Sheffield's Parks Set For Hiving Off....

.......and it will be bonanza time for the empire builders among the NGOs.

There's no appetite in Sheffield Council for keeping control over the publicly owned green spaces. This was the inescapable message coming out of yesterday's event called Re-Visioning Parks jointly hosted by Parks and Countryside Department and Sheffield University's Landscape Department. The winners from this will, predictably, be the NGO's itching to extend their control and influence, The National Trust and Sheffield Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. The process began some years ago and by now is well under way albeit with no public scrutiny encouraged - that would be expecting too much from Sheffield City Council where transparency still means one of those little things you put in an old-fashioned slide projector.

One council parks officer made it clear that he was in favour of putting these organisations in charge of the parks. A National Trust speaker gave a presentation in which he he showed a plan of Millhouses Park indicating how they could turn the facilities into money. The key to this was, apparently, and vaguely, 'endowment'.

There's no doubt that government cuts and other strangleholds they maintain on council spending have a lot to answer for here. But the defeatism of those who should be fighting to keep accountability and public scrutiny of these huge third sector bureaucracies is deeply worrying.

Some may think The National Trust might make a good job of certain facilities in urban parks albeit with no commitment to democracy or public involvement in decision making. But Sheffield Wildlife Trust are never less than utterly embarrassing and we still wonder when Sheffield Council will grasp this.

But you have to ask the question why public employees within the council are so keen to make the case for handing over public assets to outside bodies. Isn't that contrary to their own interests? The answer's not difficult. And you find it when you notice how many council officers move sideways into nice jobs in the private outfit that takes over the public assets. Once they've smoothed the path to a takeover within the council they neatly slot into a job with the new provider doubtless with a generous bonus which the public can no longer find out about. There are rewards for helping the empire building of these companies. How many ex Council Streetforce managers are now on the books of Amey who are now responsible for road maintenance? And shortly after Nick Sellwood moved from Parks and Countryside to The National Trust he was put in charge of Sheffield Moors Partnership and eased the way to them taking over Burbage Houndkirk and Hathersage Moors.

What's that smell?