Reprieve for Uni Arms

I fear we may lose the other former Victorian Vicarage in the area though. Well done Sheffield City Council and Dave Pickersgill of Sheffield CAMRA.

Ron Clayton

Money under false pretence

Abolish the House of Lords and put the money saved into healthcare.

To get paid £300 per day tax-free allowance without making any contribution to the upper house is fraud and they should be prosecuted. I think the majority there get rewarded for going to sleep.

According to Baroness D’Souza, Lord Heseltine attended only three per cent of sittings in the whole of the last parliament, a disgrace.

Watching the majority of the peers with their heads down and eyes closed is like watching the Muppet Show and in my opinion, they get money under false pretences and should be stopped and put to better use.

Westminster Estate, S10

Social care funding

I was shocked by the cynicism of the Lib Dems in your article, March 14, about Sheffield’s ‘ £12.5m social care windfall’. The additional allocation announced in the spring budget is welcome, but is nowhere near enough to cover the growing gap in social care funding in Sheffield – estimated at £79.2m by 2020/21. More importantly, we don’t know yet what strings will be attached to the funding, or how it will be allocated. It is irresponsible of Coun Bob Pullin to be calling for Sheffield City Council to commit to spending money we don’t have, solely for reasons of political opportunism.

More importantly, it is wrong to cause further uncertainty about the future of Hurlfield View. Let me reassure your readers: all service users and families have been offered an alternative day service and all requests for pre-planned respite care have been accommodated. Council staff are continuing to work with families to respond to any specific requirements. All of the replacement services have been rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission – the same as Hurlfield View. The last thing carers need is false information.

Coun Pullin’s allegation about insufficient good quality places is both untrue and alarmist – so he should apologise.

‘Alternative facts’ may be a feature of US politics – we don’t need this in Sheffield.

Cate McDonald

Cabinet member for health and social care Sheffield City Council

Completely untrue

I was very disappointed by the letter from Coun Jack Scott on March 9.

First, he states that respected Chairman of the Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society, Howard Greaves, alleged “the council are seeking to demolish” the Central Library building.

This is completely untrue. Howard confirmed he made no such allegation in his letter dated March 15.

Coun Scott goes on to say that the Library “desperately needs £30 million worth of repairs”.

In fact, the £30m figure comes from a 2014 report and is for the cost of a major refurbishment.

The repairs-only cost is £2m, a very different sum.

Coun Scott’s comments on the Green Party are also plain wrong.

For the record, we have been clear that we want to see the library preserved but we can’t comment on proposals we haven’t seen.

The Green councillors are fully committed to well-resourced public libraries.

In our fully-balanced budget amendment, we proposed to reverse Labour’s cut to 3.5 full-time library jobs.

Douglas Johnson

Green Party Councillor for City Ward

No, we don’t want to join

In reply to Don Alexander, S7, The Star, March 16, and his letter saying that Doncaster, Barnsley and Derbyshire County Council not wanting to be part of Sheffield City Region will stop Sheffield getting £900 million of funding as they wish to remain in their ancient county boundaries.

I can only speak as a resident of Chesterfield, and we don’t want to join.

We lived in Sheffield for 67 years and moved to Chessy five years ago.

We were fed up with nothing getting done, hollow promises from SCC, money wasted on worthless things and necessary things not getting done.

We lived in S17 and the roads were not done in all our years there.

The Labour council only looked after Labour areas.

In Chesterfield things get done and a call to the council is dealt with.

Roads are better and projects such as the Waterside are getting done.

Sheffield would have held it back.

No we certainly don’t want to join your Sheffield City Region, thanks.

Chesterfield

What’s it all about?

As a son of Sheffield with roots in St Polycarp’s and Harley Mission Church that go back beyond most living memories I find it incomprehensible that Christians used such incomprehensible language over the selection of Bishop Phillip North as bishop.

Does the Anglican church now not allow for differing views or forms of service, a richness drawn from the past and a hope for the future, expressions of a person’s faith and belief and so much more?

Does Our Lord not want us to live together, prayerfully, under Him and not as a rabble in the street.

As this simple Celtic style prayer suggests:

As you leave this quiet place,

May God’s love be in your heart;

God’s thoughts be in your mind,

God’s words on your lips.

May God bless you,

As you, bless those you meet,

Each and every day.

Bring to mind the ‘Woman caught in adultery;’ Jesus asked which leader was without sin and therefore in a position to cast the first stone. The answer then as now none.

Their hypocrisy put under Jesus’ spot light.

If we cannot or are unwilling to embrace, make allowances for another’s views, to learn to work together, ‘giving and taking’ the church will become as much if not more extreme than in medieval history.

As the song says, “What’s it all about?” or better said, “Should be about?” It should be about our personal relationship and corporate, ‘church,’ relationship with God.

Those using incomprehensible language have in their eyes won this day.

But at what cost to the church’s future?

Do they have the ‘grace’ to apologise, publicly, to those in the diocese who would have said yes and to the wider church communion hurt by what has been said?

Michael E Meehan

Halifax Rd, Nelson, Lancs, BB9