lazarus

Turf, Robin, Woodbine, Gold Flake, Black Cat, Capstan Navy Cut, Players Weights. I was an apprentice smoker in the fifties.

Sounds like spitting the dummy out of the pram, can't get their own way so the race card is played.

Atkinsons isn't a furniture store as such and as you say it has a Department, it doesn't matter if it's fifty years since we had loads of cinemas they were knocked down. I would have thought the films you can see in your own home via Sky, Netfix etc. would also put pressure on cinemas.

Benefits, plain and simple.

I wouldnt call the shop on the corner of the Moor and Furnival Gate a furniture shop its a hire purchase shop that rips off the not so well off, as for the Butchers thats been mentioned, its all pre- packed and not a Butcher in sight. We had four great cinemas within a few hundred yards of each other and what happened to them? they were demolished only for more cinemas to be built.

It looks terrible, another ugly building being built, I've said for years that the Moor should be opened up to traffic, look around and see the benches that were put up over ten years ago they never get cleaned, the only water they see is when it rains, parts of the Moor dug up ( near Shoe Zone) paving blocks removed and Tarmac put down, it's the same on Fargate, as you walk up nearly the whole of the right hand side pavement has had paving slabs removed and Tarmac put down, just on the other side from Norfolk Row to Surrey Street, some agency dug up the pavement and made a pigs ear of putting them back, they ended up a tripping hazard, Amey did try to repair them but they too made a mess of it. The Moor is a concrete mess, seems crappy shops with crappy goods are taking it over, where's the quality furniture shops, clothe shops, butchers,etc. Open it up to traffic and erect some easy on the eye buildings.

I must have been asleep during their tenure as the litter problem has gradually got worse from the late seventies and it never had a "clean glitch", its all down to parenting, if children see parents throwing cans, cartons, paper etc. on the floor they follow suit, I was taught it was wrong and I passed this on to my children who never even dropped a sweet paper, that was given to us or it went in their pocket till they got home, now their children do the exact same. The litterers don't give a toss as nothing happens to them, let someone else pick it up, that's their mantra.

True, he had the charisma of a wet lettuce, he was a boy among men.

Went up Handsworth Road on Wednesday, just opposite the Cross Keys three trees have been taken down because of the roots pushing up the pavement, three foot tall stumps left, why? also the pushed up pavement is just as it was before so why take down the trees?

I have noticed that when he's interviewing a woman more often than not he injects a sexual innuendo. I agree about his laugh it's so false, I'm afraid he should be put out to pasture.

I'm not bashing the place, I've had the privilege of living here for fifty years, so I've seen its demise first hand and it's not the decent people who have brought the place down, it's the problem people and some of the immigrants that's done that but most of the immigrants are quiet and keep themselves to themselves. One male idiot who has been given a one bedroom flat, rides his bike in the early hours singing at the top of his voice, other tenants can be arguing from dusk to dawn keeping people awake, then blame neighbours for ringing 101. Scum!

Nobody should be allowed a property until they are over 21, pregnant girls should be the responsibility of the parents not the council, why should they get properties just because she couldn't say no. All prospective tenants should be vetted and their living conditions inspected, that's what happened to my wife and myself. In fact pre war you couldn't put your name on the housing list until you were married, what's wrong with that. Also the swing of more immigrants is I'm sure exceeding government rules, where I live the ratio is over 33%. All these things mentioned in all the posts have brought this estate to its knees sadly.

Dianne Luke sends me to sleep she's so boring.

When I get home from work I'm knackered so after a bath and evening meal it's getting on for nine o'clock to late for me to attend a meeting.

I'm sorry but the decline set in long before the severe cuts, properties were given to eighteen year olds, still children really, they had their mates in and just ran riot, also problem families were given homes thinking if they are with decent people, the problem family will follow suit, wrong, they didn't, in fact they got worse. They wrecked the houses by smashing internal doors, breaking window panels, throwing rubbish out of windows etc. The council operatives see all this happening as I do, but they don't act on what they've seen, "we'll wait until someone complains" nobody complains result very little is done.

I'm afraid it's all true, heavens above no! I hope free speech is still alive.

To true my friend, have you seen the "Clampetts" as they are named the Mother wears thick lens glasses, always the same grey tracksuit, both her adult children have never worked, like their parents. All the family have disability passes and you can see there's nothing wrong with the grown up children, don't work, wont work. They live down on Callow, its the sandwich shop that draws them with hot drinks and sandwiches, its time the dregs of humanity that infest Newfield Green shops want moving on.

I walk past Spotswood Close most days and I've noticed that a once well kept expanse of grass has been turned into a quagmire by what seems to be a new tenant playing football on the grass with children, the area isn't for ball games plus just a few yards away is a small area that has no restrictions on it. The adult ? I use that term very loosely, even puts football boots on to play, they've really ruined a beautiful area of grass without a thought. These are the type of idiots that infest the estate.

The litter problem is not always down to the tenants, the strong winds blew over blue bins and boxes scattering the rubbish everywhere, the estate teams are brilliant trying to stop a never ending stream of rubbish being thrown everywhere. The scum tenants and some of the immigrants that have been given properties on the Valley just don't care because they know it will be cleaned up for them. This once cracking estate has been pulled down by the druggies, burglars etc. that infest the estate and the housing don't help, they make rules but don't enforce them, dogs are kept by tenants despite them signing a legal document saying they agree not to have one and what happens they move in with their designer dog spreading its excrement everywhere. Curtains are never drawn back, Windows never cleaned, grassed areas turned into quagmires by cars parking on them and kids and grown ups playing football. There are still brilliant tenants on the valley but the council seem to be hell bent on forcing them out by putting, what I consider children, into properties and just causing mayhem.

I could never eat a full one of their luscious pies but now they've got so small a whole one is not a problem.

I'm afraid there is work and work, Bruce Forsyth has worked hard all his life but I wouldn't class singing and dancing as an eight or ten hour a day, five days a week job, his work is not as hard as someone working in the steel works or down the pit who's physical work takes its toll on the human body.

This is legal.

Met one of her hairdressers on holiday last year, if anything is dropped from the dining table, we would pick it up but her hairdresser said she calls for a flunky to pick it up, this behaviour is inbred within their family. My Mother was up at 04:30 every morning to get to work for 06:00, when snow prevented her catching a bus to work, she walked it all the way to Millhouses from the Manor, she had to wash dirty clothes on a Saturday as she worked Sunday morning too, she cleaned the house, prepared hot meals for us every day, seven of us. Nobody cooked food for us, fetched or carried for her or prepared her day for her. Her in the Palace doesn't do anything physical, she travels 1st class. People retire at 65 usually because their bodies are worn out with physical hard work and the work they had to do at home, just when did the Queen last scrub her front door step or wash Phillips clothes, clean the bathroom, these are jobs my Mother did besides working 45 hours per week.

The Editor James Mitchinson has now left for the Yorkshire Post, let's hope the new man, when he's appointed, does a better job.

If you want to go to the market you will go, no matter which side of town it's on. People from the Wybourn, Manor, Intake, Heeley etc. have always had to walk to the old market from Pond St, it's just lucky a bus can drop them on the doorstep now. It's still a badly planned and badly laid out market.