MOUTH OF THE WEAR You can’t accuse anyone of not listening if you don’t speak up

From Binns to Wearmouth Colliery – they are all part of Sunderland’s history. Echo photographers were there to capture the scenes on the last day of some Wearside institutions.

The good citizens of Sunderland have been asked to formally give opinions on how to spend a wad of money. The aim is to regenerate the city with £100 million worth of capital schemes (it can’t be used for potholes, schools, hospitals, etc). The deadline for submitting feedback is Friday, February 12. So what do you want – or not want?

The headline proposals in the Riverside Sunderland project are a footbridge over the Wear and housing. But there’s much more which you can see on the “Draft Allocations and Designations Plan” on the council’s website.

Be warned; it’s 98 pages long and generally as boring as its title suggests. They can’t omit anything. But you can absorb the most salient points by looking at the boxes which are highlighted in colour; if you just want the greatest hits.

There’s also stuff about park and rides, protecting cemeteries, green space, wildlife and areas deemed “suitable for new large wind turbine development” (p.87).

So if you don’t like any of this, or harbour strong feelings about what is or isn’t proposed, now’s the time to speak.

Alternatively, people can use social media to say “they never listen anyway”, then proceed to do nothing remotely constructive to address an issue they claim to care about.

Are the council only paying lip service to your opinions? Well if you don’t give your opinion in the first place then you’ll never know. There’s nothing to lose. Much good can be done with £100 million. It’s a lot of wedge and it’s your money, your city and your children’s future. This is serious and must be done right. The aim is to create up to 10,000 jobs and a positive legacy. Let’s hope it happens.

However, if you feel years from now that money and opportunities were wasted, and your offspring ask what you did to prevent it, they are unlikely to be awash with admiration if “Nah, they wouldn’t have listened” is the entire response. It detracts from the legitimacy of your grievance.

Voicing considered opinions, as distinct from namecalling on Facebook, is no guarantee of getting exactly what you want, or of not being ignored. But not doing so is almost asking to be ignored.

You can’t accuse anyone of not listening if you don’t actually say anything.

How Sunderland may look from the sky if the £100m Riverside Sunderland project is eventually approved.

The last shift at South Hetton Colliery in March 1983. The pit was opened by South Hetton Coal Company in 1833 and once employed 1,400 miners.

The last day of Sunderland Indoor Bowls at Crowtree Leisure Centre in 2013.

A 1981 scene as workers at Houghton Colliery were pictured at the end of an era.

The last shift at Wearmouth Colliery in 1993.