
The council has produced a leaflet showing various half term activities taking place in the South West Community Assembly this week, mainly for kids.

Crosspool News – crosspool.info
The Crosspool community website run by Crosspool Forum

In a bid to save £1.4 million from the budget, Sheffield City Council is to drastically cut back its mobile library service.
Currently the mobile library makes weekly visits in Crosspool to Benty Lane and Watt Lane (twice), plus monthly visits to Moorbank Road Flats and Tapton Hill Road.
Under the new proposals, the Crosspool service will be reduced to a single weekly visit to Watt Lane and a monthly visit to Moorbank Road Flats.
You can have your say on the cuts as part of a consultation exercise.
New Crookes Councillor Geoff Smith has been in touch and asked us to report back his findings on two waste management issues raised at Monday’s Open Meeting. Geoff writes:

As you know it has been agreed in principle that residents will be able to use these flexibly, deciding for themselves which one they use for glass etc and which for paper etc. The date 23 May was mentioned. This is not the date for Crookes ward. This is the date for the north west and the south east of the city. The rest, including Crosspool, will be some time in September (date to be announced). All residents will receive a letter of information/explanation before the September date.

As explained at the meeting, these are in use again and can be collected from libraries and the town hall. When you have filled them they should be left (visibly) inside your property and you should ring Veolia to ask them to be collected. This will be done within 20 days. Reasonably someone suggested that it would be better if there was a set day for collection for everyone in an area. This is what happens at the moment in the south east on a four weekly cycle and this is about to be rolled out across the whole city. There should be an announcement shortly.
Download as a Word document (41KB)
As Pc Atha was on leave there was no report, but residents made the following points to be passed on to her – as well as point 1 above.
New Cllr Geoff Cox was welcomed, & said he was still in a ‘listening mode’, but hopes to get his contact details out to the public ASAP .
Residents being able to choose for themselves what to use their recycling bin BLUE BINS & BLUE BOXES for may start on 23rd May – watch this space!
The proposed hessian bag GREEN GARDEN WASTE SCHEME is not now happening – green bags are available once more from eg the libraries for green waste. At the moment the ‘winter’ scheme of residents ‘phoning to arrange collection is still in force – this may take 21 days. Cllrs agreed that re-opening the Botanical Gardens cafe was a high priority.
There is sufficient in the ‘kitty’ to cover this year’s flowers, but (see above) grants will be needed for future projects
Rev Frances Eccleston reported that the Festival will open with Crosspool Open Gardens on Sat 2nd July, a Street Market on Sun 3rd, and 0 after a range of day & evening events – end with the Summer Fayre on Sat 9th & Picnic in the Park (Lydgate Green) on Sun 10th. More volunteers still warmly welcomed!
Carrie McKenzie (Voluntary Action Sheffield) said that all old TVs & aerials should work fine with the new digital signal. People receiving TV through SKY dishes or by cable will not be affected at all when the analogue signal is switched off, but if TV comes via an aerial some form of ‘digibox’ for the new freeview 15 channels will be needed. If residents get their TV signals from the Crookes transmitter then BBC2 will disappear on 10th Aug (& the other channels two weeks later) – if from Emley Moor BBC2 will go on 7th Sep (& the others on 21st) and if from Belmont (not very likely in this area) 3rd August (& 17th). Residents over 75 will have received a letter already asking them whether they need an installer to call & tune their sets in – if they biined this by accidents further letters will be sent! Video recorders will still work to play old videos, but not record any longer..
Next Open Meeting will be on Thursday 28 July 2011, at St Columba’s, 7pm.

Our newly elected local councillor Geoff Smith has his first opportunity since the elections last week to acquaint himself with his constituents when he attends the Crosspool Forum Open Meeting on Monday.
Everyone is invited, so why not come along and have your say? It starts at 7pm at St Columba’s Church.
Agenda for Crosspool Forum Open Meeting, Monday 9 May 2011 (Word document, 33KB)
Labour’s Geoff Smith has taken the Crookes ward seat from the Liberal Democrat John Hesketh.
Geoff collected 2,916 votes, while John received 2,397. Green Party candidate Julian Crossland came third with 1,174 votes and Conservative candidate John Levick took just 874 votes. The turnout for Crookes ward was 52.8%.
Overall in the city, Labour now has 49 councillors out of a total of 84, taking nine seats from the Liberal Democrats who have 32.
Sheffield City Council: local election 2011 results
BBC News: Labour takes control of Sheffield City Council


Local residents will be voting in the local council elections and Alternative Vote referendum on Thursday.
For the local elections Crosspool lies in the Crookes ward, where there are four candidates standing:
If any candidates read this, it would be great if they could comment below to sum up why Crosspool residents should vote for them.
The electorate will also be deciding whether to vote for or against a change from First Past The Post to the Alternative Vote polling system for future general elections.
Some residents will be moving polling station from Stephen Hill church on Benty Lane to Hallam FC’s ground on Sandygate Road.
Full details of where you should vote will be printed on your polling card. If you haven’t received your polling card by the election date you can still vote in person at your local polling station. You will need to take some form of ID with you.

You are invited to Crosspool Forum’s Open Meeting on Monday 9 May at St Columba’s Church. It starts at 7pm.
A provisional agenda is below. Come along to give your concerns on local issues to local councillors, the police and council officials.
Agenda for Crosspool Forum Open Meeting, Monday 9 May 2011 (Word document, 33KB)
On Saturday 23 April, the Dransfield Road street lights failed to come on.
Street Force were informed and have now got back in touch today to say that the fault is with the underground cable and it could take up to 30 days to repair:
The problem with the street light son Dransfield Road is now caused by a fault on the underground cable network owned and operated by Yorkshire Electricity Distribution Ltd. (YEDL) and has been passed to them. They were notified of the fault (Ref: 261958) yesterday.
YEDL work to repair faults within 30 working days of them receiving notification, however, their priority is to maintain the supply to housing, which in some cases, may mean that street lighting faults take slightly longer to resolve.
Contact will be made with YEDL to try and speed up the investigation and repair of the fault.
In the meantime, drivers and pedestrians are advised to take extra care on Dransfield Road after dark.

If you’ve had a busy Easter weekend in the garden, you’ll be pleased to know that green garden refuses sacks are available once again and the collection service appears to be back in full swing.
It seems that you can once again pick up green plastic sacks for garden refuse from all the places across the city we were using such as libraries, housing offices and First Point locations.
Having filled between three and 12 bags it is your responsibility to contact Veolia on 0114 273 4567 to arrange collection which will be within the following 20 working days. Soil, rocks, large logs will not be collected. If you do not ring Veolia they will not pick up your sacks even if they are left out on the path or verge.
Meanwhile, the reusable hessian sack scheme for green waste that was announced last November has been scrapped following the budget cuts to local authority spending. Plastic sacks were seen as a more affordable alternative.
Green waste collection in Sheffield
