Nice to see a great Dinnington Internet presence flourish! The Dinnington Forum Facebook page has over 6000 members and can be found here.
They are also expanding onto Twitter and even have begun work on a new web page which will hopefully be on-line soon.
Best of luck to them!
More great Dinnington Web Sites:
If you know of any more let us know!
Welcome to our guide to the local and not so local politics of the Dinnington and Anston area.
Let’s start at the grass roots and work our way up…
Dinnington St John’s Town Council
A Town or Parish Council takes care of the ultra-local side of things, they do NOT take care of stuff like planning and highways, although they can send their opinions to the people who do. Dinnington is a town nowadays rather then a parish so we have ourselves a town council. Meetings are held at the Lyric once a month and are open to the public for the first half when residents are allowed to ask questions. The second half is held in private. You can find details about the councillors and the Council as a whole here.
Anston Parish Council
If you are an Anstonian you are living in a parish and the parish council web site can be found here. Meetings are once a month at the Parish Hall.
Rother Valley South Area Assembly
Is our part of the greater Rotherham area. They also meet regularly and might be a good place to raise issues which aren’t borough wide but extend beyond Dinnington. Details are here.
Rother Valley South Safer Neighbourhood Team
Is our local division of South Yorkshire Police, obviously not political, but handy to know if you want to raise something with the boys in blue. They have regular meetings in Anston Parish Hall, details are here.
Rotherham Borough Council
RMBC are the primary authority for our area and take care of the heavier duty things like planning and emptying bins. Planning and Highways are often contentious subjects and are handled here at the Borough level.
Dinno has 3 borough councillors and Anston shares a further 3 with Woodsetts.
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
A new one this, and takes the place of the old Police Authority. You can raise issues of Police policy with the SYPCC, but day to day running of the Police is still with the Chief Constable.
Member of Parliament
If you want to take things to the top our man in Westminster is Kevin Barron. He holds a surgery on alternate Saturdays at his office in Dinnington and his website is here. He is your man if you want the law changed or something raising in the house.
Europe!
Nothing divides opinion like this subject! I offer no opinions on European politics, just note we are part of the Yorkshire and the Humber region in the European parliament and more info is here.
Update 3: Looks like the Diversion Might be here for the Duration!
We are hearing from various places that the current diversion through North Anston may have to stay in place until October or maybe even early 2014 when the road is due to be finished. More when we get it!
Update 2: Delay on re-opening Todwick Road
Speaking to Ringway today , the company carrying out the work it has become necessary to keep Todwick Road closed until 18 May. This does mean that traffic will continue to be a problem through North Anston, but was unavoidable as delays arose redirecting some of the vital services like BT cabling. I am quite impressed so far with the management of traffic, when you consider the magnitude of the work.
Anston certainly seems to have it’s fair share of road digging at the moment, it’s like living in Sheffield again!
Update: Hopefully the end will soon be in sight
Ringway Infrastructure Services, the contractor working on the A57 improvements still aims to have Todwick Road operational again by 28 April. This will alleviate the problems in North Anston at the moment as the village main road and Pennypiece Lane are taking the brunt of the diversion.
More news as we get it!
Map of the improvement scheme here.
Original Post: Traffic in North Anston
Locals in North Anston will have noticed a marked increase in traffic on the main road since new year. This is of course due to the closure of the main Dinnington to Todwick road at Todwick crossroads. The aim is to have this back up and running for the end of April, but in the meantime the impact is being felt.
As discussed at Anston Parish council lorries have started to use Pennypiece Lane for access to the industrial estate from the A57. This crafty little short cut is actually unlawful due to a weight limit on the road, but this of course depends upon effective enforcement which we don’t really tend to get I feel.
I know that a lot of the time wagon drivers are just following their sat navs, but the signs are there for a reason chaps!
I have read the letter below in the Dinnington Guardian today, and whilst I passionately believe in free speech and would never criticise people for expressing their honest opinion I do think a reply is needed here.
Many people will not recognise the description of Dinnington and it’s people in this letter.
LoveDinnington and, I think the vast majority in Dinnington are not against building new houses, I myself live in a house built in the late seventies on a greenfield site. What we are opposed to is the SCALE and the way developers are being allowed to cherry pick greenbelt sites whilst ignoring brownfield in the current local plan. Sheffield feels the same and refuses to build on much of their own greenbelt, and I don’t blame them.
We would also like Dinnington to be given new and upgraded facilities so the roads, schools, doctors and dentists can cope as our little town expands.
That’s all.
My wife was brought up in Sheffield and has lived there her whole life. Since we moved back to Dinnington she is AMAZED at how open and friendly people are. And Sheffield isn’t exactly an unfriendly place, far from it.
We Love Dinnington!
OK, enough is enough here! First we can’t have a leisure centre, which has to be built in Aston which is nearer to Sheffield than Rotherham.
Then we have to take twice our fair share of the new housing in Rotherham, with NO extra money to support new residents!
THEN we have to have our library hours CUT so the comrades in the Town Hall can favour other areas in Rotherham.
This happens whilst our roads deteriorate even further amid constant complaints from residents about the lax services from RMBC, whether it be lack of litter picking, no one picking up after dog owners and enforcing good behaviour or the lack of a decent bus service.
Even the chairman of Anston Parish Council had to wait an hour, A FULL HOUR for the arrival of the Police to assist him in bullying a local pensioner. Tut tut.
Now RMBC want to close the Customer Service Centre in Dinnington and have launched another of their “consultations” which no doubt will not get listened to!
Please let them know what we think by filling in the form here, otherwise they will turn round to us in a few months and say it was what we all wanted all along!
I’ve been wondering, as I do from time to time, what is the actual law regarding the use of Twitter at a Borough, Town or Parish council meeting?
Is there a law at all, and if someone insists on tweeting or facebooking during a meeting are they actually breaking the law?
The government certainly seem to think we are quite entitled, and they have published their take on the subject here.
Even courts are allowing tweeting, as we can see here.
After a spell of Googling and head scratching I decided to ask the people who will ultimately be enforcing the decision (whatever that may be) so I have asked the following of South Yorkshire Police:
“Dear Sirs, apologies for the unusual question, but I wonder if you could help me with the following:
If a member of the public uses Twitter or another form of social media during a Council meeting (principal, town or parish) are they breaking the law?
For example if such a person is asked by the chair during one of these meetings to desist and refuses which then results in the Police being summoned will the Police take any action against said person, such as insisting they leave the meeting?
This is assuming that the person in question is causing no disturbance or disruption to anybody, just using some form of electronic device to tweet or update a Facebook page, etc.
Again sorry for the unusual nature of the question but having read articles in the press where people in other areas of the UK were evicted from meeting for using social media, I would like to clarify the situation.”
As soon as I receive a reply I’ll let you know!
Not a subject directly relating to Dinnington, but with the Penny Hill turbines going up at Ulley and Loscar churning away at Harthill the view from Dinnington Pit Top (I think we’ll be able to see them from up there) will be changing over the next few years!
Anyone who travels to Sheffield on the M1 like I do will have noticed the new arrival!
Here’s what Penny Hill will look like from Ulley when finished…
Few things polarise opinion like turbines, I used to hate them, but having gone and stood under the ones at Loscar and taken these photos it is really hard not to be impressed…
And with another farm being mooted for the Laughton/Firbeck area in the years to come who knows what the skyline will look like?
As ever feel free to leave your opinions of wind turbines or related topics in the comments section!
Update 4: Half Open!
The new route is now operating in single carriageway only!
Update 3: Todwick Road is Open!!
The new roundabout on the A57 at Todwick is now open for business and can whisk you directly from Todwick to Dinno! I had almost forgotten the road existed, but coming from the M1 you can now turn left onto the new traffic island, and go straight on to good old Dinno!
Update 2: Delay on re-opening Todwick Road
Speaking to Ringway today , the company carrying out the work it has become necessary to keep Todwick Road closed until 18 May. This does mean that traffic will continue to be a problem through North Anston, but was unavoidable as delays arose redirecting some of the vital services like BT cabling. I am quite impressed so far with the management of traffic, when you consider the magnitude of the work.
Update 1: Scheme progresses
The A57 improvements are plodding along, to be honest I’m surprised how smooth things have been so far, although the closure of Todwick Road is causing a large increase of traffic through North Anston. This temporary closure should be lifted at the end of April.
The scheme is scheduled to be completed in early 2014, more info is available on RMBC’s web site here.
Original Post: The A57 Improvement Scheme Todwick Crossroads
The A57 has always played a part in the make up of Dinnington since I were a lad, snaking through our modest settlement and cutting South and North Anston down the middle (sort of). I remember a friend’s mother telling me it went from Liverpool to Lincoln when I was little and that made it seem like the road to the rest of the world.
The stretch from Todwick to the M1 has always had a bad rep, what with its twisty turns and tricky crossroads which has seen more than its share of tragedy. They’ve been thinking about doing something since I was knee high and it is finally happening, behold the magnificence of the new A57…
Coming from the M1 up the hill the road continues as dual carriageway, bypassing the bends and cutting across Todwick Grange. It emerges to a brand new roundabout which will lie a hundred yards or so closer to Dinnington than the current crossroads. A fifth leg from the roundabout leads to the Pub. Goosecarr lane become left in and left out only with an access road to the bypassed properties.
No need to strain your eyes, a PDF copy is right here:
It looks like an improvement, but it may just move the congestion elsewhere, Anston crossroads, perhaps? Improvements to Anston crossroads are mooted in the RMBC local plan and I think it has dual carriageway and roundabout written all over it. I’m not so sure about this one, as it would cut Anston in half far more fundamentally then at present. The best course would probably be to build a bypass around the back of South Anston, leaving the current course of the A57 to be developed as a proper civic centre for Anston, can’t see this happening though, too much money.
Here’s my attempt anyway, there, I’ve made Anston whole again! The fully dual carriageway A57 flowing round the back of South Anston in a red line, sorted! Now we can have a nice row of shops, restaurants, new swimming baths, comprehensive school, rail station when we re-open the line….
If only it were that easy!
LoveDinnington.com 