WallBuilder

The city centre has had little redevelopment to build the sort of shop units that many businesses now want. Smaller independat businesses may be happy with a small shop frontage and limited floor space but the bigger names want plenty of floor space and the high ceilings that were offered up at Meadowhall for example. So as and when the new retail quarter comes into being I'm sure that big names will want to come

I can remember the dog toilet bins being introduced and it used to be a guy in a little Ford escort van going round to empty the things but obviously as time passed the number of bins has increased and from my nearest park I know the demand for such bins has become greater as well. I suppose with the subject of poo it would be reasonable to ask the council why a different scheme couldn't be implemented. A friend living in Rotherham used to collect scrap metal and I sometimes helped him load his van up with the stuff he'd accumulated, the local scrap metal merchant paid him according to the weight so he needed to amass a certain amount to make it worth his while.

I doubt that the issue of on street parking was a deep concern but if it set a precedent can you imagine the chaos that could be caused as other business premises tried to utilise their car parking spots as well. I'm trying to think of an example and thought of the Toby carvery up there on the way to Dronfield. If they suddenly got permission to limit their car parking that could at busy times push well over fifty cars out to find a spot to park on the road

I haven't had the chance to go up to the site and take a look at how the clean up is going and probably wont be able to get there till next week because of other commitments but I don't think the plan is to stop storing stuff there temporarily if I understood the news report correctly but rather just to improve the situation. The council could I suppose stop collecting rubbish that all the parks generate or they could go back to the old system of having a few smaller sites for storing rubbish dotted around the parks, I can remember the skips in Graves park near the football pitches or the rubbish collected in Millhouses park behind the buildings by the boating lake or the skip that used to sit in Meersbrook park. If that isn't a good idea and I for one don't think it is then the council may be thinking of looking for another location on this side of the city which I'm sure will cause ripples of annoyance wherever it may be located. The council could be more forthcoming with what happens to the stored stuff I imagine it has to be sorted to stuff for the incinerator, stuff that can be recycled and then stuff that has to go to our rapidly filling land fill sites. With a budget though that seems to be shrinking though I imagine any new scheme considered will have to be cost efective.

I'd not considered the idea that it could set a precedent but if there is a parking policy when it comes to buildings then is there no other place where the car parking spots could be located. I'm trying to picture the amount of land alongside the building for example. I remember that pub from the late 70's and how in the summer it looked a lot more inviting as this was before the car became indispensable for so many people so the frontage looked far less crowded or cluttered.

I find it interesting that some people have looked at the pictures and then come out with comments like it's shocking, it's disgraceful it's toxic, it must stink, etc etc etc but don't seem to be bothered enough to go to the council and ask them what is going on. Maybe if a few more people actually did start asking questions as I have then there could be a change in what is after all a long standing way of doing things. People claiming it is illegal as well where are they getting the information from and again are they actually doing anything other than sitting at their keyboard and muttering. I have asked questions and recieved some answers but I wont just sit back I will in a dday or so pop up to the site and take another look, if the promised works haven't been carried out I then have a name and contact who I can go back to. I assume there is probably a councillor who deals with environmental issues or oversee's the parks department so I may go down that route as well, so please a little less name calling or belittling and maybe a little more get off your bottoms and attempt to do something slightly more constructive.

I've got friends who shop there quite a lot so I'm sure it's going to be a nasty shock if the store is closed for long and when I've been in that particular shop it seems a lot lighter and more spacious than the one on Chesterfield road at Meersbrook

I wondered how long it would take for some-one to accuse me of being a council employee, sorry to disappoint people but I'm not. I do however live in the area and so was rather puzzled by the initial description of the horrendous smell, the rats running around and how it was a very noticeable blot on the landscape especially as it was in a public park that I often walk through and around. I therefore went out and investigated things for myself both by asking for info from councillors and also walking to the bounddary fences between the park proper and the nursery site to have a look. I then went in to the nursery site to get an even closer look. I then waited for the response to my queries which I have mentioned on this thread and have no reason to start calling the council liars or start saying they are flytipping as it's clear from what they've told me that stuff has been stored temporarily on the site for some time and if it hadn't been for the breakdown of some equipment the amount of rubbish wouldn't of accumulated.

I raised the point myself several posts back about the stuff going to the incinerator but it's obviously going to be much more cost effective to remove larger quantities of waste all at the same time. Maybe a legitimate question the friends could of been asking is can a different solution be developed. It's unfortunate that there seems to of been a problem with equipment at this the busiest time of year for waste disposal and has then been brought to the public's attention in a rather one sided way without bothering to get accurate information or a response from the council officers responsible.

I suppose the rubbish that the park users generate has to go somewhere and when I think about it there used to be an area of woodland that had a lot of green waste collected there and then over by the football pitches near Cobnar cottage there was a couple of skips and usually a pile of rubbish with everything from road cones to broken park benches in evidence. This was right next to the main path and in the summer was not the most attractive of smells. These two sites are nowadays clear and so I'd imagine they've been moved to their present location which obviously is better but needs some better way of storing it temporarily In reference to my previous post I was merely reporting what I had been told so if it turns out to be a load of hogwash then I'll be on the case although after having looked at the Facebook page of the friends of Graves park I didn't notice much in the way of answers being asked from the council

I wonder as well whether I am the only person who has bothered to contact the local councillor to try and get some clarification on the situation? The response seems to be they are aware that a lot more rubbish than they would of liked has accumulated and although the site has been used as a temporary storage area for a long time the pens constructed are not up to the amount that has built up because of the time of year and the lorry with the grab arm has needed repairs. However with the installation of two large skips this will if nothing else tidy the area up . As this has now been volunteered to me I'm quite prepared to leave it for a few days before taking a wander up there to check on progress. I managed to find out a few things with a minimum of effort and so am slightly suprised that the friends of the park aren't persueing a similar tack and then giving their members an accurate update on the state of play.

I had this problem and although it looked like it was leaking from the same position as yours it turned out I'd managed to dislodge the waste fitting as it went through into the bath so water was managing to seep through there and then it merrily trickled down following the screw thread . It almost invisible and I only figured it out when I put a few pieces of tissue down around the fitting and then ran some water into the bath and left it sitting for a while, annoyingly as well it only got worse when there was a decent amount of water in the bath.

The Atkin sisters that I knew were Julie the eldest and Marie the youngest with one in the middle Vivian I think, Eddie rode a motorcycle and nearly always had a dark blue motorcycle leather on

Looks as though there are quite a few people who have contributed to this thread who lived near to the Wordsworth tavern so I thought I'd ask a question. Does anyone remember a guy possibly part chinese called Eddie and what became of him, I'm just being curious as I knew him and the Atkin sisters one of which was his girlfriend for a time

Although I've now raised the subject with the three local councillors I doubt that I'll hear anything back for a few days at least as they'll have to make their own enquiries. I could of course go through to the parks department and ask to speak to the officer in charge of the park and so am slightly suprised that the friends of the park haven't gone down this route. On a side note I don't want to broadcast the type of machinery stored at the nursery site but the majority is not all road vehicles such as vans, tipper trucks and the like as has been claimed.

Don't get me wrong I don't like to see stuff piled up like that so I have gone to the trouble of contacting a local councillor and asked them to look into it. I had two questions to ask basically the first being who decided that storing such rubbish in the open like that was a good idea and more importantly how long was it going to be there I suppose a further question could be where had the rubbish been collected from There does seem to be a few people who seem to be saying this is a shocking sight as it soils the entire park although it's not visible from what I would call the park proper, the criket pitch, the football fields, the rose garden, the childrens playgrounds and not even from the rare breeds centre and fields or the meadow which is as close as you can get park wise. I've just had a thought could this be stuff dragged out of the river and collected on the route of that bike race that took place a few days ago

I hope that no-one would be foolish enough to pass on her details to a complete unknown, maybe a better way would be for the op to supply a phone number then that could be passed on to the person assuming that anyone knows her

I don't like what I saw but it's not visible from the park which most people may be walking in I even went prowling round the Chantreyland meadow to see what the smell was like and although I was now downwind of the area it wasn't particularily noticeable. If the stuff has to be stored temporarily then I'd of preferred it to be in a couple of walk-in skips/containers and although it is tucked in a section of the nursery compound that most users of the site probably wouldn't need to go near I'd still prefer to see the stuff gone.

I have now had a little wander up to see for myself and so can report my findings. There didn't seem to be mountains of rubbish on show from the road so as the gates werre open I walked in. Still nothing to be seen apart from some vehicles and trailers/machinery which looked as though it is used for park mainttenance. Went on past the various greenhouses and prefabs till I eventually found a much smaller less offensive pile of rubbish. It didn't look very nice but was scarcely the mountainous hideously ponging pile I'd expected. No large amounts of white goods and although there were a few shopping trolleys but don't think that can be all the debris collected from council parks across the city and the dog poo although evident from a smell was scarcely all over the area either as has been reported. Maybe the workforce had managed to get there before I did and had tidied up or maybe some people have exagerated the issue.

Have now had a chat to one of the local councillors who has taken notes and is going to look into things they also copied in emails to the other two local councillors so I am now waiting to see what the response will be. The area may not be open to the general public but now the three local councillors are involved I suspect there may be info forthcoming

I've had an email back from a local councillor who has arranged to pop round to see me and get any other info that I may have so I'll point them at the forum at least.

I had come across this a couple of weeks ago and doubt that it's going to clog the streets up as the car park only holds about a dozen cars if that.

Well some-one within the council considered this to be a good option so I'm going to be asking which bright spark started this process up and as it's obviously not satisfactory what the council are going to do to resolve things, for example I thought this city had an incinerator.

I'll take an amble up there to see what it looks like and to see whether it can be seen or smelt from the park proper as I thought the nursery site was fairly well sheilded from the park. However I wont be worried about wandering in to the nursery site itself and then will attempt firstly to contact the officer in charge of Graves park who is part of the parks and countryside team so based in Meersbrook park. I'm on first name terms with one of the local councillors as well so will ask them to look into what is going on as well once I've ascertained the situation.

Open House was a coffee shop that was an outreach centre although I don't think in it's last years it did much outreach activities. They also sold a limited amount of stuff aimed at christians. The place has been closed now for quite some time although I did once talk with some-one who had some dealings with the place and apparently it was awaiting refurbishment but that doesn't seem to be happening. It was manned by volunteers drawn from various local churches but suspect the best place to try would be Woodseats baptist and you want to ask for Dave Cook who may be able to help