The Salvation Army Citadel

The Star's coverage on Saturday, April 14, of plans to turn the Salvation Army Citadel in Cross Burgess Street into a retail unit may be a little previous.
Heritage concerns at the Sheffield retail quarter site. The Salvation Army Citadel, Cross Burgess Street.Heritage concerns at the Sheffield retail quarter site. The Salvation Army Citadel, Cross Burgess Street.
Heritage concerns at the Sheffield retail quarter site. The Salvation Army Citadel, Cross Burgess Street.

On examination the planning application appears to be identical to those submitted and approved by the City Council in 2012 and 2015; these simply rolled over planning consent granted in 2009. None have been implemented by the owners.

The 2009 consents followed a long campaign, which went as far as a planning enquiry, to try to prevent the facade of the building being severely damaged by the insertion of shop windows. Sadly, the planning inspector agreed with the putative developers,and this feature has been replicated in the rollover consents subsequently.

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It would be good to think that this time the owners of this much neglected historic building were serious this time.

The suggestion that the owners are now working with the council and its development partner is encouraging as far as it goes. But 10 years on from the original application, we’ll believe the building is to be rescued when we see the work done.

Valerie Bayliss

Chair, South Yorks Group, The Victorian Society

Cut fat cat expenses

Car thefts warning are about as much as the police will do about it, the council will say it is the governments funding cuts, but the council weaponises cuts for everything.

The council decides where funds are spent and it is in their interest for policing to fail politically, and we the public have to suffer the consequences of it.

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I suggest the council take the funds from “city of sanctuary” for one, the costs of which we taxpayer have to find and never mandated by us, fat cat subsidised meals and unnecessary hotels and travel expenses, this and many other fat cat expenses we do not need.

The local elections are taking place soon register your protect vote as to the deterioration of our city in regards to the rise of violent crime and gang wars and also the destruction of our old trees, something else we never mandated the council to carry out.

R Gissing

Sheffield, S12

Suspicious nature

Has anyone else got a suspicious nature like me?

I wonder what our council is doing with all the hardwood from the tree-felling exercise, and if they are selling it, how much they are getting for it.

I would really like to know. But is this also confidential?

Rose M Basford

Tinsley, S9

Do you agree?

Hi Monica, I think you are a lady of a certain age who will remember music from the 60’s. I find it sad that there are no longer any instrumentals, Stranger on the Shore, Albatross etc .

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Also no fun recordings like The Driving Instructor, Please Mr Custer, There I was Digging this Hole.

Most of todays artists are incoherent whereas the 60s singers were audible even if some of the lyrics didn’t make sense, Little Richard?

Even the sad songs were more upbeat than today’s music, Tell Laura I Love Her, Leader of the Pack.

Do you agree?

Alan Parkin

Hallyburton Close, S2

Illiterate society

With the demise of the public library will we see an increase in an illiterate society?

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People not having the funds to purchase books from book sellers will find it difficult to keep up gaining knowledge and reading and writing will take its toll, reference libraries, reading rooms, art galleries funded by public money will be wound down causing untold misery to library uses everywhere, how can you put a price on communities wanting to read books and view art works? The simple answer is you can’t.

EB Warris

S14

They don’t grow on trees

Spare a thought for Dejphon Chansiri and all owners of football clubs running at an annual operating loss. Sheffield Wednesday posted a loss of £20.7 million on May 31, 2017, more than double the 2016 £9.6 million figure. A huge wage bill, up by almost £9 million, and a bloated squad are named as two of the reasons for this loss.

Club owners are pumping their own money into clubs, trying to keep them afloat, yet should one of the reasons for Premier League and Championship clubs being in financial difficulty be laid at the door of players on Premier League £250,000 or more and pro rata Championship League weekly wages?

Are some players becoming complacent in not giving their best efforts on the field - secure in the knowledge that they will be paid irrespective of poor performance? With the benefit of hindsight, Jimmy Hill and the Professional Football Players Association have much to answer for when they negotiated the abolition of the £20 maximum weekly wage on 18.1.1961. They never envisaged that over the years £20 would spiral to today’s £25,0000. George Best earned £1000 per week in 1970 but the wage explosion came when the Premier League was founded in 1992 with John Barnes being paid £10,000. In the next decade Sol Campbell joined Arsenal for £100,000 - and we are now in wage fantasy land!

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In later life, Jimmy Hill came to regret the wages explosion that followed the scrapping of the wage ceiling. “It was an injustice” he recalled, “there was no reason for it but it has gone the other way now with players in 90% of clubs being paid far more than their clubs can afford. That’s just as ridiculous as having a maximum wage.”

Is there a solution to the current financial demise of football in this country? Perhaps a way forward would be for all clubs to show a united front in capping these ludicrous wage payments to their players - many of them not exhibiting the same football skills and 100% club commitment as their £20 predecessors. If those players do not wish to sign new contracts, let them look elsewhere for jobs paying similar wages for their three hours playing time a week - they do not grow on trees!

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5