Letter: Greenest City in the UK

George Orwell in his Road to Wigan Pier described Sheffield – “Sheffield I suppose could justly claim to be called the ugliest Town in the old world”.That was written in the 1930’s.

Well it is now called by many as the “Greenest City in the UK”, this is due to a Labour Council over the years planting thousands of new Highway trees and replacing old and dying ones cross our City.

It is also a fact that we now have more Highway trees across Sheffield, than we have ever had in our history, thanks to a Labour Council who continue to plant more and it is due to Councillors like Terry Fox and Brian Lodge who have battled over the years to maintain an environmental budget in spite of Government cuts in funding – that’s why I support them.

In response to Graham Wroe of the Green Party, at the time of the Shiregreen highway maintenance programme, I was chair of the N.E. Community Assembly and the proposals for the Shiregreen highway trees was discussed at almost every public meeting, which we held on a monthly basis and it maybe his campaigners were unaware of the proposals, but I can assure him Shiregreen residents were and, believe it or not, the main complaint was why are we not replacing their particular tree that they judged as problematic?

In response to K Toughey of Shiregreen I don’t know which part of Shiregeen he lives in, it is a large estate, but I do not accept his negative comments.

I have lived on the edge of the Shiregreen Estate (Sheffield Lane Top) for more than 60 years and my four children all attended Hartley Brook School, so I do know the estate well and in my view it is looking better now than it has done for years.

The roads and pavements are pretty good and we have lovely tree coverage, thanks to the Labour Council.

There is no doubt that we have a litter problem, like most of our city, due to irresponsible residents dropping their litter and dumping rubbish.

However, instead of whinging and blaming the council, perhaps he could join the wonderful group of volunteers the ‘Shiregreen Litter Pickers’ who do a stirling job across our estate on a regular basis.

I do join them occasionally and sometimes have a go alone.

I include a selfie I took four weeks ago on Butterthwaite Road, which was particularly bad, I think due to the winds.

After I had finished, about an hour, the area looked great. Shows what can be achieved with a little community spirit

Councillor Peter Price

Elected member for Shiregreen/Brightside