The Walking Bus on Scott Road has also revealed another role for our own home-grown Street Wardens team. In the early days of the Bus, Gaby Spinks approached the wardens team to see if they’d be OK about also helping out with the Bus. Unsurprisingly, as ever, the answer from the wardens was “of course”! Since October 2006, despite shift changes and various cutbacks, the Wardens have stayed with the Bus.
It’s important not just because this provides an alternative to the car – but because of the relationships that are built up with children and parents as part of the morning walk to school – and then the inevitable chatting in the playground, getting to know especially those families that are new to the area.
“Unswerving cheerfulness” – that’s how the Wardens collective contribution is acknowledged. Even in the most miserable of mornings, they arrive outside school singing and talking – weighed down by book-bags and lunchboxes – and smiling! When the head of Sheffield Homes spent a day “back to the floor”, he was apparently knocked over by this as a way of demonstrating public service by Sheffield Homes.
So a huge thanks to the Wardens team and for your much wider contribution to the positive changes in Burngreave:
Saj Nabi
Steve Walsh-Balshaw
Diane Street
Habid Yamin
Julius Banda
David Parkin
David Burkinshaw