Buble Fan

I noticed a sign outside this pub as I drove past the other day stating that they have sing-along nights on Wednesday and Saturday. I assume by this that it's the type of night where people get up to sing with one or more musicians playing the music. Does anyone know what the musician(s) line up is - and whether he / she / they read music?

I can't understand for the life of me why events like this aren't organised to take place in the countryside around the edges of the city. Why clog up the main arterial routes in and out of the city centre. Absolute madness!

His manner in dealing with officers, when he was Leader of the Council, left a great deal to be desired. Came across as a bully and also criticised professional officers via the media. Don't know if his attitude and approach has changed since then, but it will be interesting to see how he comes across in the debating chamber.

The planning permission states A1 and A3 use. According to what I can find - A1 is retail shops and A3 is food and drink. Could be pretty well anything then.

back up and running since about 8.15 p.m.

We have this service via Origin. We sought it out because our ordinary broadband was so poor as we live a long way from the telephone exchange. We now have excellent internet connection and a phone service via VOIP. What is so baffling is that there has been very little marketing by SYDR or by the 3 or 4 companies who deliver the services. I think one of the original companies went bust or stopped providing the service some time ago. If they had advertised the services more effectively - radio / tv / posters around the area, I am sure they would have picked up many many more customers which would have made it commercially viable. I just hope the transfer of our service to BT or whoever goes smoothly.

If anyone can be bothered to look, there is a 68 page Masterplan document on the Council's website. It gives detailed information about a range of different issues, not only the commercial aspects of the city centre, but also planned housing developments, transport improvements etc. If it can be delivered, the city centre will be a very different place in the next 10 years or so. ... but carry on sniping all you cynics if it makes you happy.

The figures actually support what Planner 1 was saying. The income from permits and PCNs (i.e. enforcement) do NOT cover the expenditure. PCN Income - 206,760 Permit Income 17,696 Total £224,456 Expenditure £260,605 Net loss without pay & display income - £36,149 Maths not your strong point then Litotes???

or perhaps not:- extract from Notice 700 The VAT Guide (May 2012) - paragraph 19.7.5 Other circumstances If you are treating as input tax the VAT on goods and services supplied to you: (a) the invoice can be made out to an employee for subsistence expenses mentioned in paragraph 12.1 and for petrol (see Notice 700/64 Motoring expenses): and (b) you do not need a VAT invoice for some types of supply if your total expenditure for each taxable supply was £25 or less (including VAT). You must be sure that the supplier was registered for VAT. If in doubt, check with our VAT Helpline. This applies to: Phone calls from public or private phones Purchases through coin operated machines Car-park charges (on street parking meters are not subject to VAT); and A single or return toll charge paid at the tollbooth.

Pretty obvious I would have thought, what service a pay & display ticket has provided. The date and time of supply is shown by the time of purchase and the expiry date and time. Address could easily be found by anyone with a modicum of sense. So what's the problem? Or are you just being your usual pedantic self?

Extract from VAT Rules:- If a business mainly sells to the public, it does not need to issue a VAT invoice unless the customer requests one. Where the supply of the good/service is valued at less than £100 including VAT a less detailed invoice can be issued.

The procedure is as follows: There is an appeals procedure where the recipient of the PCN can contact the Council and make an informal challenge. If this is done within 14 days of receiving the PCN, this preserves the right to pay the discounted amount, if the challenge is rejected. If the challenge is rejected and the recipient wants to take it to the next stage of the appeals process, he / she must await the issue of a Notice To Owner by the Council. At this stage the charge has reverted to its full amount. (Depending on the type contravention - this will be £70 or £50 - or £60 if it's a bus lane PCN). When the Notice To Owner is issued, the owner of the vehicle can make a formal representation to the Council. If this is rejected, the full amount of the penalty charge is payable, or there is an opportunity to appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. There is an option to have a written decision, a telephone hearing or a personal hearing. If the appeal is rejected by the Adjudicator, the full charge is payable. If the recipient of the PCN does not pay the charge (assuming they either don't appeal or any appeal is rejected ), a Charge Certificate will be issued. This increases the amount due by 50%. If this amount is still not paid, the Council will register the debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC). This is located at the Northampton County Court. It is only a debt processing centre - there is no opportunity to appear in Court to defend yourself against the PCN. That opportunity is via the appeals process described above. Once the debt is registered at the TEC, the Council will issue an Order For Recovery which is a request for payment of the full amount owing as above, plus the debt registration fee of £7 . So a £70 PCN will have increased to £105 at the Charge Certificate stage and the debt registration fee of £7 will be added, making a total debt of £112. If the debt is still not paid it will be referred to the bailiffs and they will then attempt to recover the debt. They have the right to clamp and remove the vehicle concerned, if the debtor refuses to settle the debt. They can and will remove the vehicle, but frequently they will clamp the vehicle to "persuade" the debtor to pay. Sometimes this is the only was that some debtors will take the bailiffs' action seriously. In answer to the OP - it's much less hassle to pay the PCN whilst it is still within the 14 day discount period. Unless of course you genuinely believe that there is a reason why it was incorrectly issued - in which case, use the appeals procedure described above.

The Council does provide free parking for Blue Badge Holders and without time limit. A commercial organisation (NCP in this case) has no obligation to provide free parking. Why should they? Having a walking disability is not generally an issue about money - it's to do with needing to park close to the ultimate destination where the disabled person needs to get to. Many Blue Badge holders receive additional benefits such as attendance allowance which are meant to help with costs such as these. If the OP doesn't want to pay for parking then he / she should use the Council provided free parking.

It really is a mystery to me why anyone would think it's acceptable to park illegally. The restrictions are in place to keep traffic moving or for safety reasons - so why do people like Penistone 999 seem to think that legitimate enforcement of the restrictions is a bad thing? If everyone parked legally, we would all be safer on the roads and traffic congestion would not be as bad as it is currently. People who park illegally are either not bright enough to check the signs and lines, or they park illegally deliberately. Either way, it is not acceptable. There is a simple way to avoid having to pay a penalty charge - park legally. Then the debate about why the camera car is being introduced would be pointless. Those people who continue to park illegally will be hit in the pocket. Those who don't have nothing to worry about.

Parking in a manner which prevents you from getting out of your own driveway is obstruction. The police can and should issue a Fixed Penalty Notice to any offending vehicle. If this happens again and you can demonstrate that the vehicle is preventing you from getting you vehicle out of your driveway, ring 101 and specifically request that a police officer attends to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice for obstruction.

The Parking Services vehicles have an exemption against all parking restrictions whilst they are being used to carry out enforcement.

Can anyone advise regarding i-pod docking stations which are becoming common in audio equipment. My MP3 player is a Samsung rather than an i-Pod and I am wondering whether its fitting will connect to an i-pod docking station. I have looked at pictures of the i-pod connection on Google images and they do look similar. Any information would be gratefully received.

I made enquiries at Street Force and apparently there is some quite serious subsidence on the ground on the valley side of the inbound side of the road. The latest information on the Council website says that the work will take until November to complete. There may be land ownership issues too, as the land on the other side of the wall is possibly not adopted land and may be in private ownership. I would imagine this could complicate the liability issues around any land which has subsided.

The appeals process does not involve a court. Council parking enforcement is a civil process. The letter from the Council will have explained your options which are usually as follows:- 1. if your original informal challenge was received within14 days of the ticket being issued, they will have re-offered you the opportunity to pay at the discounted amount within 14 days of receiving their reply. 2. If you wish to follow the next stage of the appeals process, you can await a Notice To Owner (assuming you are the registered keeper of the car). When you receive the Notice To Owner, you can make a representation using the form on the back of the Notice To Owner. If they reject your representation, they will request payment of the full penalty charge but you will also have the option of appealing to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. You will receive an appeal form with the rejection notice. 3. If you appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and the appeal is dismissed, you will have to pay the full penalty charge (not the discounted amount). Also the tribunal does not have powers to use discretion (whereas the Council does). An appeal can only be allowed on the statutory grounds. (if the adjudicator decides the contravention did not happen, or that you were not the owner of the car at the time of the contravention, or if the signs / lines were not in order or the Traffic Regulation Order was incorrect).

I have completed an enquiry form on the Council (Street Force) web page and asked them to review this junction with a view to removing the first two trees on the city side of this junction. I use this route daily in both directions and I believe that the view of Rivelin Valley Road from Rails Road (coming from the Manchester Road end) would be significantly improved if the first two trees were removed. It would be a pity from an environmental point of view, but surely lives are more important.

As Sky subscribers will know, they insist on their receivers being connected to a land line. It's a mystery to me why they insist on this, except they want to spy on you to make sure you are using your card in the correct box and not lending it to someone else. Anyway the point of this thread is to ask if anyone has had the new Fibre Optic Broadband and VOIP telephone line installed (South Yorkshire Digital region via one of the 3 suppliers which provide this new service) and if they have been able to connect the Sky boxes via VOIP? Origin (the company I am considering) seemed to doubt that Sky's telephone connection will work via VOIP as opposed to a traditional land line. Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

Care to specify where? If you don't wish to do so on this forum, you could e-mail transport@sheffield.gov.uk and let themknow

.... or why not look at the signs and park legally. No need to have the worry of getting a ticket in the first place.

There is one overwhelming reason why the car parks are relatively empty yet some nearby private sector car parks are full and that is that the Council's strategy is to discourage commuter parking and this is reflected by the maximum-stay period of 6 hours in the most centrally located car parks. As a result, most commuters use private sector car parks, many of which were in place before the Council started to introduce planning conditions which oblige the operators to have a tariff which encourages short stay and discourages long stay parking. I would also add however that recently the Council agreed to relax these planning conditions on some recently built car parks during the current recession. At present the Council has retained it's tariff strategy on its own car parks, but it may be reviewed if the current downturn continues. It would be difficult to assess how any reduction in charges would affect overall income. If demand increased significantly as a result of a reduction in charges, the Council could benefit, but there is no guarantee that this would be the case.

Yet again - there are no pay & display machines manufactured which give change. Only Pay On Foot machines give change and they are only suitable for large car parks because of their cost. To set up a Pay On Foot car park costs vastly more because there also has to be automated ticket issuing machines, entry and exit barriers and ticket reading machines at the exit. Unless the car park is at least 300 spaces it isn't commercially viable to invest the required amount of money. Also pay on foot is not suitable at all for on-street parking. Hence the Council uses Pay & Display and I say again - there are no machines manufactured which give change.