council were a joke, you only have to look at what Leeds have achieved because of our incompetent council. Did they not realise Lenin was dead.”

And Shelley Cockayne could barely contain her glee; “ Weekend over, Monday Referendum result in. 89,000+ voters to 47,000+ voters wanted a change to a new style of governance in the Council! Woo hoo! Yes I am elated and optimistic. This couldn’t have come at a better time. What with no overall control, the playing field levelled by us, citizens making it happen, Sheffield now has an opportunity to make some decent decisions and not be tethered to old party dogma and tribal squabbles. Move on, recognise no one party knows it all, it is a diverse city (very colourful political makeup these days) and get on with being good guardians of our city...as we voted them to do.”

Finally, Tracey Sutton was not only quite positive but “Extremely! Things can only get better as we were at rock bottom with Labour.”

Sadly we can’t include every comment or response here, but you can check out what our readers’ have said on Facebook here.