David Lipka tells Local Democracy Reporter Julia Armstrong that Sheffield City Council has failed for 13 years to take steps to reinstate a pedestrian area outside the Zest Centre in Upperthorpe
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00:00 I'm going to Upper Thorpe Precinct near the Zest Centre with David Lipko, who's a local resident.
00:07 David, you're upset about something around here, aren't you? Do you want to say what it is?
00:11 Well, I'm a little bit more than a little bit frustrated by the lack of action from the City Council in terms of looking after this area of the city.
00:21 I don't know if many of you remember, Kelvin Flats was here originally 30 years ago. This was designated as an area of priority for making sure the area was safe, welcoming, community space for all the people living around here, many of whom are in flats who don't have open space to sit in.
00:38 It's a thoroughfare, it's a focal point of the community and look at it, it's been completely neglected for the last 13 years.
00:45 The Council themselves admitted, well admitted, they planned to have alterations done here in 2011, it's now 2024 and a succession of councillors have abjectly failed to do anything to look after this space.
01:00 Safe and welcoming means that it's exactly that. There are no cars here, this is a pedestrianised area, there's proper seating which has been disappeared by the Council, previous seating was here, it's not been maintained by Amy.
01:14 The trees have been knocked down, the bollards have been knocked down, the state of the place is dirty and the paving is coming up.
01:24 So the bollard is here, over here on the right isn't it? There should be one in the middle.
01:29 The bollard has been damaged willfully and it's been used as a car park illegally, it's a designated pedestrian area and despite numerous representations through numerous forums, from community assemblies to cabinet in the community to local area committees to individual representations to councillors, there has been no action on this at all.
01:53 And all you want them to do is spend the money that they've already got?
01:56 £60,000 is in the pot, still money, section 106 money originally is in the pot, earmarked to develop and reinstate this area as it used to be.
02:08 There was a lot of money spent here originally making this a safe and welcoming space and it's deteriorated through lack of interest from local councillors.
02:17 And it's travesty. People of Upper Thorpe deserve better, they've been let down very very badly.
02:23 There are lots of people here who use the doctor's surgery, the old people's home, the swimming pool, the library, people waiting for buses, people commuting, people shopping, people...
02:35 Safe, open, welcoming space, it's all we're asking for and for some reason it's not achievable, even though the funds are available.
02:44 What's going on?