A developer has withdrawn their application to demolish the former Highfield Coffee and Cocoa House building on London Road following objections from heritage groups and local Councillors.

According to the Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society, The five storey Highfield Cocoa and Coffee House was built in 1877 by Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin to designs by M.E. Hadfield & Son. The distinctive concrete frieze panels on the front of the building were added in 1967.

Councillor Douglas Johnson, Leader of the Green Group on Sheffield City Council submitted a formal objection,

“Regardless of its formal listed status, it is clearly a significant heritage asset in the area, where the character of the area is under threat because of piecemeal development.
If it is necessary to seek an Article 4 Direction to safeguard the building, I would support that course of action.
It seems to me that there is significant public opposition that should be properly taken into account. I would therefore ask that this demolition notice is deferred along with the related application.”

On hearing the announcement of the deferral Green Councillor Peter Garbutt, Green Councillor for Nether Edge and Sharrow ward said,

“Local people value this building as part of their local heritage and would be dismayed to see it go. The news that the demolition notice has been withdrawn following local pressure is very welcome. The important thing now is to secure the future of the building and ensure that it is brought back into use.”
Councillor Douglas Johnson highlighted ongoing threats to Sheffield’s heritage.

“This is far from the only historic building under threat of demolition. The Old Coroner’s Court on Nursery Street is still standing but in a dilapidated state after a Planning Inspector over-rode the views of the elected Planning Committee (1). The developer has now gone bust. At the time, heritage campaigners had to work hard to promote the value of such buildings when the council controversially cancelled the public consultation on a Conservation Area for Castlegate.

“This fresh approach from the council is welcome. Local people should not have to continuously campaign to protect our past.”

References

1 – Old Coroner’s Court Sheffield: Developer due to demolish historic building goes bust | The Star

Cllrs Douglas Johnson and Angela Argenzio
Cllrs Douglas Johnson and Angela Argenzio

Amendment to be moved by Councillor Douglas Johnson, seconded by
Councillor Angela Argenzio

That the Motion to approve the recommendations of the Strategy and Resources
Policy Committee at its meeting held on 21 February 2023, as relates to the City
Council’s Revenue Budget and Capital Programme 2023/24, be amended by the
substitution of the following resolution:-

RESOLVED: That this Council:-

(1) understands this is one of the most challenging budget situations ever, with
a total budget gap to be filled of £80m, even after a decade of government
cutbacks on essential council services;
(2) believes that the committee system, together with the Council being in no
overall control, has played a very positive role in making parties work together
to agree the vast majority of the Council’s budget this year, as noted in the
peer review;
(3) notes that the bulk of the core budget was agreed between all party groups
by December 2022, something that has not previously been achieved;
(4) conveys its gratitude to all this Council’s direct and indirect workforce, as well
as its partners in the voluntary, community, faith and commercial sectors, for
their actions in making Sheffield a better place in the face of the huge
financial challenges that have had an impact on everyone in the workforce
and in the city over the last decade;
(5) believes that austerity was a political choice made by the bigger political
parties and that the massive government intervention to address Covid
demonstrates how the money is available if the political will is there;
(6) believes that, instead of cuts to public services, real investment is
desperately needed to address inequality and urgently decarbonise our
country to address the climate and nature emergency, which is an existential
threat described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as
‘Code Red for Humanity’ and is already affecting food supply and causing
extreme weather events, in particular in the Global South;
(7) believes, however, that long-term, outsourced contracts with big private
businesses have not taken an equivalent share of the cuts to Council services
over the last 12 years; and that long-term costs of finance stretch into
Sheffield’s future until 2057;
(8) therefore, believes it is the duty of all elected members to take on the
responsibility of running this Council in the best interests of Sheffield’s
residents, prioritising the available resources to protect communities and the
most vulnerable, and working towards a more equitable and resilient city;
(9) welcomes the all-party agreement on the financial proposals for the Housing
Revenue Account, as voted on unanimously at Full Council on 20 February
2023;
(10) welcomes this year’s new approach to recognising the need for structural
change and the allocation of £4.3 million revenue funding for a
Transformation Investment Budget;
(11) notes that in line with the decision of Strategy and Resources Policy
Committee this funding is for the 2023/24 Delivery Programme to ensure in
year budget delivery and covering many of the Council’s services to ensure
that the changes required for that purpose are delivered in a consistent and
coherent way and the 2023/24 Design Programme which is developing the
work that will need to be done over the subsequent few years to deliver the
Council’s longer term ambition;
(12) believes that in line with those purposes and having sufficiently secured
delivery of the Business Improvement Plans, then to ensure the long-term
revenue and financial stability options should be considered to promote:-
(a) substantial investment in the city’s transport through an Employers
Workplace Parking Levy
(b) methods to address health, warm homes and the cost of living through
large-scale housing retrofitting and energy generation schemes
(c) recognition of the importance of local authority ecology work in view
of the Nature Emergency and new and forthcoming duties under the
Environment Act 2021, together with the prospects of generating
revenue by promoting the natural assets uniquely available to the
council;
(d) developing a model of community care co-operatives to reduce
reliance on profit-making staffing agencies by removing the profit
motive from the care sector;
(e) improved services to householders, such as gardening, household
repairs, heating system servicing and replacement and retrofit works,
through a model like Oxford Direct Services, which could provide
services that local people need and value whilst also providing a
useful income stream for the Council;
(f) external training and support to promote the use of Plain English in
council reports, thus aiding effective decision-making and monitoring
(g) external experts to commission a review of the use of Equality Impact
Assessments;
(13) believes that the principle of encouraging renewable energy generation
means the council should develop a climate- and inflation-beating offer to
householders and will therefore carry out a feasibility study into providing a
solar panel offer to owner-occupiers and private landlords to unlock the city’s
private capital in a significant contribution to tackling climate change;
(14) in order to take advantage of new and innovative technologies, will carry out
a feasibility study into the newly developed “electric wallpaper” using
graphene for more effective space heating of our tenants’ homes;
(15) recognises that promoting safe and affordable walking, cycling and public
transport over private car use is critical to both the climate emergency and
the deep-rooted inequality in our city;
(16) therefore, will provide funds to revitalise the former Walking Forum (including
updating the website) and shape it in order to make Sheffield an Active Travel
city;
(17) will support the school streets initiative and especially those where parents
take part in staffing the street closures to make their children safe, by
providing camera enforcement at 4 schools;
(18) will act on regular complaints of illegal and dangerous parking by creating 6
new jobs in parking enforcement;
(19) recognises that many more people would cycle if they had somewhere
secure to keep a bike and will therefore begin an annual programme of
investing in secure cycle storage in residential areas, beginning on the
council’s own housing estate;
(20) wishes to promote the uptake of public transport and will therefore subsidise
free buses and trams on both Saturdays and Sundays in the 4 weeks running
up to Christmas;
(21) will increase parking fees in order to fund these improvements;
(22) will develop proposals to introduce a workplace parking levy for larger
employers, in order to generate additional long-term revenue to invest in the
city’s public transport, whilst improving air quality and encouraging more
active forms of travel to work, noting that the smaller city of Nottingham raises
£9 million a year to invest in public transport improvements, active travel and
grants to businesses;
(23) welcomes the take-up of the e-cargo bikes promoted in the Green Group’s
earlier budget proposals and the development of a zero-emission last-mile
distribution hub, and will seek to expand this idea through working up further
ideas to create to allow the Council, businesses and organisations to deliver
goods around the city in a cleaner, quieter, more sustainable way;
(24) recognises the need to address congestion, blocked pavements and access
caused by home deliveries, taxis and street clutter and so will commission an
investigation into finding solutions that will benefit residents and businesses
alike;
(25) recognises the importance of expert ecologists in the local authority and will
therefore invest in a further post of a leading ecologist to drive forward the
council’s work in this area;
(26) will initiate a feasibility study to develop a tree nursery, hence supporting our
long-term growing programme, helping address the ecological emergency
and being a potential source of future income to the Council;
(27) will reallocate the funding for so-called “green” electricity into a skills and
training programme to train a new generation of apprentices in skills for the
future such as renewable energy, installing solar panels and heat pumps;
(28) recognises the benefits of locally produced energy and will therefore commit
to the initial work to investigate the potential for a large-scale solar farm,
including looking at locations such as park and rides;
(29) recognises that the school pupils of today are the citizens of tomorrow and
that a demonstration of renewable technologies should be provided for
maintained schools in Sheffield to give them hope for the future, showing
them that renewable energy helps power their school, be it from wind, solar
or other renewables;
(30) therefore, will promote energy efficiency schemes and renewable generation
in maintained schools with £500,000, making this a positive for learning as
well as providing a source of sustainable energy;
(31) will set aside an additional £500,000 to create a Carbon Reduction
Investment Fund, to complete new sustainability projects that reduce carbon
consumption in order to avoid unnecessary delay in achieving our 2030 net
carbon zero target;
(32) recognises the power of local councillors being able to support their
communities with relatively small sums of local spending and therefore will
increase ward pot sums, for this year, by an average of £10,000 per ward,
but allocated in proportion to levels of social deprivation;
(33) will also create a Parks Safety Improvements Fund for improvements such
as new lighting, to enable all, especially women and marginalised groups, to
feel safer to use parks during winter and evenings, such funds to be spent
following open consultation;
(34) recognises growing concern about the negative impact of alcohol abuse on
physical health, mental health and on crime levels and violence, so supports
a feasibility study into introducing a night-time levy on licensed premises to
provide support on alcohol recovery and addressing addiction;
(35) welcomes the increase of the Council Tax Hardship Fund, in line with
previous Green Group budget amendment proposals, together with the
tripling of the hardship fund available in the Housing Revenue Account;
(36) furthermore, will directly tackle the impact of the cost-of-living crisis by
providing additional £200,000 funding to Citizens’ Advice for this financial
year;
(37) therefore requests the Interim Director of Finance and Commercial Services
to implement the City Council’s Revenue Budget and Capital Programme
2023/24 in accordance with the details set out in the reports on the Revenue
Budget and Capital Programme now submitted.

References

2023 Sheffield city Council Budget Amendments  (Public Pack)Budget Motion and Amendments 1 March 2023 Agenda Supplement for Council, 01/03/2023 14:00 (sheffield.gov.uk)

 

 

 

Sheffield City Council has agreed its first budget under a committee system

Councillor Douglas Johnson said,

“This is a success for the new committee system and a council under No Overall Control.

“It is really quite remarkable that the vast majority of the Sheffield Council budget was agreed informally by all three party groups by December. Detailed work by Councillors across the political divide has made this year’s council budget meeting a relatively smooth one.

“This is even more noteworthy when you consider this was one of Sheffield’s toughest budgets ever with the Council having to find nearly £80 million to make the books balance. Under the previous cabinet system we would most likely have had no agreed decisions till budget day itself.

“It is not just the Committee System though that has had a positive impact. it is the fact that we have a Council where no party has overall control. Different political groups have had to engage with each other to achieve agreement. They have had to understand the issues and not just oppose for the opposition’s sake. I’m not saying everything is perfect. We still have politicians who are tribal in their approach to politics but under the current arrangements that doesn’t get in the way of the council making the decisions it needs to make to function properly.

“As natural co-operators, Greens work well in a Committee system and we have played an important role in helping get agreement on the detail of the budget.”

All Parties on the Council put forward amendments at the Council meeting to express what their priorities would be if they had a majority. There was a debate and all the amendments were voted on and each was defeated in turn. There was then a vote on a joint Labour, Lib Dem Green Amendment which was then passed. This amendment to the budget proposed an additional £25,000/per ward (£700,000 in total) to be used to address local priorities and a further £400,000 to help address poverty and the cost of living crisis. Thanks to Green Party requests, this is to be allocated according to the levels of deprivation in the city.

Councillor Douglas Johnson said,

“Knowing the likely outcome of the vote. Parties wisely came together in advance of the meeting to ensure that they were able to get some additional funding for the people they represent and also to direct more support to those in the greatest need. This is so different from last year. It shows that, when politicians decide to work together, local people are the ones who benefit.

“I’m proud of the role the Greens have played in this, as supporters of the committee system and as councillors who can help bring other parties together. We need to ensure that this change in Sheffield politics is something that we keep and that we don’t go back to the bad old days.”

Green Councillors Alexi Dimond and Marieanne Elliot call for resignations.
Green Councillors Alexi Dimond and Marieanne Elliot call for resignations.

A call by the 14-strong Green Group for an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the outcome of the Independent Inquiry into the Street Trees dispute conducted by Sir Mark Lowcock has been granted by Sheffield City Council. The request from the Green Group asked the meeting to:

“discuss the implications of the Street Tree Inquiry on the city, Sheffield City Council and councillors involved in the decision making at that time.”

Green Councillors made the call in the wake of the publication of the Lowcock report that revealed serious failings of strategic leadership of the Council.

The Inquiry was a key request secured in negotiations between the Greens and the Labour Party following the 2021 local elections when Labour lost their majority and the public voted for change in the governance referendum.

Councillor Douglas Johnson said,

“This issue can’t and shouldn’t be dodged. The Councillors responsible need to be held to account and answer for their actions. The lessons from the Lowcock report need to be implemented as part of the way the council does its business and relates to the people of this city. The street tree felling scandal made people lose faith with the Council and they need to see that the culture and leadership of the Council is changing to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again.”

“This is something that is much more realistic now the council is in No Overall Control, where the parties are forced to work together.”

The Extraordinary General Meeting is expected to be held on the 10th of May, the week after the local elections and the week before the Council’s Annual General Meeting when the leader of the Council and the Chairs of the Council’s policy committee will be appointed.

At Tuesday’s Sheffield Planning and Highways Committee, a Green Party Councillor objected to plans to build 13 apartments on woodland to the rear of Moor Oaks Road in Broomhill. Cllr Angela Argenzio said the Planning Committee ignored the Neighbourhood Plan, its own planning policies and the environment in recommending approval of the planning application

Green Party Councillor Angela Argenzio for Broomhill and Sharrow Vale who spoke against the proposal at the Planning and Housing Committee meeting said,

“The application to build the 13 apartments in the Broomhill Conservation Area was clearly in conflict with the Broomhill, Broomfield, Endcliffe, Summerfield and Tapton Neighbourhood Plan (BBEST) (1) which said that 50% of developments should be 3 bedroom homes to meet local needs. In this development only 2 of the 11 properties are 3 bedrooms. So a plan which has been developed by the local community and approved by the Council is simply not being taken into account.

The other concern is that the local community had not been notified that this plan was coming to committee. The planning application was submitted in Summer 2021 and so when we found out, a few days ago. that it was coming to the Planning Committee, it took many people in the community by surprise.

The loss of woodland due to this development is a loss to nature and to the local community. Local residents who lack gardens can currently look out on trees. Now with this development they will have that replaced with flats, which totally ignores the importance of green spaces on people’s mental health .

The Council’s planning officer advising the committee said that the trees were in poor condition because they were covered in ivy, but the Royal Horticulture Society are quite clear that ivy is not harmful to trees :

‘ivy is not directly harmful to trees and is beneficial to wildlife, control is not usually necessary’ (2)

The lessons from the Report into the Street Tree scandal by Sir Mark Lowcock, have still not been learned. When the views of ecologists are ignored in favour of development it diminishes biodiversity and our local environment. Local people are not being made aware of a planning application that will impact on their local environment. This shows that the recommendations from the report still need to be properly considered and embedded into the Council’s working practices and procedures.

It is clear that in this Planning Application that the Council has not properly considered nature, the impact on the Broomhill Conservation area or the community and I am very disappointed that this application has been passed.”

The meeting voted for the development with 2 against and 8 in favour. Cllr Bernard Little, the only Green in the Planning Committee meeting was against.

References

1 – BBEST Neighbourhood Plan – BBEST Neighbourhood Plan – Promoting the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of Broomhill, Broomfield, Endcliffe, Summerfield and Tapton

2 – Royal Horticulture Society – Ivy on trees – Ivy on trees and as a ground cover weed / RHS Gardening

The Inquiry came about as a Green Party initiative, negotiated in May 2021 when the Co-operative Executive arrangements for running the council were negotiated between the Labour and Green Parties. As the result of a thorough process, Sir Mark Lowcock was appointed as the Independent Chair of the Inquiry.

Sir Mark is a former Permanent Secretary and United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Commenting on the report, Cllr Douglas Johnson said.

“I very much welcome the publication of this report into a “dark episode” in Sheffield’s history. Naturally, we will take time to read the report more carefully over the next few days and see how it meets the aims of not only telling a true story of what happened but to seek understanding of why everyone involved acted the way they did.”

“It is clear that the lack of openness and honesty not only did damage to the people of Sheffield and the natural environment but was also self-defeating for those in the Council at that time who were seeking to push through their programme despite all the opposition. We fully agree with the Inquiry’s assessment that what the campaigners saw as the Council’s ‘irrational, unreasonable, deceitful, dishonest, bullying and intimidating behaviour is what generated the determination, persistence, creativity and ingenuity that the campaigners displayed. The Council’s behaviour, in other words, was the fuel that drove the protests.’”

“However, I also welcome the acknowledgement that the council ‘failed … to understand the value people attached to trees.’ Our natural world is clearly important to Sheffield citizens of all ages.”

Paul TurpinCllr Paul Turpin was heavily involved in the street tree campaigns. He said,

“This is an emotive and powerful report of what happened when the council decided to go to war with the citizens of Sheffield. Feeding division and fueling a conflict that has left many people hurt and traumatised.

“It brings back the memory of tears streaming down my face as I contacted police while Amey security guards were assaulting members of the public. The sound of their screams as these men dragged those brave women forcefully from under the trees on Meersbrook Park Road will live with me forever.
“I’m glad that the council is now being open and honest about their role, about the bad leadership and many human errors that occurred. It is important that Sir Mark acknowledged the anxiety, stress, injuries and wider physical and mental health problems caused to many people in Sheffield.”

The Independent Inquiry into the Street Trees Dispute final report is at:

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/independent-inquiry-into-street-trees-dispute

The written statement of Cllr Douglas Johnson to the Street Tree Inquiry can be found at:

First street tree inquiry hearings broadcast

Sheffield City Council has passed its first ever budget under the new Committee system,

Councillor Douglas Johnson said,

“This is a success for the new committee system and a council under No Overall Control.

“It is really quite remarkable that the vast majority of the Sheffield Council budget was agreed informally by all three party groups by December. Detailed work by Councillors across the political divide has made this year’s council budget meeting a relatively smooth one.

“This is even more noteworthy when you consider this was one of Sheffield’s toughest budgets ever with the Council having to find nearly £80 million to make the books balance. Under the previous cabinet system we would most likely have had no agreed decisions till budget day itself.

“It is not just the Committee System though that has had a positive impact. it is the fact that we have a Council where no party has overall control. Different political groups have had to engage with each other to achieve agreement. They have had to understand the issues and not just oppose for the opposition’s sake. I’m not saying everything is perfect. We still have politicians who are tribal in their approach to politics but under the current arrangements that doesn’t get in the way of the council making the decisions it needs to make to function properly.

“As natural co-operators, Greens work well in a Committee system and we have played an important role in helping get agreement on the detail of the budget.”

All Parties on the Council put forward amendments at the Council meeting to express what their priorities would be if they had a majority. There was a debate and all the amendments were voted on and each was defeated in turn. There was then a vote on a joint Labour, Lib Dem Green Amendment which was then passed. This amendment to the budget proposed an additional £25,000/per ward (£700,000 in total) to be used to address local priorities and a further £400,000 to help address poverty and the cost of living crisis. Thanks to Green Party requests, this is to be allocated according to the levels of deprivation in the city.

Councillor Douglas Johnson said,

“Knowing the likely outcome of the vote. Parties wisely came together in advance of the meeting to ensure that they were able to get some additional funding for the people they represent and also to direct more support to those in the greatest need. This is so different from last year. It shows that, when politicians decide to work together, local people are the ones who benefit.

“I’m proud of the role the Greens have played in this, as supporters of the committee system and as councillors who can help bring other parties together. We need to ensure that this change in Sheffield politics is something that we keep and that we don’t go back to the bad old days.”

Councillor Angela Argenzio

The process to achieve the budget proposal in front of us today has been tough but has shown that politicians from across the party political divides can work constructively together. We have achieved a remarkable degree of agreement. Necessity has truly been the mother of consensus rather than invention. I would like to thank colleagues from all party groups who have approached this process with a sense of responsibility and goodwill.

The things Greens propose today are the sort of things that we are going to all need to do in the future, if we are to achieve a society that is sustainable both ecologically and economically. It is not just the innovation of technology that will be needed to take us forward but the innovation of ideas. Being bold, learning from others and being the pioneers when we need to be. This will be necessary if we are going to face up to the challenges that the coming years will bring.

The Green Party amendment seeks to start the Council on a path to transform itself and the city we serve. Our proposal to establish a wholly owned Council company providing households with the services they often can’t get but really need is not our own. It is based on a successful model operated by Oxford City Council (1). We would want to use that model but adapt it to the priorities we have in Sheffield. So providing services like gardening, heating maintenance and replacement, installation of insulation and retrofitting of homes, provision of solar panels. This will not only enable us to generate income for the Council but help us begin the path of helping people save money on their fuel bills and decarbonise the city, while providing a revenue stream for the Council.

I am acutely aware of the national crisis in the care sector, poor wages and working conditions and the difficulties in recruitment and retention of staff. This will not be solved overnight but we want to make an important start. That is why we are calling for the development of Community Care Cooperatives which removes the profit motive, properly rewards staff with at least the living wage and provides care at a community level where staff and those needing care are all in the same place. This has been successful in Italy where there are 15,000 social cooperatives that care for 7.2 million Italians (12% of the population) and employ 480,000 people (2). In the UK there are examples of Community Care Coops but it is a model that needs support and development to get off the ground. That is what we are proposing to pioneer here in Sheffield.

Rising prices are causing misery to millions and we need to address this by reducing the need for energy by improving homes and generating more of our energy locally. We are proposing to help people to release the capital they have locked up in their homes to enable them to install solar panels with no upfront costs. This will enable them to get the benefit of energy savings immediately. Once the financial model is established we will use it to help people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes through a deep retrofit with high energy efficiency and heat recovery ventilation standards.

We currently pay £40,000 a year to an energy company to say our electricity is from green sources. Those ‘green’ sources could include nuclear or biomass, both of which come with their own problems and dubious credentials. We want to use that money to help us generate more renewable energy in Sheffield to help us reduce the energy bills, not pay for a badge which brings us no benefit. That is why we want to use those funds to train the next generation of renewable energy engineers working here in Sheffield. They could well be the same people who would work on the construction of the large solar farms we propose on places like local park and ride schemes. Generating energy while providing shade and power to electric vehicles. Or they could be installing solar panels or other renewable technologies on schools giving young people a practical demonstration of the power of green ideas, while saving the school money at a time of stretched school budgets.

New technologies offer real promise and that is why we are asking for a significant trial of graphene heating for homes (3). Sometimes referred to as ‘electric wallpaper’ this form of heating operates on a wider surface area, usually a ceiling, and so is able to operate effectively at a lower temperature. Coupled with solar panels and battery technology there is the real prospect that homes could be heated both affordably and with low emissions. We want Sheffield to be at the forefront of this revolution.

We will make it easier for people to get about in Sheffield. This is why we want more parking enforcement to ensure our pavements are free of cars blocking the way for pedestrians, people in wheelchairs and parents with pushchairs. Children need to be able to get to school safely and we will be supporting the further development of the School Streets initiative. We want cyclists to know that their bikes will have secure parking so we will be investing in secure cycle storage in residential areas. We will make it easier and cheaper for people to get into the City Centre and to help that we are proposing free tram and bus travel on the 4 weekends leading up to Christmas. Public Transport needs to be the cheapest option as well as the low carbon option. All these initiatives and more could be supported if the Council adopted an Employers Workplace Parking Levy (4). In Nottingham over £9 million/year is generated that helps support public transport, active travel initiatives and electric vehicle charging. This frees up Council funding to enable the support of other hard pressed services such as Adult Health and Social Care for instance.

We are clear that local priorities are best addressed closest to the communities that Councillors serve. That is why we are calling for the ward pots to be increased to allow better targeting of funding to address the issues that people care about where they live. We also need to ensure that we help people in the direst need the most. This is why we have championed the increase in hardship funding and a further £200,000 for the Advice Services that people rely on.

We work best as a Council when we work together. This is our first year using the committee system in the context of No Overall Control. We have shown that while having different political philosophies that we can come together, in the hardest of times, for the benefit of the city.

Please support our amendment

References

(1) About Oxford Direct Services https://www.odsgroup.co.uk/About-ODS
(2) Italian social cooperatives celebrate their 30th anniversary https://cecop.coop/works/italian-social-cooperatives-celebrate-their-30th-anniversary
(3) Is new ‘electric wallpaper’ the green future of heating? https://www.aroundealing.com/news/new-electric-heating/
(4) Nottinghams Employers Workplace Parking Levy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NsMWUEsO4w

Cllr Ruth Mersereau
Cllr Ruth Mersereau

A proposal by Sheffield Green Party councillors calling for fair votes in elections was accepted by the Council this week.

In response to a Labour motion, “Levelling-up – Why we need to take back control from Whitehall to deliver economic growth for Sheffield” Green Councillor Ruth Mersereau, Green Councillor for City Ward said,

“If we are to truly “Take Back Control” we need to make sure that all votes matter. Since 1935 not one of the single party majority governments elected by our current First Past The Post voting system received a majority of the votes;

Under the current system the largest two parties appeal to voters in “swing seats”, taking votes in “safe seats” for granted. Proportional representation weighs all votes equally, if a party received 20% of the votes then they would receive approximately 20% of the seats”

Paul TurpinCouncillor Paul Turpin Green Councillor for Gleadless Valley Ward who seconded the Green amendment said,

“An electoral system returning results that match how the electorate votes is not only key to taking back control from Whitehall, but to good democracy itself

40 out of 43 European countries use a form of proportional representation to elect MPs, with UK and Belarus the only countries using First Past The Post;”

The Council resolved to support proportional representation, the Councils For PR campaign, and request the Council write to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Leader Of The Opposition Keir Starmer, requesting the government changes the electoral system to use proportional representation in local, national and regional elections.

Cllr Brian Holmshaw
Cllr Brian Holmshaw at Weston Park Museum

In a debate on Sheffield’s Heritage Strategy Green Councillors have called for more action to promote and support the rich cultural heritage of Sheffield.

Councillor Brian Holmshaw, Green Councillor for Broomhill and Sharrow Vale said,

“Sheffield needs heritage for the ordinary people of Sheffield. For its social, economic and environmental impact, for retrofitting and re-use of historic buildings. It is good for the city and it makes people feel good about themselves. And our council’s heritage policy and practice should be cross-party and established by consensus. 

Its grassroots campaigning from ‘Joined Up Heritage’ and the dozens of heritage organisations they represent that’s made the difference! Not the council, who frankly should have been working with heritage already. ‘Joined up Heritage’ must be immensely proud of what they have done – and finally, finally persuaded the council to listen.

The city has been missing out on funding for years due to a backward view of heritage. A few examples. Statistics show that the southeast Sheffield area is chronically underfunded by the Heritage Lottery Fund – we could be supporting Birley Spa and others there. In the city the Old Town Hall, the Salvation Army Citadel and others. 

We have no Heritage Action Zones in the city. Other cities do. Why – because the council messed it up. We underfunded officers to be able to deliver heritage funding applications. 

Another example. We have one conservation officer for more than 600,000 residents and over 2000 listed buildings and precious few enforcement resources. It’s not enough, 

Cllr Angela Argenzio, Chair of the Adult Health and Social Care Committee said,

Heritage is not solely in tangible assets; heritage is culture and, how we promote and champion our rich and diverse cultures in Sheffield, is paramount to how we flourish as a city and how we evolve, preserving the past by looking at the future.

Music has always been a huge part of my life and Sheffield has such a wonderful musical history. I want to highlight two musical heritage assets in the city that are so important and whose future is in the balance:

First up is the Organ at City Hall which belongs to the Council.  It was built by Henry Willis & Sons at a cost of £12,650 and is now the only remaining example in the world still unaltered from the original construction.  Its original 1935 hairline wiring & relays (state of the art at the time) are still intact. It is now valued at around £1m. The reason why the organ is untouched is that the Council has never done anything to it unlike what has happened to other organs in the country…

 Second up is Red Tape Studios where so many amazing artists went through their musical journey and the rumours circulating about its long-term future.

 We cannot lose either of these heritage assets: we must do all in our power to preserve and champion them to ensure they are still here for future generations to use and enjoy. We need to do this cross-party, working together because heritage is about all of us.”