Christmas Gift Project Success

A local resident got in touch with the Swinton Community Focus Group to see if they were collecting Christmas gifts donations for the local community. The annual Christmas Event run by the group couldn't take place due to Covid 19 restrictions. Instead they decided, to help bring a bit of Christmas cheer, they would take forward the gift project suggestion, which resulted in them providing hundreds of unexpected gifts for children and older people within the local community.

Sheila Dunker-Chinnock from the Swinton Community Focus Group said "the response to the request for gift donations was totally overwhelming bringing tears to my eyes on many occasions, we cant thank the generosity of local residents enough".

The project received support from Councillor Cusworth's Community Leadership Funding, St Johns Church and the New York Bagel Company whose staff donated a lot of gifts to the project. Sheila expressed her thanks to all the little elves who worked so hard behind the scenes to collect donations, wrap them and deliver them they couldn't have achieved what they did without you.

The project also managed to provide Christmas dinner supplies to a number of families in the community thanks to food donations from local residents.

Christmas Eve Food Parcels

On Christmas Eve a group of dedicated volunteers worked together to deliver 28 wholesome, good quality food parcels to households across Swinton and Kilnhurst.

The food was provided by Lidl and the Swinton Co-op. Donations were collected on Christmas Eve in five car loadsm, and was sorted quickly into parcels prior to delivery on a busy, cold evening. Great feedback came from the receiving families with such comments as ‘this made our Christmas’ and ‘thank you very much, I was so low tonight’.   

Top Award for Brookfield Academy

Brookfield Junior Academy has been recognised as the ‘National Modeshift STARS Primary School of the Year’, thanks to their commitment to sustainable and active travel since 2017. The Department for Transport (DfT) joined the Modeshift STARS Team to announce their success at the Modeshift STARS Education National Celebration on Friday the 4^th of December.

Brookfield Junior Academy’s ability to excel in promoting sustainable travel earned them a Gold Modeshift STARS award last year, which helped to secure their title of “Yorkshire and Humber School of the Year” in November 2019. The school signed up to the Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Recognition Scheme (STARS) in September 2017 and by the summer of 2019 had reduced the percentage of pupils normally travelling to school by car from 35% to 10% over that period.  

Sustainable travel has been embraced throughout the entire school community; staff have worked collaboratively with colleagues, parents, governors, ward councillors and their local MP to support walking, scooting and cycling. With help from the STARS South Yorkshire team, Rotherham Council, local businesses and other outside agencies, the school has improved road safety outside the school gates, improved the health and wellbeing of pupils and reduced traffic, air pollution and harmful greenhouse gases as more pupils choose to walk, scoot or cycle to school.

Councillor Stuart Sansome added “Rotherham Council is very supportive of cycling and walking and is involved in a number of initiatives to encourage more children and adults to find active ways to travel to school, work and for leisure. Not only is cycling and walking better for your physical and mental health, but better for the environment and it makes our borough a more pleasant place to live. Just small changes to your routine can make a big difference. It’s amazing to see what the children and staff at Brookfield Junior Academy, with support of partners, have achieved. They are an inspiration to us all!”

Completion of the Footpath Upgrade Project

The works to upgrade a footpath from Celandine Rise to Albany Road are now complete. This is a popular walking route so we hope local residents appreciate the path being upgraded. Please watch the short video to see the path now its complete and hear how the project was achieved.

2020 Litter Picking Roundup from the Swinton Community Focus Group

The Swinton Community Focus Group and their small team of volunteers have done an amazing job of litter picking in 2020. Even with Covid 19 restrictions they have managed to collect 322 sacks of litter from the streets and parks in the Swinton area. 

We would like to thank the group for their continued dedication and drive to keep Swinton a clean place for local residents.

If you would like to get involved with a future litter pick with the Swinton Community Focus Group follow the Swinton Community Focus Group on Facebook for future dates, time and litter picking locations.   

Swinton Says 'No' to Speeding Vehicles

Local residents have raised concerns about speeding vehicles in the Swinton area both with their Ward Councillors and directly to South Yorkshire Police. 

From the start of the first lockdown and throughout the pandemic, the police nationally have seen an increase in vehicle speeds. This resulted in National Road Safety Week and Operation Slowdown taking place.

Your Local Neighbourhoods Policing Team have listened to your concerns and continued with the Community Speed Watch Scheme albeit without public involvement due to Covid 19. They have carried out 59 Community Speed Watch speed surveys during 2020 throughout the north of the borough, with over 7,000 vehicle surveyed and a number of letters sent out to vehicle owners who were driving faster than the speed limit. The team will continue to increase their visible presence with the Community Speed Watch Scheme throughout 2021.

You may have noticed the presence of the Speed Camera Van a little more in Swinton recently. This follows residents raising concerns to South Yorkshire Safety Cameras who manage the Speed Camera Vans. The following locations are now on the list for the Speed Camera Van to visit:

Piccadilly Road

Fitzwilliam Street

Highthorn Road

Rockingham Road

Racecourse Road

There are also other locations such as Warren Vale Road, Wathwood Road and Sandygate being investigated as potential sites for the Speed Camera Van to visit in the future. 

You might have also noticed an increase in Vehicle Activated Signs on lamp posts around the Swinton area, these remind motorists of the speed limit they should be doing should they pass the sign exceeding the speed limit. These are deployed by the Council's Highways Department following concerns raised by local residents. A recent sign installation is on Wentworth Road near the High House Pub this was once again as a result of residents raising concerns with Ward Councillors about speeding vehicles at that location.

Call for volunteers to help deliver the Covid 19 vaccine program

The Primary Care Networks in Rotherham, working with Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group are gearing up to deliver Covid Vaccinations in Rotherham, and really need your support.

Getting everyone vaccinated against Covid will be a huge undertaking, and will be an exercise unlike anything that this country has ever attempted before, in an incredibly short time scale. 

We need our community to come together and support us in this unprecedented task.

Vaccination centers across Rotherham are now open and delivering the vaccine, and we will initially need marshals and stewards at all these.  In addition, there may be other roles as this work develops.

Read more information and apply

Street Lighting Repairs are Completed

Residents of the Harrap Garden Flats recently got in touch with their Ward Councillors about a problem they were experiencing with the street lighting where they live. Councillors worked with the Councils Housing Department and Street Lighting Team to resolve the problem for the residents. If you notice any street lighting not working please do report it to the Council's Street Lighting Team - you can do this 24 hours a day via the Council website.