Folks…. We’ve been quiet, for that I apologise. We’ve done a lot of waiting around for the council to undertake numerous surveys after the initial propping and scaffolding was installed.

Cafe in Operation!

The good news is, if you didn’t already know, that the cafe is open for take away service. Staff are back in there, with smiles and ready to serve you on the one way system. Granted it’s not the community hub it once was, but at least you can grab a cuppa and a cake plus other snacks. Please do visit and support the cafe, it’s really important we continue to demonstrate to the council how much the facility is needed and wanted.

Council Surveys

On the survey front, you may have seen that Sheffield Council have now published the extensive amount of surveys they’ve had completed which you can see by following this link. 

Whilst we don’t doubt that work needs to be done, we have seen estimated figures & timescales for a number of options for the cafe (which still includes demolition!!). Those figures & timescales seem highly inflated, even the three options which include the word demolition in their title seem excessive. Our next step is to ask for a breakdown of those estimates, and to see what the costs would be with the removal of council “fees” which will give us a more realistic fundraising goal. Our next meeting with them is May 4th (voting day!) and we’ll see what comes out of that.

Fundraising

Fundraising will likely be our next focus, watch this space for updates on activities over the summer, we’re thinking of lots of varied events to try and reach as many people as possible. Friends of Graves Park have organised a walk which we’ll be publicising on our Facebook page when we get the details through.

Local Election

Obviously, there is a local election looming and we expect there to be a further slow down as potential new committees are formed etc. Though we’ll be knocking straight on the door of the Communities, Parks and Leisure Policy Committee as soon as the chair is announced so they know we’re here and not going away. 

Finally….. combined protest

You may have recently seen the independent report on the diabolical street tree fiasco, for which there have been no resignations. A number of community organisation and campaign groups around sheffield recognise that the tactics used against campaigners by the council in the street tree protests appear to have been duplicated for their own campaigns. Local groups organised by ‘Sorry Not Sorry Sheffield’ are meeting up at the Sheffield Town Hall to protest and demonstrate at the treatment they have received and demand change. You can join them and add your voice to the call for change from 10.30am on Saturday 29th April (short notice I know, apologies) you can see more information about this event on Facebook here: https://facebook.com/events/s/community-rally-for-accountabi/243623288146890/

Andy Kershaw from the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign group will be speaking at this protest, so if you have the chance to show your support, please do head down.

For now that’s all, apologies again for the radio silence, I’ll try to keep you all updated more regularly in future � but please know, we’re still here, we’re still fighting.