gumshoe

Get in touch with then asap. If you talk to them they'll sort out a plan. Having said that this has happened to me twice now. The first time I didn't actually get the summons until after the supposed court date (there had been no previous correspondence about any arrears). I rang up in a panic and was told by the council tax office that this "was just a letter they send out to get peoples attention". I got very angry and was told to calm down! The second time I rang the court to get the details of where I should go when I got there. They had no record of any cases or hearings. I got back in touch with the council tax office, got angry, and haven't had any more stupid lying letters since.

Still no conclusive statement any where. I presume this must mean they don't actually know what went wrong. The statement on their website still includes the incorrect phrase "The organising committee – a small group of volunteers which runs the Sheffield Half Marathon Charities Trust". The organising committee is the limited company NOT the charity. Smoke and mirrors...

The organisers have now removed their statement implicating the water company, but are STILL investigating!! However, they can't even get the name of their own charity right.

If you have any in future St. Lukes Hospice, or Cavendish Cancer Care (27 Wilkinson Street) both collect them to raise funds.

Try here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Joe-Scarborough-Print-Friends-Cavendish-Centre-/260856676021?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item3cbc44feb5

I think it's hilarious that so many people lump whole groups of society together on the actions of a handful. In this case the trouble makers are more likely to be people who took advantage of a demonsrtation, or were put up to antics by the press. Members of society demonstrating about their futures. Good on them! May they always get off their backsides and do something about it! Where do you think this country will be if education is left to only those who can afford it?

Blimey, you better head south before it really sets in!! LOL

The bottom line is that Sheffield station is not designed to have barriers. They would cause horrible delays. It's bad enough when a train arrives now and you're trying to get in to your platform. There simply isn't enough room. With barriers there would be congestion and then no one could get in until it was cleared. As soon as a machine breaks down (which they do regularly) then chaos would ensue. As I said on this forum a year ago - They won't be putting them in, and if they do then they'll be switched off in a fortnight.

But there isn't only one person doing this at a time. Go to the train station and look. There are many people buying tickets who will all want to go through at the same time. And also many people who will want to come out at the same time. There isn't enough room for enough barriers. It will fail.

Barriers everywhere have proved a waste of everyone's time. They have probably cost more to implement than any money they saved stopping fare dodgers. Money that should have been spent on rolling staock - particularly on the Manchester Airport train!!! London Underground had barriers decades ago and I regularly saw people jump them or just push through them, especially in rush hour. The only reason you don't see it so often now is that staff have to man these new machines because the tickets are so crap a lot of them don't work. So it's staff that put off dodgers not machines. Also, if they are going to issue passes for people to get to and from the tram stop - WHAT'S THE FLIPPIN' POINT??? The evil fare dodger will just get a pass and then board a train. Sounds to me like this was planned by Humpty Dumpty!! After he fell!! LOL. Let them put them in. They'll fail in a few weeks. I'll put god money on it.

Great, thanks.

Thank you. That's helpful. You have given me the idea to look at the boxes outside the old post office in town, or the sorting office on Eccleshall Road. They may be later.

What is the evidence that there is more fare dodging than elsewhere in the country? Also, where and how many of these machines are they thinking of installing? At London St. Pancras there are several machines across a wide expanse of the station and they still cause horrible congestion. There is no where in Sheffield to place more than a handful, which means they will cause congestion of passengers, missed trains, and probably a health and safety risk. Solution? They will end up doing what they do in London and elsewhere in the country. They will leave the barriers open for most of the day. Not only that but the barriers will HAVE to be manned because they often don't work for various reasons. So increased staff costs. Why not just have ticket inspectors like at Birmingham New Street (where there are no barriers)? If tickets can't be checked on trains because of over crowding then put more carriages on the trains. We should have one passenger = one seat. NO STANDING as this is dangerous and uncomfortable. What a waste of everyone's time this is. And what a waste of money it already is.

No, the state system gets our money via tax. It has that money already, and it still can't funtion properly. Fine, give back the tax we paid that goes towards the state education system that we have opted out of. At the moment the state is a parasite on those in INDEPENDENT education. As far as charitable status is concerned, I never saw what Brantwood did for the WIDER community. They offered no bursaries themselves and never invited anyone in to make use of the facilities. However, this is for the Charities Commission to oversee.

Yeah, I know that. I didn't want to have to go around every post box in the city to read the collection times. I thought someone on the forum might have some helpful information.

We were on a lower than average income and our daughter went to Brantwood. We all make up our own minds about how we live our lives. For your flippin information our daughter has special needs that your oh so cuddly and fluffy state schools REFUSED to help with. The only place we could send our daughter to get a decent education was the private sector. We went without ANY luxuries and even borrowed. The reality that you need to face is that everyone else in the world isn't you.

Does anyone know where the latest post collections are in the S10 S11 area? Some post boxes used to be cleared at 7 or 7:30 pm but now the latest, even at the post offices, is 5 to 5:30 ish. Any ideas?

Yes, I'm afraid that neither the school's governors nor the bank are coming out of this looking very good. The former over stretched themselves for many years and the latter is either taking advantage or being over cautious. From my point of view I would actually say that the RBS is doing a bit of both. However, although the accounts of the charitable trust are readily available those of the limited company are not, and who knows what state they're in. For example, is there only one mortgage on the property? Have RBS taken in to consideration the value of the property or the value of the estate? Two different things. (added as after thought)...However, which is running the school - the charity or the company? As a company I believe they are legally required to inform their clients when they become insolvent. Surely this happened SEVERAL years ago. Why were they only looking in to an orderly closure in December 2009, and why have the customers only been told now, and why were they still offering places to girls in January?

Brantwood used to be a wonderful learning community. Uptake went up with Mrs. Barnes but the changes she tried to make were unpopular with the governors. Mrs. Timmins basically had to do a holding job while the governors made cut backs. At this point girls started leaving. What the school have stated in todays Star is a real desperate PR attempt. This isn't sudden news for anyone. We took our daughter out when the current headmistress started ruining the school. We had a look at their finances. It makes scary reading (for a school), with some questionable figures. Since then they've even had to close down some year classes as they weren't getting any new intake. You have to run a private school as a business, but you can't treat the children and parents as commodities. You have to CARE about them. A sad decline over many years.

I think the girls have been offered places at the Girls High School. Still, a bit tough on those coming up to exams, a change of school half way through a term.

Ahhhh! So it was because they weren't .... etc.

I sat in a pub in London yesterday for 2 hours. I had my cap on as I was sat near the door and there was a cold breeze. I bought drinks, chatted with staff and friends, ate a meal. Maybe they figured I wasn't a terrorist. Or maybe they saw where I was sat and decided to accommodate my situation. Or maybe they thought I'd been brought up badly and was just plain rude. Any which way at no point was I asked to remove my hat. The alternative view may be that they just aren't gits that apply half wit rules with no meaning.

Bad management, unpopular headmistress, poor marketing (their adverts in the Sheffield press had spelling and grammar mistakes in them - great one for a school!). Girls were already leaving in droves, which must have pushed them over the edge. The sad thing for the kids is that the previous headmistress had ideas and vision and was sacked because the Chair of the governors wouldn't allow the necessary changes. The chair was eventually pushed out, but too late.

Thanks. I'll look in to this.

I've got a Honda 400 4 Motorcyle that I want to restore. I Bought it about 20 yaers ago, stripped it down to start this, life intervened and it's sat around since then. Is there a Honda motorcycle specialist in Sheffield that can help me out? I don't just need a parts supplier, I would like someone (or a garage) who knows about old bikes, particularly Hondas. Thanks for any help.