Tinsley viaduct poem

Horizontal bars,

speeding dots of trucks n cars

From north n south from far n wide

Straggling the hills on either side

On her back, she carried the freight

Under her belly a winding river, canal so straight

to her north a field of cranes

Not so feathered, but red metal frames

To her south, miles of tar

Stretching out, to places afar

Through the city, a river runs out

Thriving n healthy, and jumping with trout

She wobbles, n she bends

In the middle, and at her ends

How long will she last?

She’s had her problems in the past

And in the future too, I’m sure she will

These horizontal bars that look so still

What’s this that’s beginning to thrust

Out of wasteland of rubble n dust?

Now she stands with her trendy friends

Watching over them while she bends

With their fancy shops n fancy bars

She carries the dots of trucks n cars

But old friends in her memory last

Her concrete companions

of the past

Together forever in the cold

Her two lost friends so tall n bold

But gone now are her two cool towers

Replaced by grass n meadow flowers

Now they’re gone but never forgotten

Her nearby friends, she still smells rotten!!

She stands alone now in the dust

Flaking paint n patches of rust

But there’s talk of new friends moving near

Three of them, or so I hear

So, if you’re a dot in a truck or car

Under or over her, or seeing from afar

Give her your thought,

she’s no polished pearl

She helps us along this grey old girl

But she’s still there, maybe overlooked?

That’s our Tinsley Viaduct

Darren Beachell

Wincobank

Local happenings

Dear Ron Clayton

Given your keenness on local happenings, I wondered if you knew anything about the removal on London Road of the upper part of what I consider a splendid old stone wall, which runs from the old Heeley Station up as far as Little London Road, (Lidl store).

The road is being widened here and presently this upper stretch has been removed.

It had in its length an alcove, opposite Valley Road.

Do we suppose that they have reserved the dressed stone for the wall to be rebuilt?

Also I wondered if you had any information as to where the contents of the now closed Cultural Studies Museum are now.

Mrs JB Martin

Ron Clayton’s answers

The letter above was kindly forwarded by the Star and I can reply after carrying a bit of joined-up heritage in action together in conjunction with Howard Greaves of the Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society.

‘H’ as he is known advises that the wall referred to, actually on Chesterfield Road, went over 12 months ago and it’s not going to be returned.

This is the same as the flagstones removed from Dykes Lane here in Loxley Bottoms, six of which were purchased for £3,000, I was told.

The Cultural Studies Museum is taken to be the former Traditional Heritage Museum formerly on Ecclesall Road and a lot of the contents are in storage under Green Estate’s Discovery Centre at Manor Lodge.

I hope that’s cleared that things up, Mrs Martin.

Ron Clayton

We have already paid

Sheffield City Council’s contract with Amey is worth a cool £2.2 billion.

This number is too big for most people to comprehend.

So what could we do with £2.2bn?

If we spent it on education a new secondary school costs about £25 million.

So £2.2bn could build 88 new schools.

If it was spent on social housing it could build 36,500 homes.

If the cost was shared equally between the 552,000 population of Sheffield (2011) that would mean a bill of roughly £4000 each (including all the children).

So we are talking about a great deal of money.

Sheffield citizens are right to try to ensure this money is spent wisely.

Unfortunately it is already quite clear that the way it is being spent warrants a full series of Rip-off Britain.

If I employ a builder to work on my house I check on the work regularly to ensure it is up to standard.

Who checks Amey’s work? Well Amey do, of course.

The council seem completely unable to hold them to account and ensure the work is of a reasonable quality.

Already we are seeing newly laid roads starting to crack.

There are health and safety issues all over the city.

Amey seem totally incapable of scheduling work to minimise disruption to residents resulting in holes in pavements around lampposts left for three months at a time.

This has meant people in wheelchairs in my area have been unable to venture outside.

Then we come to the trees.

We have been told that the contract includes 14 engineering solutions that Amey can use to avoid felling a tree if it is say, disturbing the pavement or kerb.

We have paid for these solutions and they were not cheap.

Yet the council are unable to show us where these solutions have been used.

Instead they choose to fell any tree that is causing even the most minor disturbance to the pavement.

The mantra that “felling is always a last resort” has clearly been shown to be a lie.

That is why tree campaigners have been so vociferous in trying to protect the healthy trees.

There is not a good reason to cut them down and more importantly we have already paid for the solutions to enable them to continue providing us with clean air, flood prevention, biodiversity and wonderful beauty.

We, the citizens of Sheffield, are being ripped off but the council seem more concerned about protecting Amey’s profits than they are about protecting the city they were elected to serve.

Graham Wroe

by email