Bilge

If you own the whole yard behind the 2 houses you could decide to define where the access to those 2 back doors goes. It doesn't have to include the whole of your garden. You could probably do this in an informal friendly way without involving lawyers. Once some fences and paths are in place they gradually become the de facto access as long as they don't contravene whatever the deeds say. But maybe via lawyers is the better way. You would need to take account of where the bins go and if there are any old WCs at the bottom of the garden etc. Some years ago we lived in a similar situation except our house was like your neighbours. So, like the other outer house of the 4, we just put a fence up along our boundary and made our garden private. The inner 2 retained the problem of neighbours like us walking across to get to their back doors. No-one needed to go on our garden anyway (though visitors sometimes strayed across), but we needed access across the back of the neighbour's house to get to our back door. It struck me that if I was the neighbour I would rather the access went via the shared path from the ginnel to the bottom of the garden and then across rather than straight across in front of the kitchen window. That would give me (as the neighbour, or you in in your position) a self-contained private garden which I didn't have before, at the price of a slightly longer walk. In our case that house was a rental and the landlord wasn't that bothered about sorting out the garden boundaries for his tenants. I didn't have to do that, so I went for the simple option. There are issues like this across the backs of thousands of Sheffield houses. It's rarely reflected in the house prices so you have to think carefully how to make it work for you. When I was looking for a terrace I knew I wanted an outer one with an offshot and a garden I could fence off completely. So you have 2 options for a change. You could (a) fence off your garden, with a gate for you to access it, as they don't need that bit for accessing their garden, or (b) make the rear access to both houses via the bottom of the garden, removing the brick bed or whatever in the process, with paths back to the back doors. You could take on most of the cost for whatever fencing etc is needed in order to sell the idea to them.

Could you create a shared right of way from the alleyway to the bottom of your gardens rather than the current arrangement near the back doors? Then both of the gardens could be fenced off.

Is the back shared by 4 houses or just 2? The neighbours won't have access to the whole of your garden surely? Is it just the bit they need to access their back door? You could fence off the garden from the houses. So the path to their back door and yours is clear, but you and they have to go through a gate to get to the garden(s).

I'd recommend James at Spit-Fireplaces. Really nice bloke, does a quality job and can advise on anything fireplace-related: http://www.spitfireplaces.co.uk/

And it turns out life goes on. You can buy stuff elsewhere.

Not a great pub crawl these days is it? It hasn't been for many a year. Tavern - poor but at least it has the football on TV if you're desperate Sportsman - average 'family pub' but the beer is OK Indian Restaurant bar - hmmm, good luck to them but I can't see that succeeding Plough - soon to be demolished An Itchy Pig/Ale Club or similar micropub would inject some life and would do well but would never be allowed.

Here's an idea: let's decide as a modern, intelligent, wealthy society how we want bus services to help all of us get around our country and combat climate change at the same time. Then we can decide as a society who owns and controls such services, then decide how to construct a tax system to pay for it. Alternatively, we can continue giving the big bus companies loads of money and they can carry on taking the **** out of us all for years on end while the ice caps melt.

Giving money (via the DEC) is probably the best thing we can do: https://www.dec.org.uk/

Thanks for all the effort you put into responding to public transport questions on here Annie. I fear your helpful information and reasoning is lost on many but don't let that put you off. To have decent bus services we've got to have plenty of slack in the system. It can't be just whatever basic poverty level crappy service that 'pays' the big useless bus companies to provide. We can't seriously make buses a real alternative to cars unless they are reliable, frequent. green and quick. Trams and trains are not going to provide the answers for most people, buses will. We need to do much much better at making buses an attractive and efficient option for all. At the moment in the UK the bus services are mostly very poor indeed and nowhere near what the country needs.

No it's St Matthews C of E Church, Carver St.

I don't see a problem with the buildings in that picture. The church has been retained despite there being little demand for churches these days (I think this one is still functioning, but with the Art House as a kind of add-on annexe thing). Other buildings have grown up around it. What's the problem? The city centre is full of such juxtapositions. That's one of the reasons it's interesting.

"Heavy snow showers" is the BBC forecast for now and the afternoon. Anyone seen any yet?

There was also the Devonshire Arms opposite Wards Brewery.

The beer option is Estrella, so yes, it does sell lager. The front door and all woodwork has been decorated with a blowlamp. I thought the front door was a temporary one at first (possibly made of OSB like on a building site). The windows have a criss-cross pattern formed from steel bars used to reinforce concrete. Not many customers that I could see on opening night but a fairly soft launch I guess. Overall, it's good to see a new bar open in Broomhill. I hope it succeeds and brings something different that people want.

And even when/if it does, how often will it have 5k people in it? Answer (a) or (b): (a) 8 hours a day every day of the week for 12 months a year. (b) very occasionally, possibly never, and not for very long anyway.