RustyBucket

First buses can't run in snow (Sheffield is too hilly)....come to think of it they are not too clever when it rains (roads too slippy) or when it's sunny (it gets in the drivers eyes and makes 'em run late).

Very good point Bago...would he disown his own daughter because of her sexuality? My friends are back up in a couple of weeks for a family "do"...but they have said that this time they will stick to having a drink in places where they feel safe and welcome i.e where they are accepted for who and what they are (if they can find such a bar in Sheffield).

The Sheffield she remembers was city of genuine, open and welcoming down to earth folk who looked out for their own and welcomed those unfortunate enough to live anywhere other than Sheffield....(and no she is not a 100 years old....she's 32)

Sadly it was the customers who were from the stone age.....the staff apparently were brilliant

Post No 8 in this thread expresses shock at the thought of a toilet downstairs...we are just about to be done (literally) as part of the Decent Homes Initiative and guess what......our "new decent home" will still have the same toilet and bathroom downstairs on the side of the kitchen that was put there in 1935. Perhaps in the next round of funding Sheffield Homes will offer to fit us a "privvy" at the top of the garden and really bring us up to date.....

You wouldn't be the Pauline whose surname began with L and who every boy in school fancied like mad by any chance???

An old school friend who moved down to London a few years ago was in Sheffield for a few days last week. Ever proud of the city of her birth and it's citizens, she brought her long term girlfriend with her and was amazed and apalled by some of the narrow minded bigotry they encountered during their stay. I dread to think of the impression of our city that these two attractive and succesful career women have taken away with them after being spat at in the street (I thought spitting in the street was an offence...not holding hands with your partner) and being told in no uncertain terms by the male customers of one city centre bar that "we don't want any f*****g dykes in here". We may live in a city that is moving to become a modern city for the 21st century....but it makes you wonder if the same can be said for some (thankfully a minority) of it's citizens.

I'm a full time pimp

I attended the old Greystones Sec Mod on Greystones Rd until 1966 (they think it is all over..it is now). Though lost in the mists of time and old age, I remember it as a very happy school. Anyone recall Mr Hyde who deserved a medal for trying to get us interested in Maths...or Miss Hornsby the French teacher and my first serious crush...ah happy days indeed.

I believe that the comments received so far are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to public housing in Sheffield and the Council's attitude towards it and their tenants. In January, my central heating boiler failed at 4'o'clock on a Friday evening. It was freezing outside and as it is a cobi boiler, it also is our only source of hot water. This system was installed when we moved in at our expense as the Council refused to modernise the property. I n return for 3 quid a week the Council offered to maintain and service the system after we had paid the £1400 to put it in. When it failed, we were informed that heating and hot water were not considered a priority and it could be up to 14 days before an engineer could call. The only practical advice from the Council was that we could boil up water in pans in order to bath our our young child. It was 6 WEEKS before the Council called to check the heating. By then we had signed up with British Gas and told the Council where they could stick their service agreement. This illustrates the Council's attitude to tenants, we are regarding as second class citizens and because we ask for a decent, damp free, sound home in which to raise our families we are viewed as being a nuisance and unreasonable. By the way, any member of the Forum who would like to attend a birthday party for a Council's repair job ticket, I have outstanding one for a dangerous light fitting that will be a year old next week.

Is Sheffield Council's housing stock the worst in Britain? It seems that Sheffield has lost any committment to the idea of providing decent social housing and has abandoned it's tenants to survive in run down, neglected homes. I would be grateful to hear what other council tenants feel about the standard of the homes that they are now going to be charged a "fair" rent for under the new system for setting rents.

Sheffield City Council have released their new system for working out rents for council housing. This new system is aimed at making rents "fair" regardless of the social landlord eg renst roughly the same whether you are a council tenant or a housing association teneant etc. Does this new system also mean that Sheffield City Council are now going to spend the same amount of money as Housing Associations spend on improving, modernising and repairing their properties? There is no comparison between the standard of most council housing stock and that provided by the various Housing associations in the city. Unless the council are prepared to improve the standard and quality of their housing, it would be a disgrace for their tenants to be charged the same rent as a tenant in an equivalent decent, well maintained, modern housing association property.

So they were 17th century Council tenants then......

Some time ago now, I was burgled twice within three weeks. The police officer who attended on both occasions was sympathetic and helpful...he told what pub to go to in order to buy back my stolen property. The subsequent visit by a Crime Prevention Officer was extremely useful, his advice that we should not secure our belongings as " they only cause more damage" was particularly enlightening. We should not really be blaming South Yorkshire Police of course. They have to work to the guidelines they receieve from above and when the Lord Chancellor says that burglars should not go to prison, we can hardly expect the Police to expend resources on actually catching burglars. The problems do not come from Snig Hill, they come from Whitehall and the Police are having to respond to the goal posts being moved on almost a daily basis.

I may have missed the point, but what is funny about unemployment? I am assuming that you work for The Employment Service when you write about looking after "doleys"? Should a civil servant with a career and a well sorted pension really be referring to the unemployed as "doleys". They will always be wasters who do not want to work, but the majority of the people you claim to be looking after have already lost their jobs and their dignity, so providing you and your colleagues with a daily laugh is hardly likely to be the job they are after.