JayG

Fair question, although if you live on a tree-lined street I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that the street would still be tree-lined after the works were completed.

According to sheffield.gov/uk : On Crawford Road in S8 at least 8 very large trees were removed, and the pavements subsequently restored. Since then, 4 young trees have been planted (3 near the top, 1 in the middle.) On the assumption that the tree planting season is over until autumn, it appears we now have a deficit of at least 4 replacement trees, which of course is very noticeable given the disparity of size between old and new. Not been able to find any information about Amey's tree planting plans - if anyone knows how to access them (if they exist) I would be very interested to hear from them. Would also be interested to hear whether others have found that SCC/Amey have kept their promise to replace on at least a 1 for 1 basis where they live. (What I'm NOT interested in is restarting the debate about whether the mature trees should have been felled in the first place - here at least it's time to move on.)

Apart from my usual gripe about many drivers apparently believing that red traffic lights are merely an invitation to stop, so if you are a knobhead in a rush you can safely ignore them most of the time, there does seem to be the added factor of pre-Christmas stress adding to the usual bad driving behaviour lately. Just yesterday I got an exasperated hand signal from Mr. Impatient waiting at the give way on Carterknowle Road's 'choker'. There were two cars in front of him he had already given way to, which clearly was two too many for him - presumably he expected me to stop in the middle of the road and give way to him! Glad I've finished my shopping and most of my travelling now.

I live in Norton Lees, Tesco mobile full strength signal (and working normally) now.

I think that deep down many of us yearn for at least a little bit of 'proper' winter, so tend to look for signs it's about to happen even when it isn't! Many also don't appreciate that there is a big difference between 'town and city' overnight lows and those you might find in the countryside (here in Norton Lees the air temperature has barely dropped below zero at any point so far this year.)

Outpatient prescriptions issued by the RHH are certainly processed on site by the Boots operation - I don't know whether there is a separate NHS pharmacy as well or whether Boots process the inpatient prescriptions too.

Tree felling staff and equipment back on Crawford Road this morning, as are the protestors too by the looks of it - not a chainsaw to be heard...

According to my neighbours (on Crawford Road) Amey stopped work on Tuesday after someone staged a protest, and won't resume until the person (or persons) have had their case heard in court. Haven't been down to check what they were doing yesterday afternoon, but they are a long way from finishing the job. Will await developments today (or not...)

As a bit of light relief, some of you may be interested in an American correspondent's view of our election: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-book-of-jeremy-corbyn?mbid=social_facebook_paid_cm_corbynsbook

Well, that's the best my memory and the Master Program website linked to in a previous reply can manage between them. Whatever - they and presumably many others will need substantial repairs before the initial 5 year program has even completed, which was surely not part of the original plan?

Apart from the fact that Norton Lees is one of the last areas scheduled for resurfacing and other improvements, and that my road is not getting the attention to the recurring potholes it used to, I'm also concerned about the quality of resurfacing work which has actually been done. There are at least two quite deep depressions in the tarmac on the Woodseats side of the bridge on Woodseats Road, and some breaking up of the road surface in places on Scarsdale Road. Both were completely resurfaced last year - not exactly impressive given the reasonably mild winter and the fact that this one has barely started.

Chatted to the City taxi driver on my way to the train station last Saturday, and he reckons the Mercury takeover has affected his income for the worse, and is planning on switching to Uber in the near future. He believes that Uber is a win-win for everyone - lower prices for customers, more flexibility for the drivers, and a top-up of shortfalls if his income falls below a certain level (not enough time to explain how that works, but he at least believes that he will be paid £100 per week if that situation arises.) He also believes that City/Mercury will be forced to 'do something' about Uber, although it's hard to see what that something might be given that the latter's business model seems to be based on some very clever, and also no doubt very expensive, technology.

Witnessed an old boy wearing a flat cap watching the first ever Supertram journey from his vantage point near Park Square. "Waste of bleedin' money" was his verdict, echoed by a couple of other old timers passing by. I've lived in Sheffield for 45 years now and get grumpier by the day, but still can't quite manage that level on a regular basis!

Rustlings Road online petition signed - although many of Sheffield's street trees were planted with apparently little forethought regarding their suitability and eventual size, I don't accept that these 12 particular trees meet any of the usual criteria for felling (excessive size, disease, or infrastructure damage.)

Only time I've had ice build up on or near the evaporator plate is when a food item had been pushed too far back and was touching it, which meant that it became permanently frozen itself and all the condensation melt from the evaporator froze onto it, a process which once started accelerates rapidly. If that's not the case, and it doesn't sound as if you have the thermostat set too low, I can only suggest using a plastic substitute for the skewer to help keep the drain hole clear (my Indesit has one built in - I think you're supposed to wiggle it from time to time, but it hasn't been necessary up to now.)

Of course it's true that decaying organic matter supports complex ecosystems, but I don't think you'd be saying that if a branch from a diseased street tree fell on your head (in fact, I don't think you'd be saying much at all!) What concerns me is that for reasons we can only speculate about, many modest-sized trees causing no visible damage to nearby infrastructure are now being condemned and removed, which I'm fairly certain never used to happen in Sheffield.

Under a PR system the Tories would still have had the most seats but would have had to work with other parties to govern - more complicated, yes, but much fairer to the millions who didn't vote for them - since when in British politics has one size (party) fitted or suited all?

In a marginal seat your vote could well make a difference, but nearly all the seats in South Yorkshire have had solid Labour majorities for as long as I can remember. I'd be interested to hear Dardandec's rationale as to how any vote other than Labour registered in any of those constituencies carries any weight at all under the FPTP system (you could argue that even voting Labour was a waste of time given that the Tories achieved an overall majority and therefore won't have to listen to or work with any other party whilst in government.) FPTP is great for the winners because it makes government nice and easy, but fair, democratic and representative of all the votes cast? I don't think so!

Makes sense to remove diseased trees which have become dangerous, and I suppose you can only hope that the tree surgeons always make the correct decisions. Much harder to find any logic or consistency when it comes to removing trees which are said to be causing damage to roads and footpaths though - there are a couple of modest sized trees on Rustlings Road near the bottom of Onslow Road which have the 'Deeds of Death' posted on them - I can see no signs of any lifting of either the road, the pavement, or the nearby park railings, whereas a walk down Crawford Road (S is a roller-coaster experience due to some beautiful, but totally inappropriate trees which were planted many years ago and are now giants. Some have already been removed, but several remain, and very few have been replaced, partly because many residents have removed their front gardens and walls to create off-street parking, thereby preventing re-planting in front of their properties.

Get the correct current reading, compare it with the estimated one, and assuming it's way too high, ask your supplier for a revised bill - with the recent drops in energy tariffs now is not the time to be paying a higher price for electricity you haven't actually used yet.

Have you got last year's quarterly bill for the same period to compare it with? If not, the previous quarter should be broadly similar, everything else being equal (occupancy, heating/thermostat settings etc.) Was the meter reading estimated or actual, and does it seem to tally with your current reading, which will of course be somewhat higher now?

I was negotiating the last set of sleeping policemen at the Abbeydale Road end of Carterknowle Rd about a week ago when no less than 4 quad bikes overtook me at high speed, despite another motorist approaching from the opposite direction (we both had no choice but to stop.) Two things surprise me - one is that there are as many as 4 still alive given their driving technique, the second is that with such blatant and clearly repeated disregard for all driving laws that the police have not managed to stop them and charge them with careless or dangerous driving (or do they have to kill someone first?) Whether it's the 'ethnicity issue' again, or just lack of interest or resources is impossible to know, but it's a pretty sad state of affairs when such widely reported and dangerous behaviour is apparently deemed not serious enough to warrant anything more than token measures.

As I've posted before, even where the works have been completed the results seem extremely variable - on Woodseats road the lights seem far brighter and more even at the lower end than where it starts to level off, and Carterknowle Road seems patchy, but overall rather dim to me compared to the old lighting system. My road has a group of 4 sodium lamps which have been on 24/7 for many months now, and I've no idea when or whether anything is scheduled to change. If anyone can get Streets Ahead roadworks and upgrades map - works timetable to show any useful information at all please post how you managed to achieve it!

If the car was parked before the snow started it should have been sitting on the tarmac rather than the snow - no sign of the driver in the picture but I'm sure there would have been someone with very brown trousers and equally red face exiting the car at some point. Lucky to have avoided the tree too - it must have still been travelling at a fair speed to have demolished the wall and the bay window, although hopefully that will have absorbed most of the energy of the impact and avoided serious injury to the driver.

Spoke too soon - blue bins collected just before dusk today (Sunday) - well done Veolia and its staff - always good to be able to give credit where it's due.