PUBLIC REALM, GRANDIOSE LANGUAGE AND UTILITARIAN LAPMPPOSTS

Anyone who has not seen it should take a look at what Sheffield Council are calling 'The Gold Route' and architects are parading as a good example of the 'Public Realm'.

When I first heard the the name and the term I was not happy. Gold Route was a bit grand. It put into my mind the Golden Road to Samarkam when it just went from Midland Road Station up to Barker's Pool via the esculators in the Millennium Gallery.

'What does public realm mean ?' I asked. The architect who was briefing me said, 'It is the area where people walk, and includes street furnishings, paving, benches and water features .'

It was only when I was asked to consider the public realm works in Sheffield that I was aware that given the chance and the money plus a very good idea architects and planners could come up with a grand idea of public realm which pushed the title to its limits.

As usual it is the grandiose nature of the language used that bothers me.

The problem I had was that I was not prepared for the totality of a utilitarian lamppost, a set of cracked concrete paving stones, a bench waiting to be covered with graffiti and a fountain to be called anything at all let alone the public realm. With two such grand words I expected something better. However when I came out of the station and walked the spine route I was prepared to accept 'public' and 'realm' for the more I thought about this neighbourhood I came to see that it was such a beautiful realm that here the public could be monarch.

I had hoped that Gordon Brown's government would show less interest in the Faith agenda than Tony Blair's. Although I recognise that Ed Balls, Schools Minister, is bound to give money to the existing Faith Schools I had hoped that he would not increase the money spent on that educational option. Faith divides and does not bind a country together.

We are putting too much money into promoting religion in general. Like sexual preference Wakefield MDC is inviting churches and mosques to bid in Local Strategic Partnership money, that when most church congregations are down into the low twenties, no one wants to be a vicar and those who are not fed up with Faith are indifferent. These approaches do not seem to work and although I can see that people from a variety of communitiies should come together if they need to, that is their option and should not involve taxes..

Having attended one in Wakefield inter-Faith conference a couple of years ago what interested me was how blinkered both the Christians and the Muslims were when it came to any idea about unity. The speeches by the Christians did not reference the Qur'an and the discussion was how to get more government money. They were united in that.



Having just received a copy of the diversity policy of my local authority team I have come to the conclusion that these teams, and teams like them, should be scrapped. Their work is done.

Today most acknowledge that we should design our environments to accommodate the special needs of mental and physical disabled individuals and groups of people, that sexism is wrong and that equality of wage and opportunity is a golden mean is understood by all but the very thick.

When it comes to homosexuality or bisexuality society, thank goodness, has changed so much that the only people who have serious adverse opinions are the very prejudiced, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims. Old ideas will die as people die and the ethnic mixture of this great country slowly changes. There was a time when we needed to assure sloped entrances into buildings were there, that women were not abused in action or language and that people were not hit about because of their sexuality. That time has passed. The agendas are understood.

We are now at a point where people who are paid to explain and defend diversity are in danger of tipping the scales towards intolerance. The defence is becoming an aspect of attack. People can too easily cry, 'You are attacking me because of a prejudice and I will see that you suffer. I know the law and you are persecuting me.'

I love the enlightened tolerance that I have grown up with and I see on railway stations and encounter in corner shops. It does not reach into the ghettos and the same-skin-colour villages but it is there in most other places, thank goodness. I would hate to lose it because of unnecessary and unthought-through zeal.

It is almost Christmas and I should be prepared, or so Tescos are telling me.

I am and that includes being prepared for the extra dollop of Faith my grandchildren will receive in their State Schools.

How I wish teachers would give up telling stories of the virgin birth of God's son and get around to teaching philosophy and ethics. Don't get me wrong I can view with affection a grandchild with a tea towel round his head reckoning to be a Wiseman with the best but I really wish it would end there.

Hardly anyone is in church these days. Muslims and Sikhs stand outside the mosque and gurdwala, as immigrants do, looking for communal comfort, but in time they will settle down to other patterns of living, integrate and leave faith to those who need it most. It happened to the Jews and the Roman Catholic Irish.

Whether this is a Sheffield word or not it is often used when naming the city's public art works. Up in the Peace Gardens people are asked not to 'paddle in the rills'.