Ruthie*

Treloy........ we have just booked for the summer, cam on good recommendation from two friends who went last year and are going again with us this year.

Callow Top, if you want an outside pool and mini disco....near Ashbourne.

do you want to move to be closer or would you rather care be provided for the rest of the time? I would advise that you ask for a re assessment of her needs by social services if her care needs have changed so much since she was last assessed.

I am a parent of a child with ADHD and ASD. I also work in this area and have done for the last 20yrs. Do you want support for him or for yourself to help you deal with the support he needs from you? just trying to get an idea of what you need help with.

you need to ring social services and ask for an assessment, if she is in sheltered accommodation then I would hope that the "warden" or person in charge of that scheme should know who you need to ring. Your Nana is entitled to an assessment fo her needs and then the fight begins to get that support. I suggest that you keep a record of all situations that happen that worry you and others sot hat you have good clear examples to give when they come to assess. You can make that phone call on her behalf. You are also able to go and talk to her GP if you have concerns.

My son is 8 and succesfully attends the local mainstream school. He has a diagnosis of ASD and ADHD. I have sent you a mess.

Gosh again! the Sheffield Forum is true to form...... I thought that i was being nice showing people that the O2 was prepared to acknowledge the problems they are having, the reason why I crossed my own surname out was because last time I did put some of my own personal details the moderator emailed me and told me not too....

Just to bring this to a close, this is the reply i have recieved from from Richard Hunter of the O2 Academy. Thank you Richard. Dear Mrs xxxxxxxxxx, I can only apologise for what was indeed a very poor experience and one that I will be doing my utmost to ensure does not happen again. I'm not going to pretend that we are not experiencing problems with the balcony. From a Health and Safety angle it is not over filled, on Thursday at the Mika concert it was at 467 people 33 off being full. Although we did have an added issue on Thursday that we had many more people turn up requiring accommodation in the disabled areas than had booked. If accommodation is required there is a procedure where a place is booked direct with the venue at the time tickets are sold. I can only surmise that quite a few people booked tickets without following this procedure, which has not happened on this scale before. We did our best to accommodate them all without extending the upper area too much, as as soon as it is extended it obviously impinges on the standing areas. Ironically the option originally was there to license the balcony for more than 500 people, but, we decided anymore might cause viewing problems and limited it to 500. Obviously, as we and you have unfortunately discovered, despite this decision we do still have viewing issues. Since we have become aware of the issue we have been trying to arrive at a solution without having to cancel shows. The problem is that many shows are booked a long way in advance and when the Promoters who hire the Venue do their costings they have been based on our current capacity of 2300 (1800 downstairs, 500 upstairs) We have been looking at various options with the Council Licensing department and the Fire Officer for several months now to attempt to attempt to alleviate the situation. At the beginning of January we finally reached agreement with all parties and shall shortly be lowering our capacity by 200 and introducing the ability for people to move freely between Balcony and Stalls (freeflow). This should come into effect for any concerts after June this year. Despite losing 200 sales this will be an improvement on our current situation, where, when we are at capacity in the stalls, as you know, we cannot, for licensing reasons, allow anyone off the balcony, to the stalls, as we do not currently have a free flow system for concerts. I realize however, that whilst this may be all well and good for the future what I have written up to this point, does not go very far in giving you any form of satisfaction. I would also like to apologise for not finding you on the night to deal with your complaint then. Whilst I was not told of your individual plight I was informed there were people wanting to make complaints on the balcony. Unfortunately, by the time I had dealt with an act of vandalism in the female toilets downstairs that had led to a major flood and been to see two sick customers, the show was nearly over and I wouldn't have had to time to find everyone individually. Although in retrospect it would have been better to try and find some people, instead of none at all and that was remiss of me for which I also apologise. I appreciate that your and your daughter's unsatisfactory and upsetting experience was not the sort of service you should have received and can assure you is not representative of a normal night at the venue . I hope that you consider returning to the O2 Academy Sheffield again, in happier circumstances. Yours faithfully, Richard Richard Hunter General Manager

I will remember that for next time...thanks

Lady Star It has not been a while since my last standing gig, and that has nothing at all to do with what happened last night. In any good venue there is a good view of the stage even from the back of the hall, that is why the stage is raised. The problem was that when on the balcony and looking down at the stage it is not possible for the angles to work in your favour at all, which is why they should either restrict the number of people allowed on the balcony or sell the tickets at a reduced price stating that they is restricted view. My advice to you would be to read the tread from the beginning so you do know what has already been said.....

Oh my!! In true forum style there are people who either don't read what you have put or what others have put...there is no wonder I don't post very often. The ticket very clearly says that you can take children...and I rang before to check this out. The previous Mika gig we went to was in Doncaster and it was a really good venue for all to see. I am forty year old who has been going to gigs for many, many years and have lots of knowledge as to where I would need to be with my 10year old daughter and would never dream of putting her in any danger by putting her amoungst the crowd at the front! Madness!

I rang the venue before we bought the tickets and under 14 year olds where allowed....it also said on the ticket!

Please let me describe to you the experience me and my daughter had at the O2 Academy in Sheffield when we went to the Mika concert on Thursday 18th February. I arrived at the venue at 7.15pm and stood in the queue to get into the venue. There were no signs on the staircases to inform you what you where queuing for and in the queue where several groups of people who had been in another queue only to find out that it wasn’t the correct queue for the ticket they had. The venue opened at 7pm and Mika was due on stage at 9pm. When we entered the venue and went up the stairs to the balcony it became apparent that there were a lot of people wondering round already voicing that they couldn’t see the stage. We went straight to the balcony and tried to find a place to stand and realised that by 7.30pm there where already no places for me and my 10 year old daughter to stand if we wanted to be able to see any of the stage. At 7.45pm, I went to talk to one of the academy staff who was stood on duty by the exit door situated by the side of the bar area. This young lady told me that she agreed with me that the situation was unfair and she actually stated that it was her view that there should not be more than 3 people deep up on the balcony, at this point there where up to 10 deep. This young lady told me that she couldn’t do anything about the situation herself but that she could call for someone else. I agreed to wait to talk to someone else. Another lady attached to the academy at a higher level walked passed and she stopped and talked to me she also said that she herself couldn’t do anything as the downstairs of the venue was already full and that the academy had only sold the number of tickets they were allowed to sell. I must say that at this point I did get slightly emotional and the frustration took over. My husband had bought tickets for my daughter and myself to see Mika because he knew how much we would enjoy it and it was turning in to a nightmare situation. I asked this lady for her name <removed> and told her that I wanted her to notify the manager on duty that I would be making a formal complaint. By 8pm thanks to several kind adults I had got my daughter into a position where by she was standing behind the disabled seating area and she was able to just about see, but her view was still obstructed by a railing measuring approx 5ft. There was a railing around the whole of the balcony and I can understand why it is there, but the area that was designated for disabled seating had an additional railing two feet above the other one. There was then Perspex attached behind both railings and that meant that anyone sat in or stood behind the whole disabled area had their view obstructed by dirty and distorting Perspex. Just before Mika was due to start, another Child in a wheelchair arrived and the security placed this child and her parents into the designated area and then left. This caused another real problem bearing in mind that we had been standing there for over an hour; there were no seats left for the parents so they had to stand right in front of my daughter. When I asked <removed> why they were not given chairs to sit on I was told that this was because the designated area had already got the maximum number of chairs allowed in it and they were not allowed to add any more. This to me would suggest that it had been over sold or that too many people had been allowed into the area, why can’t they have a chair if they are allowed to stand there anyway. By the time Mika arrived on stage I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not actually going to be able to see any of the events happening on the stage and was just grateful that my daughter could see what was happening better than me. I am 5ft 8ins tall and was about 4 rows behind the disabled area and was having to rely upon the mobile phone footage of other people stood nearby to see what was happening on the stage. I was aware that there was someone on the stage with a fabulous Afro but who that was or what they were doing on the stage only came apparent after half an hour when I got a glimpse of them because they stood up for a moment. I have been to the Doncaster Dome before to watch Mika and was aware that I should have been treated to a theatrical event as well as listening to the fantastic music, but unfortunately I was unable to appreciate this at all. After about ¾ of an hour <removed> appeared and said that the Head of the Academy was in a room in another part of the building and would be happy to talk to me, and unfortunately as I explained to her that I was not able to go and talk to him because I did not want to pull my daughter away from her space and ruin her night further. I did however ask <removed> to inform her manager that I was happy for him to come to see me, I didn’t hear anything else. By the end of the evening there where children standing on the handrails at the back of the room supported by their parents standing in front of them to make sure they didn’t fall off. The whole situation was unacceptable to us and many other people with or without children, I believe that we should have been notified that the tickets we bought were for a restricted viewing area and then we could have made an informed decision about if we wanted to pay the full price £25 for each ticket. Mika said during his act that after four years of touring that was the first time they had been to Sheffield, my advice to him and his management team would be to check the venue out further before booking the O2 Academy again. I would rather have driven back to Doncaster and be able to watch as well as hear the show. This is not a dig at poor <removed> as i'm sure she was only working within her role....

Please let me describe to you the experience me and my daughter had at the O2 Academy in Sheffield when we went to the Mika concert on Thursday 18th February. I arrived at the venue at 7.15pm and stood in the queue to get into the venue. There were no signs on the staircases to inform you what you where queuing for and in the queue where several groups of people who had been in another queue only to find out that it wasn’t the correct queue for the ticket they had. The venue opened at 7pm and Mika was due on stage at 9pm. When we entered the venue and went up the stairs to the balcony it became apparent that there were a lot of people wondering round already voicing that they couldn’t see the stage. We went straight to the balcony and tried to find a place to stand and realised that by 7.30pm there where already no places for me and my 10 year old daughter to stand if we wanted to be able to see any of the stage. At 7.45pm, I went to talk to one of the academy staff who was stood on duty by the exit door situated by the side of the bar area. This young lady told me that she agreed with me that the situation was unfair and she actually stated that it was her view that there should not be more than 3 people deep up on the balcony, at this point there where up to 10 deep. This young lady told me that she couldn’t do anything about the situation herself but that she could call for someone else. I agreed to wait to talk to someone else. Another lady attached to the academy at a higher level walked passed and she stopped and talked to me she also said that she herself couldn’t do anything as the downstairs of the venue was already full and that the academy had only sold the number of tickets they were allowed to sell. I must say that at this point I did get slightly emotional and the frustration took over. My husband had bought tickets for my daughter and myself to see Mika because he knew how much we would enjoy it and it was turning in to a nightmare situation. I asked this lady for her name (Katie Valkovics) and told her that I wanted her to notify the manager on duty that I would be making a formal complaint. By 8pm thanks to several kind adults I had got my daughter into a position where by she was standing behind the disabled seating area and she was able to just about see, but her view was still obstructed by a railing measuring approx 5ft. There was a railing around the whole of the balcony and I can understand why it is there, but the area that was designated for disabled seating had an additional railing two feet above the other one. There was then Perspex attached behind both railings and that meant that anyone sat in or stood behind the whole disabled area had their view obstructed by dirty and distorting Perspex. Just before Mika was due to start, another Child in a wheelchair arrived and the security placed this child and her parents into the designated area and then left. This caused another real problem bearing in mind that we had been standing there for over an hour; there were no seats left for the parents so they had to stand right in front of my daughter. When I asked Katie Valkovics why they were not given chairs to sit on I was told that this was because the designated area had already got the maximum number of chairs allowed in it and they were not allowed to add any more. This to me would suggest that it had been over sold or that too many people had been allowed into the area, why can’t they have a chair if they are allowed to stand there anyway. By the time Mika arrived on stage I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not actually going to be able to see any of the events happening on the stage and was just grateful that my daughter could see what was happening better than me. I am 5ft 8ins tall and was about 4 rows behind the disabled area and was having to rely upon the mobile phone footage of other people stood nearby to see what was happening on the stage. I was aware that there was someone on the stage with a fabulous Afro but who that was or what they were doing on the stage only came apparent after half an hour when I got a glimpse of them because they stood up for a moment. I have been to the Doncaster Dome before to watch Mika and was aware that I should have been treated to a theatrical event as well as listening to the fantastic music, but unfortunately I was unable to appreciate this at all. After about ¾ of an hour Katie Volkovics appeared and said that the Head of the Academy was in a room in another part of the building and would be happy to talk to me, and unfortunately as I explained to her that I was not able to go and talk to him because I did not want to pull my daughter away from her space and ruin her night further. I did however ask Katie to inform her manager that I was happy for him to come to see me, I didn’t hear anything else. By the end of the evening there where children standing on the handrails at the back of the room supported by their parents standing in front of them to make sure they didn’t fall off. The whole situation was unacceptable to us and many other people with or without children, I believe that we should have been notified that the tickets we bought were for a restricted viewing area and then we could have made an informed decision about if we wanted to pay the full price £25 for each ticket. Mika said during his act that after four years of touring that was the first time they had been to Sheffield, my advice to him and his management team would be to check the venue out further before booking the O2 Academy again. I would rather have driven back to Doncaster and be able to watch as well as hear the show. I must add that Katie was as helpful as i'm sure she was allowed to be in her job role.....

I understand that King Egburts has a large number of children who are on AS studying there. I believe that there is a specialist unit. Why don't you contact the Sheffiled autisic Society and ask them...they are achually meeting tonight..