What a dump!

Why would you even want to get off the bus and shop there.

The cut off is Marks and Sparks, from there downwards it’s not worth bothering with.

Sad but very true.

Jayne Grayson

by email

The fate of Chapel Walk

The blight of the retail heart of this city has damaged all retailers I fear with shops left empty and the heart of the city gutted. We all know the reasons put forward for this but a more determined council would surely have brought about change far earlier.

Things are finally beginning to change, The Moor is being developed, the new retail units are going up, hope is on the horizon at last but the latest development on Chapel Walk shows all that is bad about this council, the planning process and the pursuit of more units to bring in more rates at any cost.

The closure of the markets was so prolonged that the area around Castlegate became a ghetto and now Chapel Walk could face the same fate I fear.

Landlords have permission to add flats above existing units on Fargate and the top of Chapel Walk I understand.

The first we got to know about this was when scaffolding appeared just over a week ago, scheduled to be put up in the early hours of Sunday Morning it over ran and the top of Chapel Walk was closed until around 11:15 on the first Sunday opening of the year for us. Where was anyone from the council monitoring progress? Nowehere.

Now we learn this is to be in place until 2019. Well it’s a big building programme and it will take time but why did the planners not consider the effect of the scaffolding on local retailers and the public at large?

The scaffoldng boards run over half the length of Chapel walk and create a dark narrow tunnel, very uninviting to passers by. There are lights but the bare minimum. This busy thoroughfare needs to be obviously safe and well lit to invite people to use it. The days are shortening this will just get worse.

Why was there no condition on the planning application to erect signage at the Fargate end inviting shoppers through and forcing the developer to make the scheme exceptionally well lit throughout?

The planners tell us Ikea had to pay for various works to get planning permission, the latest extension to Meadowhall has similar conditions, surely the council could have foreseen the detrimental effect this scheme would have on us local retailers and taken steps to obviate the problems?

The cost of such measures would have been tiny in the scale of the developmental costs but would have gone some way to preserving the retail life of this end of town.

There have been continual problems filling empty units on Chapel Walk. In any other town this charming historical walk would be prized and promoted but not in Sheffield.

Your article and the picture of Chapel Walk thriving in the sixties prompted lots of nostalgia. Sheffielders do like the area and do I am sure want to it be back to its old glory. There are a good number of quality retailers on Chapel Walk, Andrews is a first class Coffee Shop.

My own Complete Cookshop is the city’s leading independent Cookshop offering real hands-on advice about a wide range of products at competive prices, The Tattoo shop is always busy, Birds Yard offers an eclectic mix of products for the home and the new card shop has a vast array of merchandise at very good prices too.

All these businesses are at risk as a consequence of this development.

The council have missed their chance to make the developer pay for this, surely now it is up to the council to do whatever is necessary to correct these issues and quickly.

Looking ahead I fear the Christmas decorations will not come down Chapel Walk either? I hope I am wrong.

Beyond that we need to have more city Ambassadors and police present to reassure pedestrians and they need to move on the beggars that now routinely park themselves there.

Street cleaning needs to be more rigorous and more frequent, litter breeds litter, the scaffolding poles already make the place look a mess, this has to be tackled from the outset.

Come on Sheffield Council, stop the rot, show us you are serious about the independent retail offer in the city! You have to find a way to fund more lighting and signage to support Chapel Walk and to do so right now! None of the usual prevarication and platitudes, Action, Now. Please.

Come on Sheffielders, please support us, by writing to the council in support and please please please by continuing to use Chapel Walk.

Barry Short

by email

Booming economy?

I had a letter printed about our false economy and how the only thing booming in Dronfield is three food donation points in a 200-yard distance.

Now another pub in the area has closed and the Nat West Bank will close in October.

That goes with the other pub and bank closing in my previous letter, but our food bank donation points are still thriving.

Booming economy?

You must be joking.

W Jones

S18

North-South divide

It is said there is not a North-South divide, yet four or five weeks ago it was declared that a grant of £1.8 billion was for a tunnel to go under the A303 because of the disturbance to Stonehenge.

Yet, we in the great city of Sheffield have no decent link with the great city of Manchester, with the perfect answer of a defunct tunnel, i.e. Woodhead. I am sure it would not cost as much to open this up and would be beneficial both to industry, airport and a much safer and quicker way to link up two great cities.

So why aren’t our MPs fighting for parity?

Ken

Shiregreen Owl

Latin and classics

I admire High Storrs school courageous attempt to maintain the last remaining latin and classics department in Sheffield.

Although it is only spoken in the Vatican nowadays a grounding in Latin forms a sound base for the study of several other European languages, most notably English.

Many of our words derive from latin. It is also very useful for science and medical students.

At the school I attended in the 1960’s latin was compulsory.

It is not an easy subject and it took me two attempts to scrape an O-level pass but I found the effort worthwhile.

Ignorantia linguae latinae mentem pauperat.

Gary Crosby

by email