Long Live Rotherham

I WAS born in Rotherham and apart from a couple of years living in Salford, which I had no control over, probably because I had no money to get on a train but mainly because I was only four years old, I have lived and worked here for 80 years.
By Admin
Published 23rd Sep 2015, 13:52 BST
Updated 10th Jan 2017, 21:57 BST

 

Rotherham has had a lot of bad publicity over the last 18 months but all this trouble only involved around two to three thousand people. What about the other 247,000 people who are the friendliest people in the country, regardless of race, creed or political views?

These problems have put a sour taste in the mouths of other towns and cities and hopefully the people concerned will be brought to justice in time.

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    It is now time to draw a line under all this because if we don’t Rotherham is going to sink in despair. It is time for everyone to hold up their heads with pride and shout “Rotherham is a great place to live and work and play.”

    To this end, I am running a campaign to put Rotherham back on the map and fill it with 250,000 Smiley faces.

    Firstly, we want to know what is good about Rotherham, what needs putting right and what needs doing to make Rotherham a “place of excellence”.

    No politics, racism, back stabbing or finger pointing. Just positive forward thinking ideas to advertise Rotherham as a place to live, work or visit.

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    What are we good at, where are the best places to go, are there enough shops in town, do we encourage shopping in town by keeping streets clean and safe, how can we sell Rotherham?

    We’re good at getting industry into Rotherham but is that just making money for someone else or are there things we can put right, improve or get rid of, are our parks fit for purpose, is there enough parking, do we need bigger out of town parking facilities with a park and ride scheme to keep town clear, mainly because there is no room in town for any more car parks? How can we tidy up town sites, empty shops and offices, derelict plots of land, no good just putting up buildings if no one wants them? Get some gardens planted.

    A lot of negatives I know, but everybody remembers the bad things, as we have been doing for 12 months, now is the time to get all the good ideas off the shelf, or turn up the things that have been put on the back burner, put on a clean pair of gloves and a new apron and let’s get busy.

    We can do with a good snappy project name — what do you think, get your caps on?

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    Me, I'm Patrick Cahill, Rotherham Partnership Community Achievement Awards Winner of Volunteer of the Year 2014, until someone knocks me off in November.

    I am happy to make a start logging ideas until I start drowning, then we can have a get together and see what we can really do. Long Live Rotherham.

    Patrick Cahill, Rotherham

    Related topics:RotherhamSalford