Confudler

Really? I see Scots notes pretty often. I can't say I have ever had a £50 note in my wallet. I'd be more suspicious of someone spending a £50 than Scottish notes.

I'm much more bothered about the inconvenience than the cost. P&D is a pain when you have kids to manage (especially when they have worked out how to escape). Would be happier to pay a higher fixed price for a permit and to support the parks a bit more. Another concern is the management of this. I hope they don't go down the route of private car parks with spurious charges and threatening letters. If they are allowed to use the council enforcement powers, I hope they do it proportionately (i.e. without the penalties you might need to enforce short-stay on-street parking).

Had the same thing in my last house (You're not in Norton Lees are you?). Once we knew it wasn't rats, we relaxed a lot. Although we intended to block the hole once they'd gone, we actually got used to it and decided we wouldn't be bothered the next year.

Advance for materials is reasonable (even if builder has an account, they're still liable). The main issue with giving 50% up front is that it removes any incentive for the builder to get on with stuff. Once they've got your money, no-one else is getting the work so they can take their time. Don't hold money back unreasonably, but try to ensure that it's always worth their while to finish the job.

I'd disagree with the MSE advice to respond if you weren't the driver. In doing so you open up a dialogue in which anything you say will be used against you. Plus they send you random bits of legal rulings. So save paper and effort: better just to ignore ignore ignore.

Whoa there, Cyclone's. You missed a step. What happened to 'Notice of intent to provide notice of court summonses'? You barely sound like a PPC solicitor at all! It's no wonder WalkleyDave is running rings around you if you can't even write a letter that imitates official court documentation. Plus I insist on your inclusion of a scrappy photocopy of an unrelated judgement. WalkleyDave has argued his case - he's clearly on the hook and you are missing a prime opportunity to get an unwise disclosure from him.

Gym membership is mostly a premium service for those with disposable income. It probably costs me 50% more to be a member than to PAYG in a council facility, but I like the slightly nicer facilities so it's worth it. It's probably great value for a few individuals who train a lot. For example, I was training for a run a few years back and for a few months this would have averaged less than £1.50 per visit. I don't think there's anything naughty about the 12 month membership, especially as shorter membership options are available. It's just like anything else that can be bought in bulk for a discount. Also, they will normally allow you to break the contract if circumstances mean you can't use the service (e.g. moving miles away from any club in the chain). The horror stories normally relate to 'grayer' situations (e.g. where the member finds they can no longer afford what they signed up for). In these situations, they have every right to resist (otherwise, how could they justify the discount for 12 months membership).

Ignore adamf who is referring to the other virgin active (formerly Esporta) near Sainsburys. Brand would be pretty low on my list of criteria for choosing a sports club, but I happen to quite like the Virgin brand applied to fitness clubs. I'm a member of the broadfield club. It has a nice vibe, plenty going on for all types of member. Like most places, it's quite full at peak times but loads of capacity the rest of the time. I think there is scope to negotiate on the pricing. There are monthly memberships available for a bit more. There are discounts for all sorts of things (teachers, various other employers). I've got a type of joint membership that is no longer offered, but works very well for us. It's worth talking to a number of gyms and seeing what the best you can get is.

Yep, that the 1pm alarm

They do tend to pay for themselves. They are completely different from laptops and, in reality, much more likely replace printouts than a laptop. The payback in print savings is usually less than 1 year (I imagine councillors have a fair bit of reading printed on their behalf - even if they don't read it all). And, of course, there are many other reasons that electronic documents are better (update-able, transportable, less waste to dispose of with security requiring shredding). I hate to say it (as an Android tablet owner) but alternative tablets are not yet that common, so you risk buying a technology that will become non-standard. So I say, spend the money, set really stringent printing limits and reap the benefits. In fact, spend more, get them keyboards and ditch the laptops altogether. The real waste is in giving councillors PCs that have capabilities they'll never require.

Of all the 'illegitimate' ways to make a living, scrap collection really does seem to be the most benign. I'm therefore happy to aid these people to make a living through their free collection service that, additionally, ensures that the material is recycled. Until someone can present me with a convincing argument why scrap collection is wrong (other than, that the same people might do thieving - which could be said for just about any trade with a van), I will continue to leave items for them.

I would propose some 'road rationalisation' first. There's surely many miles of road that could be closed and therefore no repair will be required. Then I suggest a bit of work to define 'pot-holes'. It's quite likely that many so-called 'pot-holes' are actually 'minor surface damage' and outside the contractual obligations. Then it's time to check the margins - has enough profit been made from this venture? If not then pursue the above to a greater extent. Plus introduce a system of 'opt-in' top-up payments that help a road get prioritised (this would help achieve the desires of the OP). All in all, make sure that funds (that aren't profit) go to the most important place - lawyers, financiers, assessors, managers. Spending it on manual workers and equipment leaves you susceptible to injury-at-work claims and asset depreciation.

Why is it illegitimate to allow scrap collectors to collect scrap? I know metal theft is an issue, but that doesn't mean all scrap collection must stop or have some paper trail. That would reduce recycling, hurt industry and increase fly-tipping. Most collectors just drive around searching skips and taking stuff that is purposefully left. They're about my area frequently, and I've yet to see any that stop and go searching properties. Now I know that, technically, removing stuff from skips is not legal, but no-one with common sense puts items they wish to retain into a skip.

It is generally a scam. However, this doesn't give you the right to park anywhere on private land without consequence! If that was the case, you could leave a car in all manner of antisocial locations. It sounds like you may have parked where their deliveries go, and had you disrupted this, they might be able to claim costs against you. However, this being the normal PPC companies (and their regular associates), it's more than likely that there is no reasonable claim, just a desire to bully money out of you.

I ignored one last year and after a series of threatening letters it all stopped. So unless the invoiced amount seems reasonable (whatever that may be), don't be bullied. For expert advice and reassurance use the forum at pepipoo. Note: Thousands of people get these letters, you won't get specific help unless you actually get a court summons.

Just to add a helpful voice, I was invoiced last year for overstaying in a free car park. It was a ridiculous amount for a trivial overstay and it was caused by a business associated with the car park (which shut shortly after). Having read the advice forums, I ignored rather than engaging with the company (as information you might provide in an appeal - identifying yourself as the driver, admitting to overstaying - could be used against you). The letters got increasingly threatening and did make me check the forums each time (they call them things like 'notice of intention to prosecute..'). Then they stopped. From what I can gather, court action is extremely rare and usually unsuccessful. I'm slightly disappointed, as I work next to the court and almost fancied the opportunity to see them there.

Hi CEB, I have a family of 4. We rarely fill our bin beyond 1/3 (i.e. 1 medium kitchen bin liner full plus a load of nappies). We achieve this using 2 simple tricks: 1. consuming the stuff we buy 2. not buying stuff we are not going to consume If you are truly filling a wheelie bin weekly, I would suggest that you are buying too much and then throwing loads away. (The alternative is that you have found a shop that exclusively packages everything triple-wrapped in non-recyclable material). That said, the council do need to improve the recycling service so that those with a higher consumption level can manage. Elsewhere the councils collect: plastic trays, carton paks, batteries, clothes, foodwaste, and electrical items. It is frustrating that I have to put these in the black bin or stockpile until it's worth going to a recycling centre.

Clamping firms still have to have fair terms and conditions. If you were unfairly clamped (so you parked in a marked bay and were only using Meadowhall businesses), you should re-coup the money through complaints, complaints and, ultimately, small-claims.

Presumably to start committing such fraud requires that you submit a new claim, and fraud officers are now processing new claims. Therefore it's probably no easier to start committing the fraud, just easier to continue getting away with it?

I think the public/private sector division is misleading. You can only really differentiate by the source of funds: Public expenditure is directed towards things that serve collective interests whereas your private expenditure generally goes on forwarding your own interests. People tend to prefer forwarding their own interests to compulsorily contributing towards collective interests. Therefore they prefer the idea of the private sector. However, private sector does not mean private expenditure. Plenty of 'private enterprises' actually run purely on public money. Other 'private enterprises' are delivering services that are only partially discretionary expenditure (water, energy). Therefore the favour we give to private sector over public sector is quite irrational. Nowadays, we regard many things as basic essentials - schools, roads, hospitals, policing. However, we are generally in complete denial about how much all these services should cost (vs. how much should be left over for discretionary spending). This leads to the perception that the public sector is inflated/inefficient. My belief is that the opposite is true. Generally, when trying to achieve the same aim, the private sector costs more and delivers less (e.g. British rail network, American healthcare). However, the private sector works much harder to create the illusion of value, and people react more favourably to this (trains do look better now, so we got something for the increased fares). So back to the OP. Does Sheffield have too much dependence on the public sector? I don't believe so. Although manufacturing has decreased, there are plenty of private enterprises doing stuff. Meanwhile, Sheffield has it's fair share of the national public sector organisations (and private enterprises taking public money) as well.

An interesting proposal. You are right that private companies should be allowed to profit from things that cause minor inconvenience others. However, I find a much bigger inconvenience is the delay caused by people dawdling in the aisles and browsing the goods. How dare they! I propose a system whereby small signs are placed around the supermarket notifying shoppers of maximum browsing time and fines that arrive through the post several weeks later. It would create employment as Morrisons would need to hire enforcement officers (although they could later be replaced by camera controls). I'm sure the Identity and Passport Service would gladly help with identifying offenders (for a fee, natch).

You should ask the school to do a round-robin of his teachers to find out what topics he's missing and what they can provide. The response to this can be mixed - some will give an outline of their planning, some may send a ton of worksheets (I used to lend a copy of the textbook and indicate the pages to look at). This is, at least, a good start. For more resources, you can buy KS3 study guides for all core subjects that will have plenty of appropriate work. You/your daughter should devise the timetable so your grandson doesn't just race through everything that is sent. Instead, break it down into daily tasks. Ensure that his days have structure - study sessions and breaks at defined times (assuming he's up to it). You may be entitled to some tutoring, but don't get your hopes up too much. It is likely to be a relatively short number of hours per week. You/your daughter will need to be providing much of the support/encouragement that normally comes from teachers. Finally, remember that the lad is recovering and, if he can't be at school, it's probably because he needs to rest. As long as he doesn't get completely out of the habit of studying, he will probably catch-up reasonably quickly.

Personally I like the station front. Of-course tastes vary, but I've not met many people (except on here) that don't like the new look/layout. I generally arrive/leave as a pedestrian and the experience is much better than when I first came to Sheffield (late 90's). In fact, compared to most major stations, I think Sheffield station is a great gateway to the city. The car/taxi thing is irritating, but it is mostly misuse that causes the issues. Too many taxis park on the 'back' road and too many drivers use the 'drop-off' as 'pick-up'. Whilst I preferred the small short-stay that was down there, it had issues at busy times. The multi-storey is a good compromise. The one thing I think is missing is a decent link to the city centre. It's a big hill and the free bus is not too convenient. I propose a public lift/escalator/cable car linking the station to the town hall (with a stop at Arundel gate level).

Sound like a tricky one. If the existing units are Howdens, I wouldn't fancy you chances of getting a decent match elsewhere. Howdens only sell to trade. However, you will find that it's worth going through a joiner with an account as they pay significantly below list price. I'm sure you should be able to negotiate a decent price (although they might insist on fitting them).

There are builders working at the house opposite and sometime yesterday (or possibly the day before) the front wing of our car was damaged. It was covered in a white-ish powder and paint has been scratched off. The damage does not look like another vehicle has bumped us, the scratches are not deep and there's the white-ish powder. I reckon a builder has gone past with a heavy bag of cement (possibly on a trolley). Anyone know what else could cause this damage - every known a car to leave white powder behind when it's bumped another car?