Walk to celebrate the recent works along the Five Weirs Walk in Sheffield

What a wonderful day – the sun was shining and the birds were singing.

On Monday 4^th March, we were invited along to the Five Weirs Walk to celebrate the recent resurfacing works that had taken place.  It’s always good to hear about projects that are part of partnership working and this one involved Sustrans (with funding from the Department of Transport), Sheffield City Council and the TPT.  Each of these organisations had a commitment to make it easier for everyone to walk, wheel and cycle along the Five Weirs Walk.

We all met at the East Coast Road Pocket Park and it was wonderful to see lots of local volunteers, both from Sustrans/TPT and The Blue Loop, along with Local Councillors, representatives from Sheffield City Council Parks Team, Active England and Friends of the TPT.

Rosslyn, Director of the North from Sustrans, opened the speeches welcoming everyone along and highlighting how important the investment has been for the local area and for the TPT nationally and reinforcing how important routes such as these are for not just physical but also mental health and wellbeing and giving people the opportunity to connect with nature in such an industrial environment.

Photos – credit TPT

Emma then explained how the community engagement part of the programme had made such a difference locally, in being able to support small community groups as well as volunteers and also working with a local group of refugees and asylum seekers to help give them the confidence to get out onto the Trail as well as some great tree identification workshops mixed in too!  Emma then handed over to Simon.

For those of you who don’t know Simon (Ogden), he worked in Sheffield City Council for many years and was instrumental in setting up the Five Weirs Walk Trust and pushing forward investment programmes.  He has such a wonderful wealth of knowledge about the history of this section and his opening speech gave just an insight as to how much knowledge he would be able to share during the walk.

The works included resurfacing and widening the section from East Coast Road to Stevenson Road, installing a bench and a new litter bin.

Photos – credit Helen Keller, Sustrans

Sadly I didn’t get chance to go on the walk itself but it was great to hear how much everyone had enjoyed themselves and how beautiful the route now looked, especially in the morning sunshine.  There was lots of talk about how important this local route is to the community.  In such an industrial area these small pocket parks and the Five Weirs Walk offer a great escape for people and even though the TPT is linear, the route links to the Blue Loop to provide a great circular route too.  This really does emphasise the importance of routes like this, in terms of providing a sustainable transport option and also providing safe green and blue spaces that enable physical and mental health benefits.

Huge thank you to everyone involved in today’s event!

Date: 4th March 2024 

       
Mandy Loach