Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

e-on shut up or act..

Mark Mozaz Wallis | 30.08.2007 08:08 | Sheffield

At the end of this year, 70 years of history will be demolished. The death of 'Salt and Pepper' looms like a dark mushroom cloud over Sheffield. What the nuclear bomb could not manage in Threads, e-on are going to do and demolish the Cooling Towers.


Last year sculptor Antony Gormley, the creator of the Angel of the North, stepped in to the controversy over the future of the towers saying it would be an act of "cultural vandalism" to knock them down. One could not agree more.

So e-on are going to build a new BIO-MASS power station on the site and have pledged £500,000 towards a new piece of artwork to replace the "unique" towers. September 11th some are saying inside job, here we have one and those doing the "cultural vandalism" are more than happy in what they're doing.

I would like to ask e-on to also donate four wind turbines to power a pump that will deal with the excess water due to Meadowhall being built, the water being pumped onto Blackburn Meadows returning them back to their former use as a flood plain.

Also, that e-on and the owners of Meadowhall (British Land) donate a sum of monies to clear the rubbish and debris in the River Don, a car still remains under the viaduct. This was talked about in The Sheffield Telegraph letters page over 2 weeks ago and much of the rubbish and debris are from the recent floods.

Since the 1970's (when Salt and Pepper closed) the various owners of these cooling towers and her land around them have failed to do anything with Salt and Pepper themselves, along with said land around them. However Mother Earth has turned this area into a strange bucolic urban landscape and now what has eased some of the pollution over the next 5 years will slowly be ripped up and built upon.

Why should it be just the privilege of those in Nether Edege to live on Tree lined Cherry Blossom Streets?

There have been various efforts over the years to plant Cherry Blossom trees around Tinsley turning the streets near J34 of the M1 into tree lined ones, this in turn helps ease the pollution plus also adds more bio-diversity to the area. Of course these efforts have failed, rumour has it a shopping center in the area refused to give a donation towards the cost when the place opened in 1991.

The widening of The M1 and the continued building plans for the future of this area are only going to add more to the problems of this community. You can not simply build your way out of congestion, neither can you do the same with lack of social housing, we have to look towards alternatives as a solution to both.

But of course we could save The Cooling Towers, place some Wind Turbines to power a Water Pump, clean up the River Don and the Canal (laying decent paths to open up for bikes and people), extend the Supertram (allowing bikes) to Rotherham with a stop at Magna and one at Blackburn Nature Reserve. And to landscape The Meadows. I could continue but i guess you get where one is coming from.

London has Heathrow and the Third Runway, we have e-on and their crass plans with little regard for the community around Salt and Pepper and the wider Sheffield Community. Would it be not better if e-on gave a damn instead of short term gain.

I know, it all sounds a little utopian to ask those who are about to commit another act of "cultural vandalism" on the history and culture of Sheffield, however one day we might understand that 70 years is a long time and no doubt will have played a part in where we are in Sheffield. Is it too much to hope the likes of e-on will begin to start understanding this?

Like David Cameron, i have naive dreams of real Anarchy on the streets not his idea of Anarchy, I also dream the Cooling Towers will stay. However one is a realist, so I'll ask for an open conversation with e-on and British Land who own much of the land around the towers to sit down and talk about the needs of the people living there and not look just towards their own profit and gain at the cost to this already blighted community.

Current images and further thoughts to be found, as always, at pretentiousartist.com

I feel the need to hug some trees

Mark Mozaz Wallis
- Homepage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/0742/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech