Our Shared Streets

We are co-piloting the newest NENG subgroup after we attended a public meeting at the Bowling Club. The meeting highlighted the strong feelings of some NE residents about traffic, speeding and parking within NE and it was felt a sub-group could take these concerns forward.

We’ve called the sub-group Our Shared Streets to acknowledge the streets belong to all of us and foster the NENG sense of community. We are currently focusing on how we might best gather these views from across the neighbourhood and use them to take positive action, accepting the reality of limited funding and what we can realistically achieve. Our aim is (rather unapologetically) to make moving around Nether Edge a safer and more pleasant experience. We’re not anti-car but we also have to face up to the fact that our roads just aren’t built for the number of cars that now use them. We all have a part to play in driving around and parking in Nether Edge responsibly.

We have some fledging ideas but we need more support to get them off the ground. We are therefore considering linking up with South West Living Streets Sheffield who have similar aims, though a wider geographical area of interest.

We have started out with the aim of focusing on some smaller ideas: we will gather and share information on reporting pavement parking, local bus routes, cycle route plans; we will put questions to our local councillors on transport issues and keep a watching brief on wider transport policy at the council’s transport committee. We’ll share this information in regular EDGE magazine updates but look to hold face to face meetings and grow an email circulation list. You can add your name to our mailing list by emailing us at nengsharedstreets@gmail.com – it won’t tie you into anything but we may ask for help from time to time.

We’d also like to get involved in local projects to make our neighbourhood a safer place to move around in. Flared junctions, like the one at the top of Osborne Rd before it was narrowed, are difficult for people to cross and encourage drivers to take corners more quickly than they should. We’ve met with the Pocket Park sub-committee to discuss ideas & we hope to draw on NESST’s experience to see if planting can be used to narrow junctions. More ambitiously, we’d like to look at whether more could be made of Nether Edge Rd near the shops, to create a focal point for the “Village” – we’ve noted on recent visits that the current combination of parking and two way traffic means drivers are using the pavement rather than waiting for space. This is dangerous and undesirable. What can we do instead?

We can’t promise much at this stage, and some would say without significant funding, change will never be possible. We look to NESST as an example of a community group which has become a strong local voice and has found a way to make change happen As part of NENG, we hope to foster a consensus on local traffic and street related issues that we can use to represent the area in future council consultations but also to inform, encourage and support local action.

Faith Salih and James Almond

Co-Chairs