SHEFFIELD council is wrong to hide behind a legal loophole over the Hillsborough tram gate, which was declared illegal by the National Parking Adjudication Service after ruling road markings should have been in place to warn motorists: if the system is faulty now it was faulty when every motorist clocked up a fine for driving through the gate.
People paid their fines in good faith, trusting the council to be right.
Now this has been shown not to be the case, the Lib Dem leadership does itself no favours by in effect telling motorists they shouldn't have trusted the council. And to be pr
epared to spend even more public money defending this morally indefensible stance simply rubs salt into the wound.
We can't afford to lose more control
ATTERCLIFFE MP Clive Betts is right to be concerned about the Prime Minister's plans to radically alter the planning process in England and Wales, which will see the creation of an independent Infrastructure Planning Commission which could have final say on major developments.
That would mean applications for projects as controversial as a new airport or even a nuclear power station would be given the go-ahead while the people who are most affected by them play a diluted part in the matter.
We have seen too many shackles placed on local democracy already, with town halls surrendering their grasp on services. We cannot afford to lose even more control.
Tony can afford it!
QUOTE of the week from former Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Without spiritual values there is an emptiness that cannot be filled by material goods and wealth." Easy to say, of course, if you're the man who, since he left office, has signed up deals worth almost £10m. And presumably wife Cherie will happily hand back the healthy advance she received for the memoirs she's so tirelessly flogging on any TV show that will have her at the moment.
The full article contains 325 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
