SheffieldForum

First South Yorkshire are updating their bus livery — buses across the region will soon start to look like this:

So, imagine someone is visiting the city from afar... you've been tasked with showing them around to show off the very best of the city. Where do you take them? What do you show them? What do you do? Museums? Theatres? Pubs/Bars? Parks/Greenspace? Shopping? Leisure? Experiences? Food? Architecture? Etc, etc... What are the best things to see and do in the city? Let's try to make a comprehensive list of great things to do in Sheffield! (Positive answers please... 🙄)

Yes, because that new Arena in Manchester has gone well so far...

Point-of-order - Tom Hunt wasn't 'Parachuted In' - he has lived in Sheffield for more than 15 years. I know he has worked at the Uni for quite a while and is also the Chair of Trustees at Zest, which seems to have thrived since he joined the board. He was quick to be elected the new leader though, I grant you that.

Not yet, but lots of movement. Loads of people on the webcam right now and expecting something any minute!

A new interactive map which allows everyone to help monitor and track the fascinating behaviour of swifts is now live. Swifts are facing a grave threat. Red listed as a bird of conservation concern in 2021, their numbers have been declining due to habitat loss, modern construction practices and scarcity/loss of nesting sites. Swifts migrate to the UK from Africa in early May for around three months of the year to breed before returning again. They spend almost all of their lives on the wing, but when they need nesting sites in our houses and buildings, they are finding it increasingly difficult to find safe havens to breed and raise their young. Action is needed to protect these incredible birds and ensure their survival. The Sheffield Swift Map is a tool anyone can use for local swift conservation. It displays the distribution of records of screaming parties and close roof passes associated with swift breeding activity, swift boxes and bricks installed through local conservation activity, confirmed natural swift nest sites and the areas of Sheffield covered by local swift groups. It has been developed by Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust working with partners with an interest in, and who hold data about swifts, these are Sheffield Swift Network, RSPB Swift Mapper Project, Sheffield Council Biological Records Centre and Sheffield Bird Study Group. Dr Nicky Rivers, Advocacy and Development Manager at Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust explains: “Our hope is that this resource and all the information it presents will inspire people to get involved with their local swift group or even start their own! Individuals, local schools and businesses can all use the map to identify good areas to install boxes or bricks for swifts and submit their own records of boxes/bricks, nests and sightings. “Longer term, we plan to use the map and data to determine and illustrate what impact local swift conservation work is having in helping to reverse the species’ decline in Sheffield.” Chet Cunago from Sheffield Swift Network says: “We have been working hard to increase the nesting provision for swifts in the city and it is great to see all this data brought together in one place. There are loads of actions people can take for swifts. They can fit swift bricks into their homes which will be in the building for life, fit long lasting UPVC swift boxes, or help us find swifts whilst we’ve still a handful of colonies clinging on in Sheffield. If we don’t know where they are, we can’t protect them. Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us at https://sheffieldswiftnetwork.org/ or email us [email protected]” Using the map and adding your swift sightings or recording the location of your swift boxes is simple. Just visit wildsheffield.com/swift-city/#swift-map to see what’s happening for swifts near you! To tell us about a swift group in Sheffield not currently represented on the map, please email us at [email protected]. View the map here: https://www.wildsheffield.com/swift-city/#swift-map

It was tongue-in-cheek and not aimed at you. 😉

Indeed. Just like someone taking over a local online forum should be given time too... 🤣

They were just examples to source my wider point that demolition is generally frowned upon these days. Do buildings get demolished still? Of course. But it should be a last resort generally. The demolition process can account for over half of the entire carbon footprint of the lifetime of a building. A lot of your examples of buildings being demolished nearby were planned well before the current thoughts and guidance on the subject.

More announcements ofr Cambridge Street Collective: House of Habesha (Eritrean & Etheopian) Michies Pizzeria (Detriot style pizza) UNIT (Burgers) Cambridge Street Collective will open in four weeks time!

Some sources: MPs say building demolitions must be reduced (May 2022): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61580979 Don't demolish old buildings, urge architects (August 2020): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53642581 Construction companies told to stop demolishing old buildings ( September 2021): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58667328 The carbon footprint of retrofit vs rebuild (March 2023): https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/london-assembly-press-releases/carbon-footprint-retrofit-vs-rebuild

The Tribune have today done a long-read on the imminent and sad closure of Theatre Deli. It seems the space (it’s third since opening in the city) increasingly struggled as the funding landscape has changed and bills have soared. Here’s a snippet: “The hope, he says, was that the theatre’s application for funding from Arts Council England would be granted by March. It was not. Theatre Deli then came back to CADS with a proposal which would allow them to stay put, which [Dan Butlins, of Landlord CADS] says entailed a significant year-long rent reduction, but sadly the other charity had to decline. “It wasn’t affordable for us,” he says. “If we accepted what they proposed it could have put [CADS] at risk, so they could have ended up without the space anyway.” Perhaps, he muses, they could have managed it two years ago but, more recently, CADS has had its fight with the owner of the Abbeydale Picture House draining its resources. “We couldn’t take the risk.” “But he doesn’t view it as any fault of Theatre Deli that they were unable to make the numbers add up. “We’re noticing it a lot with our studio holders — we’ve got 40-odd across our four buildings and we’re starting to see people leaving or finding it difficult to pay.” Doing what Theatre Deli does without regular funding or wealthy patrons has never been easy, and with the price of everything rising (particularly the energy bills needed to keep the stage lights on), it’s only getting harder. “They’re responsible for their own bills and, in some of our other buildings, bills have tripled.” […] “In Theatre Deli’s case, the core of that valuable but not financially profitable work is nurturing budding artists — those who are not big enough to attract the notice of a larger organisation like Sheffield Theatres, but who might one day be able to, with the right support. This is the “talent pipeline” to which executive producer Singh refers. “It’s really difficult to get your work staged sometimes, but Theatre Deli was perfect for those people who were starting out. That’s what is the saddest part of this, the fact that will disappear,” she says. “How are the next generation of thought-provoking, cutting edge companies and artists going to be able to develop if they don’t have the space, freedom and support to do that?”” As always, the full thing is available to read on The Tribune (which is very much worth subscribing to as their long-read journalism is top-class and pretty much the only place to get it in the city now!). What do you think? Is the closure of Theatre Deli sad? Should the Arts Council and the City Council have supported it more? Is supporting young arts talent not important? Have your say…

The ‘radio’ rental is now an app on their phone and like most apps it charges a percentage of a sale — in this case a fare. There’s a lot of debate over what a fair percentage is for an app provider to charge for access to use its service — most apps and app stores for example charge between 10-30% of a sale. I’m not sure what the competition is like in the rideshare space though, or what Veezu’s 12-35% sliding scale works on (someone elsewhere suggested it gets cheaper the more successful trips a driver did).

Actually, yes - delayed. As per The Star: “The new Radisson Blu hotel on Pinstone Street, opposite the Peace Gardens, was scheduled to welcome its first guests on June 10. “Booking was due to open during the week commencing March 25, yet nearly a month later it is still not yet possible to book a room at the upmarket 154-bedroom hotel. “Now Sheffield City Council has confirmed that the opening has been pushed back slightly. “Sean McClean, the council’s director of regeneration and development, said: “The addition of the new Radisson Blu Hotel to our Heart of the City II development will add another international name to Sheffield city centre. “We have taken the decision to reschedule the opening of the hotel until later in June to ensure we can deliver the best quality venue in collaboration with our partners Radisson Hotel Group and Queensberry. We will issue a further update soon and expect booking to open in the coming weeks.””

They said bookings would open ‘next week’ a few weeks ago but that hasn’t happened. Seems less likely they’ll open on 10th June as announced if they haven’t opened bookings to fill it with just a few weeks to go perhaps?

For balance, I believe it changed to a sliding scale — from 12% to 35%. Not sure what times or circumstances trigger the slide though? Is the 35% much more common than the 12% end? Does it balance out to near the original 20% in the end? Is it based on earnings or distances or what?

There’s been a lot of headlines and comments about the Snooker and specifically the World Championships being held at The Crucible. For balance, here are some comments from players about returning to Sheffield (from before the championship started this year): Shaun Murphy said: “It’s iconic in the world of snooker. If you stop someone in the middle of Beijing and ask them to say something about Sheffield they'll say snooker. “It’s just synonymous. The two things go together. It used to be steel, its now snooker, and the Crucible Theatre is right behind that. “We always say it’s great to play in arenas that were designed for performance… this has been designed specifically for it and the atmosphere out there is better because of that.” "I've been lucky enough to speak to a number of actors and actresses over the years who come here and play great shows themselves and Shakespearean shows and they all say the same thing – The Crucible Theatre is one of the best theatres in the country and for us it’s obviously home. “It’s the home of snooker. We're fast approaching the 50th year of the World Championships here and it’s very special." “I'm very aware visibly to the naked eye just how much the city continues to change. Almost on a yearly basis there is a new building gone up or something has been cleaned up - that building’s gone or whatever, and it’s great to see the city continue to grow and expand… it’s got that vibrancy, it’s got that culture, it’s great on the music scene, it’s very arty, it’s very creative and we're very proud as a sport to have this as our synonymous home around the world. Snooker and Sheffield go together hand in glove.” Barry Hawkins said: “I've grown up watching the World Snooker Championships and the reason I started played snooker was watching Jimmy in the finals here and having his 147. It’s what inspired me to play snooker. All them memories and all of a sudden you're playing here yourself, it’s amazing. I never would have thought that years ago. All the history, the intimateness of the venue, all of them things add to the occasion and to the atmosphere.” Tom Ford said: “If there is a venue that anyone wants to get to and a venue that anybody wants to play it’s the Crucible Theatre, there is so much history here. That’s why everyone puts so much pressure on themselves in the qualifiers, everyone wants to get to play at the Crucible and it’s such a good feeling when you're out there… the atmosphere is just so good here.” There’s also a statement from Kate Josephs, Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council: “Sheffield is the home of snooker. The World Snooker Championships and Sheffield go hand in hand. “We know what the tournament means to the people of Sheffield, the players that come to compete and all the fans that watch the tournament across the globe. We have created a sporting legacy here in the city and we want that to continue for generations to come. “We are in regular contact with World Snooker Tour and meet with them before, during and after each tournament and we will continue doing so.”

Did trams never break down before?

Kebabs can be delicious, when done right. Charley’s on Infirmary Road are probably the best kebabs in Sheffield, I reckon.

I’m not saying Historic England listed the building due to the carbon issue.. I’m saying that came in 2022 after the decision to keep the building was already made (following consultation) in around 2021. My timeline could be wrong though, so I’m happy to be corrected. There was a bit of a controversy because the council had stated refurbishing the building was far more expensive (about £70million) than demolishing it I seem to remember, but it was kept because of the carbon cost and other issues. The compromise after the consultation was that the car park extension was going to be demolished and the main building kept, but the 2022 listing ended up including the car park so it now can’t easily be demolished.

Most private hires I see are generally double-badged anyway - both Veezu and Uber stickers on their cars and working for both simultaneously. A driver once told me he works both but will accept cash paying Veezu journeys as a priority over anything else.

My understanding is that it was listed (or protected in some way) following the consultation and decision to keep it due to the carbon cost. There was a campaign to get it listed in case the council was to demolish it in future. It added a complication I believe in that a compromise was going to be to demolish the structurally failing car park, but the campaign that saw the building get its protection ended up protecting the car park too.

Demolishing large buildings is largely seen as a huge no-no nowadays unless there’s no other choice. The carbon footprint of demolishing and rebuilding is huge — it is one of the reasons why the John Lewis building was retained.