BURGLAR’S 12K STEAL- PAGE 07
Chapeltown & High Green Featured P. 12 & 13
THURS 27 FEB 2025
Free
STEELS SHOW THEIR MUSCLE - PAGE 16
Discover North Sheffield
www.looklocal.org.uk news@looklocal.org.uk Tel: 0114 283 11 00
@looklocalnewspapersheffield
FACEBOOK.COM/LOOKLOCAL
ISSUE : 1363
WOODLAND
Former footballer set to inspire...
ACCESS
Read on page 8
CAMPAIGN
LEADERSHIP UNLEASHED Excellent
By Simon Ogden Chair of Upper Don Trail Trust
the village on busy and sometimes hazardous roads.
After over three years of polite campaigning, local people in Oughtibridge and Wharncliffe Side, supported by the Upper Don Trail Trust, are still waiting for action to get a single gate to be opened allowing safe access to what is already supposed to be public access to woodland.
The locked gate is preventing this much easier and direct access Those with the confidence and physical ability have been scrambling down a steep river bank and squeezing through a hole in a fence to access the public woodland, which demonstrates demand but this is obviously not a viable long-term solution. Opening the gate would greatly improve both access and safety. It would also start to provide the major remaining ‘missing link’ in the 23km Upper Don Trail linking Sheffield centre to Langsett and the Peak Park, most of which is in place.
The saga began in 2022 as new homes began to be occupied on the former Paper Mill site, where an entire new community of over 300 homes is now nearing completion. The Upper Don Trail Trust were contacted by new residents who wanted to walk in Wharncliffe Woods which directly adjoin their homes and which are designated as ‘public access’ by owners Forestry England. The residents, now 26 of them, were frustrated that the obvious access was blocked by a gate belonging to Yorkshire Water at the end of a road leading to their nearby water treatment works. The gate was apparently as a temporary measure whilst the paper mill site was derelict. For at least 70 years these woods have been accessible from a public footpath at Holmes Farm and more recently also from the Plank Gate section of the Trans Pennine Trail. Other existing access points to the woods and trail at Deepcar or Oughtibridge involve a long detour from the new housing estate or
Rated “Excellent”
Replacing the locked gate with one which admits non-vehicular users requires the active permission of Forestry England and Yorkshire Water. Both organisations have agreed in principle, and both claim to encourage public enjoyment of and engagement with their huge land holdings. The UDTT has requested a ‘permissive right of way’ which protects both organisations’ operational rights and has assembled a several dozen strong list of volunteers offering to look after day-to-day maintenance and reporting. They even found a sponsor for the new gate and offered to provide signage. Continued on page 9