Chris

Fir Vale - seemed to be just behind my office on Rushby Street.

We've elected Taliban councillors?

On the contrary, please do start - I'm curious. So long as we stick to 'climate change and the third world' (plenty of other places to talk about 'everything else and the third world').

Presumably a consequence of all the polar ice melting into it?

Do you support the idea of selling the parkland?

If your boiler has a pilot flame (typically older boilers) I think it may be able to come on independent of any electricity supply. I think our old boiler didn't require electricity to light either the pilot light or the boiler itself, but without having the controls on the timer I wouldn't have known how to get it to turn on. If you have a boiler with a hot water tank you should be OK for hot water during power cuts. Just don't use it all at once as chances are the boiler won't be able to refill it during the power cut. And while the power is on don't use the immersion heater to keep the water hot - they're power hungry and will just make power cuts more likely. If you have a combination boiler then you won't have a hot water tank - if our power is still out when we go home we're going to have to just sit it out for that reason.

That annoys me in milk-the-tourist kind of places too. However, we're fortunate that, for the most part, the Millennium Galleries are free. Bearing that in mind a glossy brochure of well-taken photos is probably quite good value.

I'd imagine part of the issue is how difficult it is to stop people from taking photos. Museums and galleries don't want you to photograph some exhibits for the reasons above (copyright and the damage flashguns can cause). However, there's no way you're going to explain to people what can and can't be photographed as you're bound to get some people trying to photograph one thing because they can see someone else allowed to photograph something else. It is far more practical to just have a blanket ban, especially in cases where some exhibits can be damaged by flash. I think the person working in the museum was probably being quite lenient and allowing you to take photos if you're not influencing others, but there's only so long people can turn a blind eye. Weston Park Museum seems to have a fairly flexible attitude towards photography. Anything delicate or copyright seems to be grouped together in one gallery, so with the exception of that gallery I think you're allowed to photograph anything. This should make managing the museum easier and should make it easier to teach kids a bit of museum etiquette. Limiting the 'no photos' area to a gallery of a certain nature should help demonstrate why you can't take photos in most galleries. I don't think kids would learn anything from a blanket photo ban over the whole museum. I think quite a few museums and galleries probably have certain non-gallery spaces which you're allowed to photograph. Am I right in thinking the cutlery dragon in the Millenium Galleries is in the corridor? That's still technically part of the museum, just not in the exhibition rooms so I guess you're allowed to take photos. I never understand why museums, galleries, stately homes etc. don't wise up to people wanting to take photos and make it clear in guide books etc. what postcards are available of what you're looking at. Extortionately priced places like Chatsworth and Blenheim ought to offer a few postcards for free as part of the entry price. It'd save museum staff a lot of hassle, would give people a better experience visiting somewhere as they'd be able to enjoy just being there rather than feeling they have to surreptitiously take photos (or be jostled out of the way by someone else trying to do the same) and the photos would be heaps better than any that people can manage on their own camera.

Can't say I've noticed a problem - I don't live there but am only around the corner so have been through and into Upperthorpe on a regular basis. Is it somewhere in particular that they congregate? Perhaps I don't know the area as well as I thought I did.

Along with all the other 'essential' services in the city (ie., Howden House, post-offices and banks) it would be helpful if the info centre actually opened at useful times. If they opened earlier than 10 and closed later than 4 they might have the interest required to keep them viable. On the subject of the Yorkshire Grey redevelopment - yes that has slipped quietly through the net that one, hasn't it? The car park proposed will look utterly out of place in that location. It's presence is deeply ironic considering the council's supposed plans to limit car access to the centre. The hotel isn't much better - it enlivens (developer's word) Tudor Square with ... a car park ramp, and the Peace Gardens with ... a taxi rank. I wouldn't be surprised if the new St Paul's Square will have a decorative H in it's centre.

I remember Redgates but don't remember buying much there - Coles' Lego was cheaper and I wasn't interested in much else as a kid You can all blame me for it closing down... :oops:

I would think moving Coles would improve the Moor - it's the biggest car park in the centre and the new location of this will be at the top of the Moor. While it won't force people through the Moor people coming into the city having parked in Coles will be closer to the Moor than Fargate. Once that happens redevelopment is likely to follow as developers see the benefits of developing close to the car park. The alterations to Charter Row will help this as there'll be less of a barrier between the new Barkers Pool development, Pinstone Street and the Moor. I'm less sure how keen the stallholders in the market will feel about redevelopment, though! Sadly there seems to be something of a mentality in Sheffield (and in the UK as a whole) that a city-centre market can't be part of a quality shopping development.