ORBITAL ROAD IS ESSENTIAL TO OUR TOWN
By Couns Peter Middleton and Bill Gaunt, Old Town Ward
WE wish to comment on the Chronicle report about the discussion on the northern orbital road at a town hall meeting. In our view it is essential to complete this route, of which the northern section will be the last to be implemented. It is fundamental to our economic and environmental wellbeing.
It provides the opportunity to open new employment sites as well as make successful existing sites that suffer from poor access. Furthermore it addresses traffic congestion which results in pollution and excessive carbon emissions.
We note with interest the officer’s comments about “councillors’ pet schemes”. This may have occurred in the recent past but does not apply to this scheme. It is a strategic objective of all councillors in the area irrespective of political allegiance as well as being well justified in economic terms.
It was said that the government only want schemes that have regional significance and was therefore unlikely to meet the criteria.
We do not accept that this scheme should fail on this point as the town is 15,000 jobs short. Indeed, this specific road is part of the infrastructure necessary to generate the economic growth we need.
Also Barnsley is now part of the Leeds City Region and the road is integral to achieving the regional objective.
The truth may be that the road scheme is second or even third in the pecking order and officers were reflecting decisions taken in accordance with hidden agendas.
In summary we are concerned about the lack of will that is being demonstrated and believe that defeatist attitudes never achieve strategic objectives. This scheme offers an opportunity to address the current economic shortcomings of Barnsley and should be pursued to make it a successful town.
It provides the opportunity to open new employment sites as well as make successful existing sites that suffer from poor access. Furthermore it addresses traffic congestion which results in pollution and excessive carbon emissions.
We note with interest the officer’s comments about “councillors’ pet schemes”. This may have occurred in the recent past but does not apply to this scheme. It is a strategic objective of all councillors in the area irrespective of political allegiance as well as being well justified in economic terms.
It was said that the government only want schemes that have regional significance and was therefore unlikely to meet the criteria.
We do not accept that this scheme should fail on this point as the town is 15,000 jobs short. Indeed, this specific road is part of the infrastructure necessary to generate the economic growth we need.
Also Barnsley is now part of the Leeds City Region and the road is integral to achieving the regional objective.
The truth may be that the road scheme is second or even third in the pecking order and officers were reflecting decisions taken in accordance with hidden agendas.
In summary we are concerned about the lack of will that is being demonstrated and believe that defeatist attitudes never achieve strategic objectives. This scheme offers an opportunity to address the current economic shortcomings of Barnsley and should be pursued to make it a successful town.
HOW DARE SHE COMPLAIN?
By Bob Newall (former Royston resident) Higham Common Road, Barnsley
REGARDING the letter from the Royston resident of four years and the coking plant, let’s just check.
Her husband has had asthma for 18 years. Her children now have asthma (has she considered this is perhaps down to genes) and they have moved next to a coking plant. Good decision.
A coking plant that has been there and self-evidently been on this site for ten times more than this family’s tenure. I don’t believe the family could have moved any nearer if they had tried. Council house or private house, there is still a choice however limited, by location or price.
So can I, with an allergy to cats, for example, move next to a long-standing cattery – with a great big sign saying ‘cattery’ outside the premises – and complain about an increase in my allergy symptoms?
How dare she complain of this coking site. It’s there, it has been there for years, it is horrible, it would be great if it wasn’t there.
Its effects have been evident and obvious for my 29 years in Barnsley.
Her husband has had asthma for 18 years. Her children now have asthma (has she considered this is perhaps down to genes) and they have moved next to a coking plant. Good decision.
A coking plant that has been there and self-evidently been on this site for ten times more than this family’s tenure. I don’t believe the family could have moved any nearer if they had tried. Council house or private house, there is still a choice however limited, by location or price.
So can I, with an allergy to cats, for example, move next to a long-standing cattery – with a great big sign saying ‘cattery’ outside the premises – and complain about an increase in my allergy symptoms?
How dare she complain of this coking site. It’s there, it has been there for years, it is horrible, it would be great if it wasn’t there.
Its effects have been evident and obvious for my 29 years in Barnsley.
'WHY GRIMETHORPE'S REGENERATION MAY STAGNATE'
By Father Peter Needham, Parish Priest of St Luke's, Grimethorpe with St Paul's, Brierley
THE powers that be are celebrating the regeneration of Grimethorpe. The millions spent on roads, housing and infrastructure is a right and proper thing to celebrate and should not be played down.
Without sounding ungrateful, outward regeneration can easily lead to stagnation. When something is regenerated it comes into a renewed existence; it has to do with a more vigorous and spiritually greater life. Regeneration, whether the secularists like it or not, is a theological word. So well done, business men, politicians and funding agencies for all you have done for Grimethorpe.
Stagnation means ‘to be idle or languish, to decay or decompose’. My fear, as the parish priest, whose mission is to work for the regeneration of souls, is that with only financial impetus the regeneration of people’s lives may be overlooked.
It would be wonderful to see an equal amount of financial energy put into the groups and institutions that work for a deeper regeneration in Grimethorpe – those groups that make people feel important, those which seek to give a quality, worth and value in individual lives that overflows into community life.
The Grimethorpe and District Band, the majorettes, St John’s Ambulance, neighbourhood watch, the boxing, karate, cricket clubs and the various Christian churches struggle to ensure that quality, worth and value is alive in the villages, yet they are the ones who are struggling.
Millions do not come their way. Every penny they raise is for the enrichment of the community. If these groups in their struggle, cannot maintain their life, then the outward regeneration of buildings and roads will be for nothing.
So let us celebrate the work of the millions of pounds but let us not miss the point of it all, which is the efforts and energies of all those groups which seek by their faith, skills in sport, in music and entertainment and prayer, to regenerate people’s lives. If not, then what we face is new build stagnation.
Without sounding ungrateful, outward regeneration can easily lead to stagnation. When something is regenerated it comes into a renewed existence; it has to do with a more vigorous and spiritually greater life. Regeneration, whether the secularists like it or not, is a theological word. So well done, business men, politicians and funding agencies for all you have done for Grimethorpe.
Stagnation means ‘to be idle or languish, to decay or decompose’. My fear, as the parish priest, whose mission is to work for the regeneration of souls, is that with only financial impetus the regeneration of people’s lives may be overlooked.
It would be wonderful to see an equal amount of financial energy put into the groups and institutions that work for a deeper regeneration in Grimethorpe – those groups that make people feel important, those which seek to give a quality, worth and value in individual lives that overflows into community life.
The Grimethorpe and District Band, the majorettes, St John’s Ambulance, neighbourhood watch, the boxing, karate, cricket clubs and the various Christian churches struggle to ensure that quality, worth and value is alive in the villages, yet they are the ones who are struggling.
Millions do not come their way. Every penny they raise is for the enrichment of the community. If these groups in their struggle, cannot maintain their life, then the outward regeneration of buildings and roads will be for nothing.
So let us celebrate the work of the millions of pounds but let us not miss the point of it all, which is the efforts and energies of all those groups which seek by their faith, skills in sport, in music and entertainment and prayer, to regenerate people’s lives. If not, then what we face is new build stagnation.
