RobWilson

The amount of officers put onto each case was phenomenal. I think they had 90 on one case at one point. It must be incredibly expensive to get each case through to a conviction. It was also astonishing to see how difficult it actually is to get proof for a serious prosecution. One girl had so many different samples of semen on her pants that it was impossible to isolate individual men's DNA, which isn't good enough. In addition, the high quality CCTV in the hotel showing the men taking the 13 year old into various bedrooms was not evidence enough. It basically boiled down to her word against theirs!

Indeed. I haven't been to Sheffield Arena for years because I dislike the acoustics, the distance of the stage from most seats, and the seating not even facing the stage for the most part. That said, if I did want to go and see most of those acts then I'd probably have to see them in an arena nowadays. Whether alternageek of I actually want to see any of the acts I listed (and I would only pay for 5 of those) is besides the point. Those 31 acts will entertain well over over 600,000 people in London alone, which is obviously worth a lot of money to the London economy - restaurants, bars, hotels and the like. Sheffield's missing out on quite a lot of income, I would suspect. With music sales now being so small, larger and larger venues are clearly the future model as they make the most money for the acts, promoters and cities alike. We'd all like to see acts in more intimate venues, but established acts are in it for the money and not just for the art. The best solution in the long run would be for Sheffield to build a new arena in the Leeds mould, with seats banked up on one side for superior sight lines and acoustics. I'm sure that cities throughout the world will build these over the next few years.

There seem to be far fewer gigs in Sheffield over the next few months than there have been in the past. A quick look at other UK arenas shows that there are loads of acts missing out Sheffield these days; these are just 31 of the larger acts playing elsewhere... QUEEN JACK WHITE JAMES BLUNT THE WHO CULTURE CLUB ALFIE BOE MICHAEL BUBLE STATUS QUO MADNESS ANDRE RIEU KAISER CHIEFS LIONEL RITCHIE THE BLACK KEYS THUNDER DOCTOR WHO 5SOS WWE IL DIVO JAMES TAYLOR LINKIN PARK ENRIQUE IGLESIAS PAUL SIMON & STING MAROON 5 NEIL SEDAKA JOHN LEGEND JOHNNY MARR COUNTING CROWS SAM SMITH ERASURE THE SPECIALS ANDREA BOCELLI That's a lot of lost revenue for Sheffield, as well as meaning a lot of us having to travel outside the region. They're not all playing everywhere, but most cities have at least some of them playing... LONDON 31/31 BIRMINGHAM 29/31 LEEDS 23/31 MANCHESTER 23/31 NEWCASTLE 21/31 GLASGOW 23/31 NOTTINGHAM 16/31 BELFAST 10/31 LIVERPOOL 11/31 BOURNEMOUTH 11/31 BRIGHTON 11/31 CARDIFF 15/31 PLYMOUTH 4/31 Are Live Nation missing these acts for any particular reason, do you think? Booking clashes with the Steelers or other events? Competition from Leeds/Nottingham/Manchester? Acts being tied to other promoters? Lack of demand in Sheffield?

But the east end of Sheffield didn't look like a "crap hole". It was mainly shots of the cyclists and huge crowds. Contrary to what you say, I've been on holiday to several places that I've seen on TV that were industrial - so long as there's something attractive there too, or stunning countryside 2 or 3 miles away. Sheffield is bigger than just the city centre or Meadowhall, and the leafy western suburbs and Peak District villages like Bradfield are enough to bring people to visit. If only they could be shown in high definition TV across the world, somehow...

The route has been hailed a major success by the cycling community and TdF organisers because of the climbs. It was a far better day's racing than most Grand Departs because of that, and cycling tourists will have duly noted that and the stunning scenery just 2 or 3 miles from Sheffield city centre! I have to say that north and east Sheffield looked really great on TV too, going through industrial areas and Meadowhall. The roads there were nice and wide, straight and thronged with people. The camera angles (even from the air) would want make me want to visit Sheffield rather than keep away. Ecclesall Road, the hospitals, the inner ring road and city centre weren't missed really, and weren't gridlocked for tens of hours like the actual route.

The British Athletics Championships have been on BBC 2 this weekend. That's 6 or 7 hours of national TV coverage of an event that has attracted a couple of thousand spectators to Birmingham. It's sad to see the mainly empty stadium failing to attract people to one of the year's biggest athletics events. Athletics really isn't a major spectator sport any more. With all the "big" events now either in Birmingham or the Olympic stadium when it reopens, it really does highlight how Don Valley Stadium would have been a financial drain for ever more.

What's wrong with wanting to go and have a fun day out? As many cynics point out, the race bikes will pass in a flash, so obviously only the serious cycling fans will know who most of the professional riders are. I personally love going to cheer on people in marathons. I don't know who they are, but I like to see their efforts. Similarly, I'm looking forward to July 6th when I'll cheer on the amateurs who will follow the TdF professionals. Additionally, the 200 or so "floats" on the Tour de France publicity caravan "parade" are what attract just as many people onto the route as the race itself. Certainly it's a glorified commercial for all sorts of brands, but it is fun. It's sort of like the St Patrick's Day parade in New York, or the Olympic torch relay. It's an excuse for people to get outside, find a great location, enjoy a fete (there are several along our bit), listen to music, have a drink, have a picnic, enjoy the streets without nose-to-tail traffic, let the kids play, ride a bike, watch the parade, catch some freebies, and top it off with the TdF riders. If you want to ignore all that, then fine. Not everyone likes parties and people having fun, so you're more than entitled to do your own thing for one Sunday. Sit back and relax at home, knowing that it'll never happen again whilst you're still alive. --- For those interested to know what the caravane is like, there's a video on the TdF website here; Le Tour Caravane

I used to live in Warrington, too. At times, the traffic around Ikea was absolutely mental - and backed up all the way through the town. At other times, there was no significant impact. I doubt that the Tinsley Wire site, with the addition of a few traffic alterations, would make a significant impact most of the time. However, when it's busy it will be VERY BUSY. That's the price of progress. I would have thought that the major impact might be on the Sheffield side of the site, rather than on the M1. It might just get a little crazy whenever there's something on at the Arena, for instance. Last Wednesday afternoon it took me an hour to drive from Magna to the city centre, partly because one bus broke down. It's the contingency plans in the area that need to be addressed.

I wasn't saying that Ikea would be in any way suited to that site; I wouldn't expect to see Ikea anywhere other than by a Motorway. I was merely questioning the notion that Mothercare staff were being made redundant by the council. No-one knows what will eventually happen to the Mothercare/Staples site, but it does seem a waste of space (3.5 acres) in such a prominent location. Whatever does end up being built there would be best built like above a car park, like the Chesterfield Tesco or Archer Road Sainsburys; sheds like Decathlon and Wickes should have no place in that area.

I'm not sure that I'd agree with you or cuttsie that Moorfoot is the "arse end" of Sheffield; it's very accessible for the most affluent western and southern suburbs of Sheffield. Waitrose certainly think so.

Is there currently anyone in the "Mothercare" unit? I thought that it was vacant.

I stayed in a Sheffield city centre hotel with a group of friends a couple of weeks ago, but because I was on medication I stayed sober for the evening. I was pretty amazed when we walked down Division Street/Devonshire Street/West Street at just how sloshed huge numbers of people were. There were literally hundreds of people who were incapable of looking after themselves and shouldn't have been served in a bar or pub. Each to their own, but the cost to Sheffield in terms of street cleaning must be huge. The amount of litter and vomit was quite shocking, as was some of the casual vandalism. I'm far from a prude and usually love a drink of real ale in Sheffield's amazing real ale pubs, some of which are in the city centre. Perhaps it's good that all the anti-social behaviour is centred on a relatively small area and that the rest of the city centre is pretty civilised for theatre and concert-goers, people in restaurants and visitors in hotels? If the whole of the city centre had to be cleaned from top-to-bottom each time the blotto drinkers went out it would cost council tax payers many, many more millions every year.

I honestly can't disagree more with you about the staff. I shop at Forge Bakehouse pretty regularly and they're very friendly. Their bread isn't cheap by any means, but you get what you pay for. Theirs is by far the best bread in the region. I love sourdough bread, and many of their loaves are sourdough. Their croissants and, even more so, pain au chocolat are utterly superb; I lived in France for 3 years and they're the equal of those I bought there. If this all sounds like I'm some kind of food snob, I'm quite happy with a 55p loaf from Aldi for my day-to-day sarnies. I wouldn't call that bread exceptional, though.

Of course, you shouldn't be reversing onto Psalter Lane. As the Highway Code states; ---------- Post added 02-03-2014 at 20:03 ---------- As others have hinted at, Sheffield is just into the third year of a 6 year project to resurface all the roads and pavements in the entire city. This map shows the progress and plan for the roads in the scheme - Streets Ahead map. The pavements are being repaired in a separate phase of the process, though some are being fixed at the same time as the adjacent road. All street lights are being upgraded to LEDs too. As I understand it, there are three main teams of workers operating at any one time. They have different capabilities, and perform different types of repair work, depending upon how extensive the repairs needed are. The contract payments are accounted for, so the order of works is irrelevant. Those who are earlier in the scheme are obviously happier than those who are yet to be affected.

Road tax is variable on the size of the engine. The annual road tax bill for my Toyota Aygo is £20! I guess as a proportion of polluting effect, cyclists should pay about £0.01.