However, the twin Tinsley cooling towers should not be judged in those criteria because here we had structures which were genuinely iconic to Sheffield and gave everyone who passed them a strong sense of time, place and memory regardless of whether they agreed with their demolition or not.

So the decision to demolish is, to me at least, baffling. Baffling that is until you get the chance to dig a bit further and realise there is a pattern to all of this. I don't expect a foreign company like E.On, with no knowledge of that sense of time, place and heritage, to give anything more than lip service to those concepts whilst claiming their absolute legal right to have them demolished to be replaced by, we are told, a bio mass facility, whatever that is, except that environmentalists might want to raise some issues with E.On as to just how much a positive effect it might have on the environment. But really that is a separate debate.

The twin towers could have been saved, if our local council had joined in with the campaign to save them. From memory I wasn't aware of too many voices from the council aligning themselves with the valid reasons to keep the structures as a piece of Sheffield's heritage, as well as developing the idea of the towers as art in order to extend their lives for generations to come.

From the local council who spinelessly gave in to the idea of a piece of public art for the top of Fargate to replace the Goodwin Fountain, which now has burger bars and roundabouts for Sheffielders to marvel at whereas, a smaller example of the sculpture that was meant to take the fountain's place found itself a home in Paris. Funny that, isn't it?

From the local council who spinelessly gave away this city's own airport so very cheaply to be replaced with a business park, whereas Norwich, smaller than Sheffield, decided to keep faith with theirs to the benefit of its community. Funny that, isn't it?

Next in the list of gloriously spineless behaviour is the two cooling towers. Sheffield as a whole has so few examples of its industrial heritage left without giving away arguably its most iconic.

It might just be spineless behaviour but Sheffielders who wanted these towers to be preserved might want an answer to the question of just how much the local council was in cahoots with E.On over the development of a biomass facility and therefore not in a position to raise any serious objections. Funny? I hope not.

So what's next for Sheffielders to miss out on? The opening up of the remains of Sheffield's Medieval Castle perhaps? Its not a case of old versus modern. I'm all in favour of Sheffield developing and reinventing itself but not at the expense of rejecting any sense of history. Last weekend's demolition of the two towers has made us all the poorer for their loss.

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