Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2013 19:56:09 GMT
 This is a scene which will shortly disappear. The former home of Rotherham United, venue for a concert by U2 and once host to the World Student Games is to be demolished, saving Sheffield City Council £700,000 per year. In spite of what the media would have everyone believe this is not the Jessica Ennis Stadium, although there is a stand named after her at Bramall Lane. The closure and demolition of DVS is being portrayed as a tragedy for Jess Ennis and for Sheffield but the fact of the matter is that she can do her training elsewhere and as a Sheffield Council Tax payer I don't really see why the citizens should pay £700,000 just so Jess can use the stadium for her press-ups etc. The place has always been a white elephant and once Rotherham moved out and stopped paying rent it was bound to make a loss. OK, it's always a pity when a facility is lost but it is more serious when services are slashed, as is already happening in Sheffield as a result of the reduced budget and which would be even more crippling if money continued to be wasted on Don Valley. Jess Ennis and her coach are angry and disappointed but in the absence of a Government U-turn on local authority funding the Council is surely (Don't call me...) taking the pragmatic view. Considering all the money she makes from endorsements Jess could probably afford to pay the £700 grand herself but I expect she'd prefer to simply train somewhere else while a few of the City's pensioners get to keep their home helps instead. What's the view from the South West on this one? |
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Mar 2, 2013 21:13:04 GMT
Easily the worst stadium I've ever been to - when I went, it was just 20 years old and yet seemed to be double that. Everything was run down - flaking signs, abandoned seating, overgrown wasteland surrounding it. A really miserable place to watch football, and that's before the total lack of atmosphere
It looks as if the Woodburn Road athletics stadium will be refurbished to replace it so it's not a tragedy regardless of what the BBC line (and you're absolutely right on Ennis, who the media have a strange fascination with at the moment). I do wonder if it has been run into the ground as an excuse to demolish it, but that being said, a stadium of that size must be difficult to manage in any case. It's enormous and yet hasn't been fully utilised in years. Such a waste - could really have regenerated that area of Sheffield. Were there ever plans to relocated either United or Wednesday there when it was built, or was it just built in the hope of attracting athletics events and concerts? If it's the latter, that's incredibly over-ambitious
I do wonder if we're going to be having this same discussion about the Olympic Stadium in London in 20 years time, as has been the case in Montreal. At least Manchester got their act sorted, even if the athletics track was list at the CoMS
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2013 23:03:39 GMT
I never like to see a sporting venue close, but in this case it seems the only sensible thing to do. "The 25,000-seat stadium was built as the centrepiece of a £147m scheme when Sheffield hosted the 1991 World Student Games. Labour councillors of the time were criticised for landing the city with hundreds of millions of pounds of debt that is still being paid off at about £20m a year and will not be cleared until 2024. During a heated debate about the cost-saving budget and the closure of the stadium, Liberal Democrat councillor Simon Clement-Jones said the student games was "one of the biggest financial disasters Sheffield has seen". Sporting LabourStill paying back £20 million every year, that would have been enough to employ one or two home helps and a couple of carers I suspect, but the closure helps slightly ease the financial millstone around Sheffielders necks which is already heavy enough. I don't think many will be sad to see the Don Valley stadium go, and the same goes for the bill to pay for it which will finally be settled in 2024. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Mar 3, 2013 10:04:02 GMT
I have never been to the Don Valley stadium, but like Alpine I always think it is sad to see a sporting venue close. Here in Torbay we have had our own white elephant known as Eric that has had more money spent on it to keep it open than maybe it ever should have.
It does not matter where you live, you are asked to keep paying more and more each year and all you see is cut after cut being made. It makes you wonder where all the money goes, but then when you look at the wages paid to those on the council and their very generous pensions; it’s not hard to work out why so many services keep getting cut.
We can find money for silly palm trees but not for the elderly people who do need looking after simply because they have paid into this country all their lives. I just happen to believe we are getting conned in this country, we have to keep paying more and more in taxes, more in council tax and get less and less back for our money.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2013 12:03:45 GMT
but then when you look at the wages paid to those on the council and their very generous pensions; it’s not hard to work out why so many services keep getting cut. Bloody hell, Dave. You know how to get under the skin of public sector workers! As Bristol Gull will no doubt confirm and as I am sure I have already mentioned, those of us working for local authorities are victims of misinformation in the right wing press. I work for Derbyshire County Council, earn alomost exactly the average salary, have had no pay rise for 4 years and been paying into my pension scheme for 20 years so forgive me if I don't feel guilty about collecting it when I retire. The reason for the cuts in services is not generosity to workers but annual reductions in Government grants to local councils. Like most people, before 1991 I had never heard of the World Student Games and have never heard of them since either. As Alpine Joe rightly points out, the people of Sheffield will continue to pay the bill for DVS till 2024. There were rumblings about United being invited to take over the stadium but that was never going to happen because James is right that it is hopeless for football, and besides its capacity is all wrong; too small for the Owls or Blades and too large for anyone else including athletics meetings. A tidied-up Woodbourn Road would be perfectly adequate for Jessica Ennis's training and in the meantime there is the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds which is well within commuting range. Barton Downs does it 4 times a week after all. |
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keyberrygull
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Post by keyberrygull on Mar 3, 2013 12:28:45 GMT
but then when you look at the wages paid to those on the council and their very generous pensions; it’s not hard to work out why so many services keep getting cut. Bloody hell, Dave. You know how to get under the skin of public sector workers! As Bristol Gull will no doubt confirm and as I am sure I have already mentioned, those of us working for local authorities are victims of misinformation in the right wing press. I work for Derbyshire County Council, earn alomost exactly the average salary, have had no pay rise for 4 years and been paying into my pension scheme for 20 years so forgive me if I don't feel guilty about collecting it when I retire. The reason for the cuts in services is not generosity to workers but annual reductions in Government grants to local councils. Welcome to the real world  |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Mar 3, 2013 16:25:51 GMT
but then when you look at the wages paid to those on the council and their very generous pensions; it’s not hard to work out why so many services keep getting cut. Bloody hell, Dave. You know how to get under the skin of public sector workers! My comments were not meant to be taken as some sort of attack on public workers such as yourself and nurses etc, far from it. As far as your pension is concerned I happen to think it wrong that changes should be made to it after it was an agreed payment when you decided to take the job. In saying that I would not want to see taxes taken off lower paid workers who could not afford to pay into a pension fund, used to top of the public pension pot. My poke was at those who work in our town hall, I was shocked to learn the leader of our council earns close to two hundred thousand a year with a very fat pension. I was also shocked to learn just how many of them earn well over one hundred thousand. People with job titles that no one has a clue are, people we are told has to be paid that much so we get the very best, really? How many of them screw up and then get paid off some very large sum and never have to work again because they will still get that fat pension. How many bad decisions do they make? How much money do they waste when it should be being spent to maintain the sort of services you are on about? How sad and dirty does Torbay look? We who live here are paying large sums to have our streets cleaned etc, but our money is not being spent on doing the most basic things that would greatly improve the whole appearance of the Bay. All we hear every single year is we want this much more money off you and by the way we need to make even more cutbacks. Something is badly going wrong somewhere. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2013 16:33:43 GMT
I wouldn't disagree with any of that, Dave. If there are so-called executives on Torbay Council pulling in such mad salaries then you have every right to be Disgusted of Paignton.
Incidentally, I read a letter in the Herald Express complaining that Torquay gets all the money spent on it and Paignton is allowed to fall to bits. Is this a common sentiment down on the bay?
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Mar 3, 2013 16:40:43 GMT
I wouldn't disagree with any of that, Dave. If there are so-called executives on Torbay Council pulling in such mad salaries then you have every right to be Disgusted of Paignton. Incidentally, I read a letter in the Herald Express complaining that Torquay gets all the money spent on it and Paignton is allowed to fall to bits. Is this a common sentiment down on the bay? Very much so and the people who live in Brixham feel they get nothing at all spent on the town, while Torquay gets the lions share of any money going. It only angers me as I see the three towns as forming Torbay and each town should be treated the same as those living in each town are paying the same as far as council tax is concerned. |
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chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Mar 3, 2013 16:51:47 GMT
I know all human life is to be found in Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is as about far North as I wish to travel. The 'Kerwell Arch is the gateway to the North eh Bri? |
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keyberrygull
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Post by keyberrygull on Mar 3, 2013 19:32:19 GMT
I know all human life is to be found in Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is as about far North as I wish to travel. The 'Kerwell Arch is the gateway to the North eh Bri? Bloody Northerners. It's been rumored traces of Bovril have been found at the bottom of the Ideford Dip. Don't Panic, Don't Panic,Don't Panic ... |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2013 21:47:27 GMT
Aye, I'm a bloody Northerner and proud of it, lad. I live in Yorkshire, where men are men and t'sheep are nervous.
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Post by stuartB on Mar 3, 2013 22:02:30 GMT
Aye, I'm a bloody Northerner and proud of it, lad. I live in Yorkshire, where men are men and t'sheep are nervous. just like Wales then  My only visit to the Don Valley reminded me of watching Liverpool playing in the European Cup in the 1970s and being away in some eastern german or russian stadium. awful and so cold (physically and mentally) |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2013 9:12:42 GMT
Barton Downs rang me last night after his walk in the Rivelin Valley and told me he had come across a sheep and a local in the long grass. Poor innocent Barty asked the bloke whether he was shearing, to which he he replied "No, I'm not. Get thi own bloody sheep!" *
* This joke is copyright every student ragmag in the country 1978
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2013 10:53:22 GMT
* This joke is copyright every student ragmag in the country 1978 1978....slightly after my time. And yes, Wildebeeste, perhaps you can explain the delivery of the Herald Express to my home in Sheffield yesterday? A mighty fine piece of freelance newsagency to do so on a Sunday afternoon. The Secret Footballer awaits in return.i |
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