Vision: What You See and What You Don't

The emerging cartel calling itself Sheffield Moors Partnership, marshalled by eager officers of the local National Trust, wanted each of the officers attending early meetings to get agreement 'at director level' in their respective bureaucracies for the statement called the 2025 Vision. This is not, as might be assumed, the result of an awayday trip to Specsavers but a rather gushing collection of sentences designed to tell the outside world that the partners are just what the doctor ordered for Sheffield's outer countryside. The content should have appealed to the director concerned in Sheffield City Council whose agreement was entreated. His remit at the Town Hall is not just environment but also 'culture'. He will therefore have been interested to note the similarities between the language of the 2025 Vision and that of a second-rate estate agency.

As the following meeting of SMP was to be in October and presumably has already happened it was necessary to get that agreement and indeed I'm told it has now been granted and therefore some responsibility rests with the Director of Culture and Environment alongside the Cabinet Member for the same. I've asked if any reservations were expressed or amendments requested but that question was ducked when I received only a brief not very informative reply. (These annoying questions! Whose idea was all this transparency?)

Other documents such as the Terms of Reference and the the Draft Project Plan seem not to have been agreed or at least I've not been told that. Looks like another FoI request is called for.

Just to be clear, the default position is a presumption on management and thus on managers jobs. Prioritising nature in any serious way will never be an option with those presently involved who come with predetermined ideological baggage complete with spun and twisty justifications as seen in the Vision. Oh and cows of course.