Meeting about fire station closure, Thursday 12 January at 7pm

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR), Darnall Forum and the East Community Assembly have work together to arrange a public meeting for residents in the Darnall area about the proposals to cut management and administration costs for the Fire Service by a quarter. The proposals include a new full-time fire station near to the Sheffield Parkway, to replace Darnall and Mansfield Road fire stations in Sheffield, and the meeting will give local residents a chance to comment and ask questions.

The meeting will be held at The Church of Christ, Station Road,  Darnall, Sheffield S9 4JT, on Thursday 12th January 2012, at 7.00pm.

The proposals currently out to consultation, together with other internal staffing changes, will save around £4million per year following a one-off investment of £3.65million, including two new fire stations.

The public consultation document, and related business cases, can be viewed on the Service’s website, www.syfire.gov.uk.

To make their views known, residents can either attend the meeting or
• Write to: Public consultation, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, 197
Eyre Street, Sheffield, S1 3FG
• E-mail: serviceplan@syfire.gov.uk
• Twitter: @syfr
• Facebook: South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

Annual General Meeting of Darnall Forum & Post Office

The annual general meeting of Darnall Community Forum, which runs Darnall Post Office and a number of other projects, takes place on Tuesday 9 November at 6pm in the meeting room in the Darnall Forum offices next to Darnall Post Office.

This is a chance for local residents to have their say about how the post office is run and to comment on other issues that concern them.

The meeting elects the Board of volunteer trustees who run the Forum and are responsible for the post office through their trading company, Darnall Forum Trading.

To become a member of the Forum people have to live or work in Darnall.

Customer Service Consultant / Counter Clerk

x 3 (Part Time or Jobshare),

Darnall, Sheffield

An excellent opportunity, working up to 16 hours per week on a rota between 9.00am - 5.30pm over five 1/2 days, has arisen at the new post office in Darnall. Subject to who else is appointed to the team there may be scope for agreeing certain set hours each week.

The main duties are serving customers, selling Post Office products and services, cash handling and advising on other Post Office related matters. You will also conduct general customer service and retail duties. Any keyboard, EPOS and proven communication skills with the public would be of great benefit. The appointee will be able to work quickly and accurately in a busy environment and preferably have cash handling experience. Patience and a helpful, friendly manner are essential attributes.

If you want to know more, please apply today by contacting alicia.lloyd@cffe.org.uk or Nazia on 0114 249 0099

Post Office Manager

Darnall, Sheffield

An excellent opportunity has arisen to manage a busy Post Office in Darnall, Sheffield.

Darnall Forum currently have an exciting opportunity for a Post Office Manager to join their new Post Office team and manage the day to day operational activities whilst looking to utilise the positioning and footfall of the Post Office to provide additional retail based income streams.

You will need to have previous Post Office, finance or retail experience, experience of team leadership or management and must be passionate about driving sales and delivering excellence in customer service.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to really get involved with a business and work autonomously as a manager, looking at ways to increase sales and generating year on year improvement.

The post office turnover runs on low weekly margins, so it is vital that you have the correct number of staff available at all times to ensure the best possible levels of customer service and that all aspects of the business are handled efficiently and effectively. It is key that the whole range of post office services and the other income streams are brought to customers' attention as appropriate to aid sales and turnover.

Key skills will include a strong work ethic, the ability to delegate, attention to detail, excellent numeracy, being an excellent communicator across a diverse customer and staff base, the ability to think on your feet and an entrepreneurial flair.

If you have previous Post Office or retail or finance experience, and are looking for a full time, permanent position then please apply today by contacting alicia.lloyd@cffe.org.uk or Nazia on 0114 249 0099

New Post Office To Open At The End of August

Darnall's new post office will open on Tuesday 31 August. It will be based in Darnall Forum's offices at 245 Main Road, which are being remodelled to make room for a modern post office and shop with four counters. The post office will provide

• passport checking
• foreign currency
• travel insurance
• home and car insurance
• moneygrams
• parelforce guaranteed
• next-day delivery
• the full range of parcel and postal services
• stamps
• cards, stationery, toys and confectionery

The People's Post Office

But this will be a post office with a difference. Neil Bishop, Darnall Forum's Manager said, 'This really will be "The People's Post Office" because it belongs to the people of Darnall. Anyone who lives or works in Darnall, Attercliffe and Acres Hill can join Darnall Forum and have a say in how the post office is run because Darnall Forum owns the new post office and any profit we make, after we have paid the post office staff and all the bills and running costs, will be ploughed back into local services for people in Darnall. And it is the members of the Forum who decide the sort of services which the Forum should provide at our annual general meeting.'

Local councillors have been instrumental in helping the post office to open for business again. They persuaded the East Community Assembly to make a grant of £10,000 towards the set-up costs. MP Clive Betts has also given the Forum his support and campaigned to get Post Office Ltd, which runs the post office network, to agree a groundbreaking deal which will allow Darnall Forum itself to be responsible for the post office instead of a sub-postmaster.

Chair of the Forum, Sylvia Hamilton, said, 'Darnall needs a post office. Many people here found it very difficult to travel to Attercliffe or Handsworth, or into town, to get the things they need. And the local shopping centre needs a post office, too. That's why we decided we had to do something to help.'

Mr Betts told The Herald: "The Darnall Forum team deserve a great deal of credit for a superb achievement."

The post office will open for business on Tuesday 31 August at 9am. Its opening hours will be 9 - 5.30 on weekdays and 9 - 12.30 on Saturdays.

COUNCIL BACKS DOWN ON GYPSY AND TRAVELLER SITE ON ROSS STREET, THANKS TO PRESSURE FROM LOCAL COUNCILLORS AND DARNALL RESIDENTS, BUT NEED FOR VIGILANCE

COMMUNITY MEETING ON 20 JULY

Local councillors are calling another community meeting, at 6.30pm on 20 July in Church of Christ, Main Road, Darnall to bring local people up-to-date on what is happening about the proposals for a Gypsy and Traveller site in Darnall. The proposal to use the Ross Street site has now been dropped by the Council after pressure from local residents and councillors, but Cllr Mary Lea warned that there are other sites which the report identifies in our area. "We need to be vigilant about this," she said.

The City Council has announced that the consultation about Gypsy and Traveller sites is on hold until later in the year, while it waits to hear from government about new planning guidelines. However, Councillor Harry Harpham said, "Although we are no longer being consulted about this, and although Ross Street is no longer being considered, the issue has not gone away. Your councillors share the concerns of local people about creating a new Gypsy and Traveller site in Darnall and are 110% behind you. It is critical to keep collecting signatures on petitions and reminding the Council about how we feel."

Councillors and local residents are concerned that Darnall does not have the health and education facilities to cope with a Gypsy and Traveller site on top of other new housing developments which have already caused concern, especially about school places in a part of the city with a relatively young population. Cllr Lea said, "These proposals were called in for scrutiny and we want to be able to tell residents exactly what happened at the special scrutiny board meeting, as well as what we did with the petitions which people have collected."

Community Meeting 24 June 2010 10am Church of Christ

Chair: Councillor Harry Harpham

Councillor Mary Lea in attendance plus 16 residents, 3 council officers, 1 officer from the PCT and 1 Forum officer.

The following statement was made by planning officers:

The Council are no longer consulting on the three proposed sites for Gypsy and Travellers, including the one proposed for Darnall, as part of its current consultation on the Sheffield Development Framework. The Council has called the decision to include the sites in the draft consultation documents in for scrutiny. This means that the issue of Gypsy and Traveller sites will be looked at in more detail by members of the Scrutiny Committee on 6^th July.

The City Council, as local planning authority, is currently required to allocate enough land in its development plan to meet future needs for Gypsy and Traveller sites. However, the Government has recently announced that they will be making changes to the process giving councils more local discretion. This may have implications for the assessment of need and the number of sites that are required. The Council expects to be doing more work on this issue, including consultation, but until the new guidance is published it is not clear what the Council will be required to do, so they have shelved this issue for the time being. The Council has in the meantime kept all the concerns which were sent to them.

Questions from members of the public:

Question: What are we to do with the petitions which the Councillors have circulated?

Councillor Harpham said that although we are no longer being consulted about this, the issue has not gone away. The Councillors share the concerns of local people and are 110% behind them. It is critical to keep collecting signatures on petitions. This will mean residents can be kept informed by letter about what is happening. There will be another public meeting after 6^th July. The Councillors will hand in the petitions collected so far at the next Council meeting and they will continue to present them on a rolling basis.

Question: What about the Gypsies who are already living in Darnall without permission?

The concerns of residents were noted.

Question: Why had a meeting been called during the daytime when a lot of people cannot come?

Neil Bishop explained that we are holding a few daytime meetings as well as our regular evening meetings to help a wider cross-section of residents to get their views across. Evening meetings are not always well attended.

Question: How many sites have been proposed in areas where Liberal Democrat voters are in the majority?

Seven

Question: What about the problems that have been associated with other Gypsy and Traveller sites?

Residents noted that a lot of money has been spent on other sites – such as Woodburn Road – and then they have closed. Concerns were expressed about anti-social behaviour affecting local residents. There was a feeling that money had been wasted on Gypsy and Traveller facilities which then were not used.

Lyn Brandon said that Gypsy and Traveller sites are now being managed by Sheffield Homes. The PCT has found from its work that Gypsies and Travellers have much poorer health than other people and face a lot of racism. She is working on sites at Redmire and Mosborough which are very well run and where families stay for a long time. There are already Gypsies living in Darnall and they don’t cause any unusual problems.

Question: Could new bus companies be brought into Darnall? First Bus is not an adequate service provider.

The comment was noted but this is not a matter which the city council to decide.

Question: When is the regeneration of Darnall going to begin? It doesn’t seem likely in the lifetime of older people.

A resident commented that she did not wish to stereotype Gypsies and Travellers as she knew that many must be good citizens but the experience of people in Darnall had unfortunately been a lot more negative and we need to make sure that people living on sites are willing to conform to social norms and laws. Councillor Harpham said the real issue was about whether the area had the capacity to absorb a significant number of extra Gypsy and Traveller residents given the pressures on local services.

Sheffield Development Framework

Debbie Merrill from Development Services gave a presentation about the latest stage of the Sheffield Development Framework. She presented a draft of the City Policies and Sites document and Proposals Map now available for consultation and comment. The draft plan presents guidance on how the city should develop in the future and the presentation was made with particular reference to Darnall and the surrounding neighbourhoods. The documents can be read on the Council website or at Darnall Library. Comments on the draft documents can be made to: www.sheffield.gov.uk/sdfconsult or by email to sdf@sheffield.gov.uk

There is a formal six week consultation period until the 30^th July. Changes will be made to the documents after the consultation. A final version will be sent to government next year and should be approved by December 2012, so we are very much at a draft stage of the process.

Question: Nothing ever seems to happen at the end of all the reviews and plans. It all seems utopian. When will we see regeneration happen?

Debbie Merrill said it is a legal function of the Council to put plans in place. However, these plans are often affected by 1,001 other issues including the economy. Maria Duffy said it is not an investment plan; it is a planning framework so that if developers come forward with proposals we can see how they might fit into the vision of what the council would like to happen in the area.

Question: Are we still going to get the new primary care clinic?

It is going through legal processes within the PCT and the Strategic Health Authority to get the necessary permissions in place.

Question: Residents of Handsworth Crescent had a battle royal, helped by Clive Betts, to get someone to remove an unauthorised scrap yard from greenbelt land. Why were planners not more aware that this was happening?

Councillor Lea said she had been reporting the issue for a long time, but the businessman concerned was very clever and it was difficult to enforce the removal of the scrap yard. Councillor Harpham said the Council cannot employ enough people to patrol all the greenbelt sites in Sheffield so we are reliant on local residents. Council officers then need to take action.

Question: We have some of the worst air pollution in the country. Could the railway bridge be widened on Prince of Wales Road to relieve the bottleneck there, which causes increased pollution?

Councillor Harpham said this was a highways issue.

Councillor Lea asked if 40% of new homes still need to be affordable housing?

Regional planning guidance has been abolished but the Council is now awaiting new national planning guidance.

Darnall Post Office

Neil Bishop gave an update about the Post Office, which will reopen soon in Darnall Forum’s premises.