When I was in the sixth form, between 1970 and 1972, I joined the Conservation Society. This was one of the earliest environmental groups, which gave way to later organisations such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Green Party.
At the time the big name in environmental groups was York 2000, a group set up to oppose the York ring road and its country-wide offshoot Transport 2000.
This provided the inspiration for one of Sheffield Conservation Society's campaigns; opposition to the building of a dual carriageway across Wicker to link up the ring road in Sheffield. I think our campaign must have been a success. The plans for a dual carriageway cutting across Wicker on stilts were never implemented.
We might have been better off with the stilts as now not one but two dual carriageways cut across Wicker. They encircle the main access routes into Pitsmoor. If anyone wanted to cut Pitsmoor off from the city centre they could not have found a better way to do it. Access to Pitsmoor is now an obstacle course on foot or by car.
Any attempt to explain access by car is doomed to failure. I know how to do it and usually navigate the labyrinthine route without getting lost too many times. On foot it is a daunting prospect of seemingly endless streams of speeding traffic. Whilst the basic principle of the dual carriageway is that cars travel from one direction, these junctions are so complex it takes great presence of mind to remember where to look. A matter further complicated by frequent malfunctions in the crossing lights.
The first photo shows the carriageway between the Wicker Arches and Spital Hill, see photo and post here to get orientated. Despite being a dual carriageway, there are three sets of lanes for the pedestrian to navigate as well as the junction with Spital Hill, which used to be the main route through the area.
The second photo is the actual ring road.
Despite its run down nature, Wicker was designed on a grand scale and was a fitting entrance to Pitsmoor and the Lower Don Valley. Recently several new curry houses have opened or been refurbished with insurance following the floods in 2007. They are now cut off from Pitsmoor. The city had the sense to ditch these ridiculous and unnecessary plans in the seventies, why on earth were these roads built 30 years later?
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