ECCOnoob

I understand there has been a lot of legal technicalities and squabbles between past and present owners of the club which caused some delays. From what I recall reading a while ago. Copthorne withdrew there branding licence because of some issue regarding payment from the old club owners and Hilton had showed an interest to attach their name however, the details of how much and how they get paid are still with the owners of the club. There also appears to be some new issue regarding the external cladding which is now deemed unsafe and needs replacements. I suspect all of which is contributing to a lot of delay and decision making on weather the money should be allocated. I guess if they have had a successful season and earn some bigger bucks next year, it may make the decision making about the hotel a bit easier. Personally, whilst I agree the hotel was quite nice, it never seemed to be really popular outside of match or stadium related events. It was on a bit of a limb close 'ish' to the city centre but not quite in it, to make it attractive to a casual business or weekend visitor. The area surrounding the hotel is not the greatest which I suspect was another reason that put people off - if they didn't really know Sheffield well leading them to pick somewhere more Central and surrounded by the facilities that they want to use.

The starting point will obviously be your bank. Most of them have a fee for using debit cards abroad and withdrawing cash from foreign ATMs. That is usually a percentage of the purchase or amount withdrawn however, virgin's website says if you're purchasing cash in euros. It remains free free for their credit card holders which is different to your debit card. Its set out here: https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/service/credit-card/messages/using-your-card-abroad.jsp I find one of the best things to do is get yourself a prepaid currency card from one of the exchange places like the Post Office, travelex or Sainsbury's travel money. You can load them up with a set amount of foreign currency and then use it just like a regular bank card abroad either by using a ATM or contactless with no fees. When you come home, any leftover for currency can then be withdrawn from the card back into cash sterling.

Hmmmm.. I wonder if you'd be saying the same thing if it was Priti Patel or Suella Braverman who were giving such "opinion". Why does it not surprise me that you are trying to defend Corbyn's bit on the side and fellow lefty.

Here is some meat added to this carcass. https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/exciting-makers-market-plan-for-debenhams-in-sheffield-4110959 In a nutshell, it might happen or it might not or it might end up being something else entirely depending whether or not the sale goes through, who buys it and what they want to do with it. Exactly the same non conclusion as the last time The Star ran one of their teasing pieces about the future of the building. It says a decision should be made in about a month so let's just wait and see. If it's an independent makers market like has been done in other ex Debenhams, it might not be a bad thing given the trend in reusing, vintage and upcycling, particularly in the younger crowds. If by some chance, it does get taken over by another prominent department store chain, even better it will shut up some of those still pining for the loss of Roberts Brothers and Cockaynes. My god with breaking news like that, it must be a doddle being a journalist at the Sheffield Star. ' phoning it in' doesn't even come close

Same with my surgery too. Perhaps, to be fair, this is part of the problem, is the inconsistency. Maybe the area health control or whatever they are called these days need to be a bit more heavy-handed on GP partnership practices and sure they all offer a uniform approach to appointment booking methods and allocation.

Tinnitus and deafness are not automatically linked. They can be two very different things with tinnitus symptoms being caused by wholly unrelated factors such as diabetes or thyroid disorders or anxiety, or even a side effect of certain medications. If you're hearing is fine, then a hearing test ain't going to do a thing to cure tinnitus so your doctor might be perfectly right to question why you would want one. Some tinnitus is caused by ear infections or others simply have unknown causes. That is the unfortunate in nature of the condition, so again, your doctor could be right that there is nothing you can do. Whilst I appreciate doctors have a duty to reasonably investigate, diagnose and treat patients, I will also like to think think they have a duty to make sure that precious NHS resources and clinical services and not wasted on knowingly fruitless exercises.

Just what exactly is so wrong with Sheffield? Last time I looked, most of the city population is happy getting on with their lives. The majority of the city infrastructure is working. The public services are running. The city's performance financially and employment levels are above national average. We are not generally walking around waist deep in piles of garbage or sloshing through sewage. Our education establishments are not collapsing or subject to daily national scandals. There is no major public disorder or riots or mass crime waves happening every day. The majority of the council departments and operations are functioning. The power and communications are still flowing. The majority of the roads are still drivable. Businesses are still operating. There's still investment coming into the city....... Is the city problem free? No of course not. But you're not going to make a casual statement like "take a look around" portraying images of the city as a beyond the brink disorderly crisis zone as if it beyond debate. I am taking a look around and what I see is exactly the same as what I see in cities all over the country or even the word. Some run down parts which need improvement, most of the remainder functioning fine and some areas of prestige which has had or is getting investment. So exactly is this problem you see? Or are you just so blinded by your obvious hatred of anyone a high earner that you make up any old tut to try and justify some point. She's a chief executive officer in an organisation which has hundreds of millions of pounds of budget and revenue to manage with over 7000 employees and contractors. Just what exactly would you expect the salary to be? As others have tried to sensibly explain, given her prominent position and responsibilities, £200k is peanuts compared to the private sector and a similar size organisation. It's not even outrageous when compared to other similar positions in the public sector. There are plenty of NHS hospital consultants approaching or above six figure salaries. The national average salary of a GP is £111k with scope to earn even more if they are a Partner in their own lucrative practice. But I don't hear much bitching about them....... Wonder way that is.

I am surprised that you haven't by now received some form of literature, leaflets, flyers or newsletters through the letterbox related to your area's respective candidates. In my area I've got a bin sack full of it. As for a specific website, there is no one convenient place, but each of the candidates will most likely have some form of web presence, link to their respective party or Twitter account if you search for their names.

How much is going to be made by businesses and services and the economy generally by all the mass tourism the coronation is going to bring into this country? How much focus, attention and interest in this tiny island is going to be generated when the world's media is all staring on one thing for the next couple of weeks? What sort of impact does a major event like this have on our standing on the global stage and our commonwealth Nations? What sort of development and opportunities could arise from such a significant event? Heard it all before Anna. The same sort of tired old arguments that come out every time there's any sort of royal ceremony or major public event. Waaa waaa how many nurses, teachers and care workers would that pay for.... Guess what, even if the Coronation and Monarchy as a whole was abandoned tomorrow , nurses and care workers wouldn't magically get a lump of money. Doesn't work like that. Besides, compared to the astronomical sums of money that your precious NHS pees away month in month out, £100m for a major global event that at best happens only couple of times each century, is nothing.

Many of them do have a bed to sleep in. In fact, some of them having entire flats or houses to live in. However, they choose to remain loitering on the streets surrounded by their 'community' and like the access of easy pickings of shoplifting, begging and generally scrounging. Some of them are doing as a profession or coercion through gangs who deliberately drop them off to collect their wears and pick them up again at the end of the working day. For all these complaining about the piles of delinquents cluttering up the streets all day, go have a look in the middle of the night and see how many are still there after the shops and pubs have shut. After the crowds have died down. That's a proper indication of how many are genuinely street homeless. There is a multitude of government and charitable services all desperately trying to help these people but it can't be forced. They can only help as far as people willing to receive it. Whilst, of course there are some genuinely vulnerable and desperate people out there. For many, it is a lifestyle choice. They are begging because it's easier than working. They are begging because they can avoid being subject to regulation, scruitsnising or mandatory attendance at the Jobcentres or other official authorities to get money. They refuse the help of hostels or accommodation services offered because they refuse to be controlled and subject to rules which interferes with their choice to be continuing to use drugs or other substances. As with everything, it's not so black and white as simply blame the government for not providing services. Some would argue that institutionalisation certainly didn't help the problem back in the day. They were still plenty of homeless and beggars and winos around back then.

I don't know what you mean by that. It is situated close by to several university buildings, a short walk away from lots of new apartment blocks and surrounded by several leisure venues and hotels with more to come..... sounds like the perfect market to me. Its a part of town which is completely changing and as others have said, with exception of one little blip due to a problem with the landlord rather than the operator, its regularly busy particularly the weekend when its packed. That clearly must be some level of business for these types of venues, given its at least the fourth one we have in the city with another one about to open up later this year.

"Way downhill since" What about the 2019 Kings survey when overall satisfaction was around 60% with specific questions on quality of care and GP services being around 68%. We can all cherry pick polls to suit our narrative Anna. Besides, we are not talking about that. We are talking about this constant narrative that somehow the NHS is on the "brink of collapse" something which has been screamed far too many times and reported on with hysterical Doomsday headlines for far too long for it to be believable. Let's look at a few basics . Back in 2000 when your precious Labour were at the height of their fame, the total expenditure on health services (even converting for today's prices) was 183% less than is being spent on health services now. There were around 270,300 nurses, health workers and ambulance staff working in the service back then compared to nearly 400,000 in the service now. If those evil Tories are making a move for it to disappear, they sure have a funny way of showing it.

Yeah right. A boost their pay-packet and suddenly all their supposed to concerns about crumbling services, lack of facilities, "on its knees" and breaking point working conditions all magically goes away. Some of us know full well what they are really striking about because it's exactly the same thing they strike about year in year out..... As for this "NHS on its knees" Christ almighty, how many times have we heard that one. Boy who cried wolf doesn't even come close. Let's all play a little game and Google the words NHS crisis or NHS under threat or NHS about to collapse and see how far back in time you go seeing the same overdramatic headlines time and time again. To read it, you'd think the NHS has been "on its knees" more time than a hooker with a specialism in fellatio.

Are you having a laugh? Who on earth do you think types the letters and the reports and updates the filing system on your medical records and collates the computerised charts and makes referral calls to all the services or the labs or clinics.... How on earth do you think the surgeries triage intake patients to prioritise them when appointments are being made to allocate them to the relevant person? You can't seriously think this is some twee 1920s practice where kind old Doctor Jones does everything himself. Modern day GP practices have teams of people behind the scenes who know all about every patient and their ailments which will include the receptionists because it's part of their job as gatekeepers. Just who exactly do you think is going to be reading this stuff you fill in the online form to make a breach of confidentiality? It's just the people working at the surgery who need to know it and see it. Besides, just what sort of things do you think they're going to be doing with such information anyway? An experienced healthcare employee will have seen and heard it all a thousand times before. There is no novelty in your medical information to them. They're not some bunch of giggling school girls laughing at the dangley bits and rashes. Is their job.

Old John Lewis or simply Barker's pool. If and when the building gets renamed or knocked down I will call it by whatever the name it's given. Perhaps I am the odd one out of here. But to me it smacks of people who can't embrace change and cling on to that nostalgic memory. Just the sort of people who look all the evolution of the city, new developments and repurposed buildings and write them all off as "rubbish" or "lame" or "ugly" or "better in their day" just because it's different. We are a generation on, with grown adults right into their late 20s for whom the reference of "Coles" is completely meaningless and the name "Redgates" which still gets bandied about has barely relevance to anyone under 40. I'm not saying there isn't a place for fondness and nostalgia and memories. But on a thread which is bemoaning the supposed loss of our city's "soul" and discussing how much it's allegedly lacking compared to others which have advanced themselves, I find the whole insistence by certain people to still cling onto their outdated names and rose tinted memories to be slightly hypocritical. If we want this city to keep advancing, if we want this city to keep up with the pace, we need to be embracing the changes that come. Embracing the new regimes. Embracing the ever changing taste and trends and demands of the people living there. Pushing ever forward for the next generation.

I was thinking the same as you. I get shouted down when I accuse people of clinging onto the past and yet here we are. People identifying a location by using a shop name that changed 21 years ago and closed down entirely three years ago. ..... To think these are the same types of people who have the gall to whinge the city is not progressing and failing in keeping with its rivals 🙄

I would completely agree. People are living in a dream if they think that getting rid of royalty will instantly remove millenia of privilege, hierarchy and categorisation. Just take a look around the world, take a look at basic human nature. Everything from your clothes to school to home to job to car to accent to food you eat to how you eat to where you shop puts you in some sort of score range and assumed category. They'll always be the elitist and underclass. There will always be a 1001 levels in between of social standing. Even in the gun toting land of the free where anyone can allegedly be anything they want, there is clear distinction in the class ranges. There is the Eastern/West coast elitists, the Hamptons set, the Country Club circles pitted against the brash Texans or the rural Nebraskans or bumper sticker "Florida Man" types. Even in the communist equality regimes, there is clear distinction between the workers and the rulers by a galactic mile. Swapping King Charles for President Starmer ain't going to change that.

Sounds to me like a bit of Harry excuse making. The royal equivalent of " ..ner ner I didn't want to do it anyway.."

I have to agree. I do find some of the posts on this thread quite bizarre. Some people are talking as if it's a surprise that Charles is becoming king or he's in some public vote in which he has to 'apply' and 'persuade' the public to take the throne. Everybody knows that Charles would become king. That's how the line of succession works. Every time the Queen had any health scare everyone was there, waiting in the wings ready to go, in case the inevitable happened. As for the fuss about portraits and pictures, it's obvious that official public buildings and state residences will contain pictures, emblems and portraits of the head of state. That is now going to be King Charles. Just as it was changed over to Queen Elizabeth before and the multitude of Kings and Queens before that. I find it rather pathetic that's all and every single little thing involving the monarch these days has to be oversimplified, overanalysed and picked apart with inevitable ridiculous comparisons like as to "...how many nurses would that pay for..". The answer. It wouldn't. We live in a monarchy. Our state leader is a sovereign monarch. There is no majority desire or protest to change it. Even if it was changed, they will still be a constitutional president and they would still be great expense, pomp, ceremony and privilege applying which, as has been evidenced several times when doing figure comparisons between regimes, often leads to even more money being spent than our own monarchy. We don't live in some deluded utopia where there's no leader and no hierarchy and everyone is equal. We are about to have a national celebration which is going to focus the world's attention on this little island. That is the pulling power that the Monarch still has and one of our key fundamental identities, which, despite the critics, still to this day maintains us with status, influence and power which other much larger countries could only dream of. They are not just some silly outdated tourist attraction.

I enjoy driving. There is nothing better than having some leisure time exploring and tootling around the countryside or along some beautifully scenic coast road stopping off at anywhere that takes my fancy. But, and I suspect the same applies to many many drivers, what I don't enjoy is the daily grind of commuting and having to battle my way through the rush hour traffic 5 days a week facing the same burden again back home after a hard day of work. I don't enjoy some long monotonous slog up the motorway back from an airport or relative's house or a holiday destination in the middle of the night. Therefore, I very much embrace the evolution of all driving aids and safety features which have been developed on our modern vehicles. I've been around long enough to recall the days before power steering, fuel injection and ABS. I've wondered at the marvel of electric windows, auto gearboxes, aircon and particularly reverse cameras allowing me to throw my car into the tightest of spaces with half the effort. I love the godsend that is cruise control and auto speed limiters making long motorway journeys much less of a effort, especially when trying to concentrate maintaining a speed through a average limit zone. My current car has features including keeping track to make sure I am in the same lane and not drifting, warning me if I become too close to a car in front, reacting quicker than my human brain could ever do when someone accidentally pulls out without signalling...... all of which contribute to making it an easier, safer and more comfortable journey. As for the next generation of driving aids, which includes driverless elements, bring it on! I have no fear it's going to stop me from "enjoying driving" when I want it and I think those protesting are kidding themselves. I'm well aware of those traditionalists who still enjoy driving around in some classic with its lack of power steering, manual controls and choke but let's be frank, most of the time they are driving such vehicles as a hobby. They are driving them quiet runs at the weekend or special shows or track events. What do they drive daily during the week? A modern day car with all the gizmos and gadgets that goes with it. Self-driving features are just that. A tool. A feature. An aid to the driver when they want it. I'm sure all the same arguments come up time and time before whenever any sort of new feature or gadgets was invented. Lets all remember the adding of those new fangled wing mirrors, the big reluctance to mandatory seat belts, the protests about those silly health and safety Nazis introducing a motorway speed limit .....all not so long ago, I've heard plenty of screams and wails about automatic gearboxes "How dare a car dictate to me when I change up or pull down". "It's not proper driving' Well they are still around and with the movement to electric cars and hybrids, they are going to be default position over here before long. Over in the States they've already been default position for 3/4 of a century. As others have said, it seems to me that some people just enjoy and revel in their reluctance to embrace change and progress.

For what? The evolution of online and out of town shopping? changes in global consumer habits? dramatic shifts in the way and where people work? the collapse of massive national department or other store chains? The presence of beggars/drunks and druggies who have been loitering on public streets since year dot? I really don't get what people think this magic wand is that's going to miraculously change our cities when such factors are happening and have continually happened previous across the globe. There is always continual evolution and repurposing of our city spaces BUT it's gradual. As has been pointed out several times before there is already massive development projects happening right now in this city. Buildings empty for decades are now being repurposed and reused. New public spaces, new facilities, new venues. Multi millions of investment but it all takes time. How about looking for the improvements and positives for a change. Be frank, whenever a council does try and do something themselves it instantly gets criticised, mocked, belittled by the local press or keyboard warriors or know it alls before it barely gets off the drawing board anyway. The "population" is never happy. They will always find some problem when asked. The "population" is dumb and emotive and reactionary and unreasonable and unrealistic and ill informed. If a council builds something, everyone whines about the costs and makes moronic comparisons about how many nurses or school meals that would pay for...... If they don't build something, everyone whines about their city lacking behind or making comparisons with X or complaining that it's not as good the one Y has or crying that Z has something they don't.... It's not a new story. Out of interest, pray tell just what spectacular transformation would you want to happen in the city which is under the direct control and directly funded by your elected local council?

The fact that they are able to easily bait posters like The_Daddy into reposting their articles and we are talking about it on this very forum is the reason. Easy clicks, lots of frothy mouth outrage, lots of discussion, lots of reposts, content filler on the TV talk shows.... All equals the publication getting their name out there and the advertisers their revenue.

Do you think that if there was an alternative back in those days to work they'd be so enthusiastic. Do you think if you give those people a choice between the dirty manual factory or a modern semi automated industrial surrounding or even ability to work from a comfy office or their own living rooms, they wouldn't have took it? As for telephone boxes and public toilets, let's not forget here that the computer age has been mainstream for over a quarter of a century. The early mass market mobile phones were commonplace by the mid 1990s. So if people are still insisting on using telephone boxes and never bothered to progress with society over 25 years later, that's their choice and their own problem. You are deluded to think that any authority would keep a completely outdated and unnecessary piece of ageing infrastructure in situ just to appease a tiny minority. In fact, if you bother to look, there still are abilities to make calls from on street kiosks. They are even free calls. The difference is they are from modern sleek touch screen terminals rather than a ye olde red phone box. As for public toilets, most people have facilities inside their own house these days. There is no need for vast amounts of public communal facilities operated by a local authority - which in the past couple of decades were seen as nothing more than run down seedy crack dens that people avoided like a plague. For those of legitimate purposes there are an abundance of facilities in any restaurant, cafe, bar, office building, theatre, gallery, cinema, hotel, council building, bus station, library, train station and both of our main department stores. There are even several specific locations which advertise that their toilet access is open to all without purchases or other restrictions. The worsening of public transport following privatisation is up for debate in my opinion, however, if you keep up with current affairs, you'd be aware the next generation of supertram operation will be back in public hands and both our local politicians and regional mayor are pushing for the same to apply to bus services. Something which I'm sure you would consider an improvement.....right? There's not some ageist thing. It's just certain people burying in the sand. Not willing to move on from what 'they' perceive as the better days. Certain people who, for some bizarre reason, take pride in not moving with the times and clinging onto their backwards thinking and constant put down of anything new or different.

So what do you want then? A decaying empty building rotting away for decades untouched just because you like to preserve it being "old" Why are you failing to understand the simple concept that cities evolve. Buildings get renovated and restored and reused. You are wallowing in rose tinted nostalgia. You are clinging onto your delusions of the past so tight you are failing to see the positive changes around you. The city is still filled. Its pavements are still filled with people working and shopping and enjoying their leisure time. There are probably more people living in the city centre boundaries now than there has been for decades. It is already been pointed out to you that Sheffield is still a prosperous city. It is still filled with workers but you're deluded in your desire that 'prosperous' it only counts if everything is done dirty stinky factories - when the world has clearly moved on and our industries and operations and employment is all through different means. As I said earlier, there are people doing just as important roles and earning just as much money to spend in those shops and bars and restaurants. But they are doing it from nice clean modern office parks or brand new shiny industrial facilities or even from the comfort of their own living room. That's how the working world is these days. Those jobs to sustain us into the 22nd century are already here. They are already being filled. You are just so blind to see it. You complain about a lackluster market and the absence of strings of shops completely ignoring the fact that globally traditional bricks and mortar retail is in decline. Department Stores are in their final swansong and consumer habits have completely been transformed by out of town developments, internet shopping and instant delivery. Its impact is not just being felt here in Sheffield but across the planet and that's why high streets are being transformed away from shopping into other means, including lots of residential. As for drug users, homeless, beggars and alcoholics, the answer to your question is you will never get rid of them. Just the same as we have never got rid of them centuries previous. That is human nature and the consequences of having a public available space when members of the public of all walks of life are free to use it. Bringing back Dixon of Dock Green ain't going to change that situation. Just like it didn't for decades previous. Even back in your rose tinted nostalgia days there were still drunks and homeless people and beggars. Anyone who had the misfortune of walking through the old peace gardens, hole in the road or charter square subways will know all too well. It's you who seems have some warped interpretation of what is "vibrancy" and can't seem to move on from steelworks, Castle market and the hole in't road. How about walking around with a view of the present day for a change. Look at the vast amounts of investment. Dozens of new buildings and developments happening right now. Look at all the improvements made to the public spaces. Look at the transformation made to former industrial wastelands like kelham Island or even down at attercliffe. If you are of the age you are claiming to be, you of all people should understand how things evolve and change. After major parts of the city got the crap bombed out of them during the war, would you have expected things to remain? Would you have been filled with objections and self pity about all the new 'modern' developments, public buildings, housing schemes and transport infrastructure that was all done in the 60s and 70s. The city is once again evolving, as it did in the late '90s and will continue to do again. Its for the next generations. For their future and for their needs which have all moved on.

Strange. There was no Blair, Brown, Johnson, Sunak on my list of candidates for my constituency??? I bet they weren't on yours either. No. You vote for your constituency MP in a general election. That's it. That's how it's always been. More people need to get that into their thick heads and start focusing who is going to be the best representative for them and serve the needs of their area instead of constantly chasing the party colours and moronically following the heard. Maybe then we might actually get a more balanced parliament or in this case council chamber that people have constantly being dreaming of.