Crimean memorial

There is no question about the whereabouts of the statue of Victory which topped the Monument, as my own letter, on which he comments, made clear. It is in the council’s store, bronze sword and all. What is not in the store is the capital – the ornate carving that surrounded the top of the column. It is clearly visible in your photo; it’s the double row of large leaves just below the base of the statue.

I have in my possession a letter sent in 2008 by the Council’s Parks Department to an enquirer about the location of the Memorial. This letter states that when the Memorial was removed to the Botanical Gardens ‘several of the original elements were not used’.

And it goes on, ‘other very decorative sections remain untraceable following this move. Research suggests they were sold off in order to finance the relocation’. This is the basis on which I have sought information about the fate of the capital. Who bought it? Where did it go?

It remains a matter of regret that the council has not pursued offers to assist in raising the money needed to restore the Memorial to a suitable place in the city centre.

Valerie Bayliss

by email

The profit motivation

Homelessness is more to do with extortionate rents that can not be met by low wages combined with zero-hour contracts.

Houses have become an investment rather than a basic commodity. House prices ever increasing with rents keeping pace. It is a greedy selfish society that we have all become absorbed in where we celebrate rising house prices and don’t give a damn to those who can not keep apace and fall into homelessness.

Laws to begin to control rents in relation to what the lowest paid can afford is a humanely place to start. An end to the profit motivation in housing. A house should be a basic right in a civilised society not a prized possession in a profitable port folio

Steve Hardcastle

Killamarsh

Council houses

The headlines on The Star Saturday, January 13, is not news.

More than a year ago I wrote to your newspaper regarding empty council houses being used as ‘giro drops’ where the named tenant does not live there but lives elsewhere with their partner. They use the address for benefit payments as they get more. The property usually has permanently closed curtains or an old sheet at the windows to stop anyone seeing inside and little or no furniture.

The council can find out from utility companies if there has been any usage at the property. Neighbours who know where these properties are should be reporting them, but having said that the council would probably ignore them anyway as it would need someone doing a bit of work investigating the situation.

Chesterfield

GP or walk-in – you decide

Being disabled with a heart problem, I, like everyone, have found it difficult to get a doctor’s appointment when you need it, but it is a no-brainer to phone a doctor who phones you back, (very often in minutes), and you take only five minutes of a doctor’s time,.

On other hand, 90 per cent of my doctor’s appointments end up with a referral to the hospital’s specialist. So why should we prolong GPs’ working hours, (and pay hefty wages for unsociable working hours), when the majority will end up in hospital anyway?

Two days ago I saw my GP, complaining about some problems and she says, “Next time it happens your husband should take you to A&E immediately or call an ambulance.”

With four hours plus waiting? I don’t think so! And from S8, where I live, I found that we can only reach Northern General with extreme difficulty.

So please Ms Gleave and Dr Tim Moorhead, think again! Try to think from all Sheffield people’s view, not only for the convenience of the people who lives in North of Sheffield. Time to visit A&E might be crucial and save people’s lives. Your decision leaves people with no other option but to go to A&E, even with cuts and bruises, while people with a heart attack will be waiting in a queue.

Tanya Vickers

Registered disabled with a high mobility disability, S8

Where does it end?

It is foreign players we need a Brexit on. They have destroyed our clubs with their obscene pay and demands. We no longer have enough homegrown players in the system for our national teams.

The FA should limit the number of foreign players to one or two for every club. There is even an argument for the lower tier clubs being allowed a greater number, so if foreign players that have a greater talent and wish to play in the UK they can pass on their skills and raise the standards of our home-grown players from the bottom upwards, then maybe those foreign players who want to fight for a place in the higher divisions will lower their pay demands as a reverse auction to gain a place in our Premier League instead of the ever growing millions for each player that fans have to pay for and it does not take a genius to know this is unsustainable and at the end of the day buying foreign players for their skills cancel themselves out in that you spend millions on a striker and spend more millions on a defender to counter them. Where does it end?

Sheffield

A few offences

Don’t forget it’s an offence to feed the birds in your garden, it’s called littering.

Leaving your bin out too long, your dog barking, feeding pigeons, fly-tipping, dog mess, listening to the radio in the garden, slamming doors, feeding cats, some councils even ban hanging washing out in your own garden, the list goes on, it’s what you might call councils gone mad. Keep breathing, it aint been banned, yet.

EB Warris

by email