Wednesday 23 February 2011

Piscatory?

When I consider latest developments concerning the Sheffield and Hathersage Moors I can't shake off the fishy smell. These are the moors of Houndkirk, Burbage, plus the large areas around Higger Tor and Carl Wark. There is a culture within the departments of Sheffield City Council that deal with land and property that does not seem to understand the proper needs of accountability. Some months ago I asked the South West Community Assembly to ensure that there would be a proper consultation before any decision was taken to dispose of this huge area of land to an outside organisation. I learned that SCC has outsourced its whole property department to the private firm of Kier Asset Management. I have spoken twice to the officer at Kier (who used to work for the Council) and each time he gave the impression that no decision was imminent and that there would be a period of some 18 months before anything could happen. Sad to recall that the same officer has previous form in somewhat hasty decisions on public land disposal to private organisations. Now suddenly an email has been passed on, not from SCC, but from RSPB saying that next months Community Assembly meeting will be voting on whether a disposal should go ahead of this land to RSPB/NT.
Doubtless there will be more to come on this in future posts.

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