Concrete balls: Doncaster’s first recent attempt at street sculpture...
In Conclusion
Doncaster is struggling to survive as a cohesive unit. It is primarily a ring of villages surrounding a once prosperous market town. Successive visionless Corporations, then Councils, peopled by philistines of the first order have ensured that we have little of that past left to bequeath to the coming generations.
There is little of the sort of town identity that Barnsley for example has. When Doncaster reached its eight hundredth anniversary the Council put on a few limp-wristed celebrations. We needed the sort of parades and festivities the Americans would have put on: a town to be proud of!
For me, what is needed is civic pride -
Ø Perhaps brought about by the addition of genuine culture.
Ø Nationally recognised venues, events and facilities.
Ø We need a Council who will stop practising tantric politics and achieve something meaningful for the people who elect it.
Ø We need a Council with imagination and intelligence, not just an eye for a good headline.
Ø We need employers who will train our youngsters with marketable skills other than answering the telephone;
Ø Employers who will provide work that the people can be proud of, as they once were in the days of locomotive production.
Ø We need an increase in the number of educated people who will demand of the Council facilities of genuine quality.
The people are generous and friendly and deserve much better than the last clod-headed council gave them. But heck, we also need more people who will educate their youngsters into getting smashed less often and who might take a more active role themselves in making the town a more pleasant place to live.