14 Comments

AMRC. Sheffield should do everything possible to keep this facility at maximum capacity. Training opportunities for young people in such industries is hard to come by.

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Following Robbie's comment, I hate to sound like a reactionary parent but should people be spending so much hard earned cash ( or student grants ) on so much food and drink? Sheffield seems to believe that despite a cost of living crisis and ludicrous rents, there is an unlimited number of profligate consumers out there. When I was teaching, I used to show my 6th students who were university bound, how to cook nutritious , healthy and cheap meals. The problem with a loan that many think they will never pay off, is that there is a temptation to max it out in order to have a good time!

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In fairness to students, they do go out a lot less than they used to. And instead or chucking money away on booze they're more likely to chuck it away on food. But I take you point that younger people seem to be eating out a lot more.

You'd be lucky to get food and drink for under £20 from the new one. I paid 10% of the average Eritrean monthly salary for my meagre and overcooked 'Eritrean' food. I don't like being ripped off and foodhalls are a con. Happy to pay the value of the food I have but there's much better value, comfort, atmosphere, service etc in most pubs, bars and restaurants in this city. Not the trendy ones. They're an utter con as well.

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Hi Elaine. A few points. Firstly, I don’t think students are the main demographic at the food halls when I’ve been. I’d go young professional first.

Secondly, student fees and low end accommodation will come to something like £1200 a month. In that context spending £20-30 a month for a meal and drinks with friends represents 2.5% of that budget which personally I don’t blame them for if they choose to do so.

But agree the student loan system needs urgent reform and should be a graduate tax instead.

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I get your point but are these the same young professionals who complain about not being able to afford renting and can't save for a house? Sorry to be a misery guts but I do actually know some of these! £30 won't get you far in Sheffield for a meal and a couple of drinks but if they can stick to that, good on them. I do seriously wonder when the hospitality bubble will burst and feel sorry for those who have invested so much time, effort and money into these ventures. Each new opening seems to be matched with a corresponding closure.

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Again I think saving £30 a month/£360 a year is not suddenly going to make people be able to afford a house either. Certainly in the food halls £30 should get you a main meal and a couple of pints. I think saying students and young professionals should not be able to go out once a month due to a broken housing market and university finance compared to the free student grants and university enjoyed by eg the baby boomers is victim blaming at best and hypocrisy at worst.

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You mentioned £30 a month in relation to university students and I agree, that's positively restrained but to equate that £30 with the young professionals saving for a house is misleading. I'm sure most of them are spending more that £30 a month on hospitality, but that is their choice. My point was that you can't spend it twice. If everyone was restrained in their spending, the hospitality industry would be stuffed. I am a so called baby boomer but didn't go to university until I was 40 years old, no grant. I could tell you how my husband and I got on the housing ladder but it would read like a Monty Python sketch and shatter your illusions of easy money.

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It won't be long until foodhalls are replaced by some other trend. Hopefully one which is much better value for money, but probably not!

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But did you talk to the VC at Sheffield University and ask why the research facility is being reduced? And do we have a handle on whether small nuclear reactors are feasible? They may be but your article just doesn’t address this question.

Also please stop equating nuclear free with some kind of hippie slogan - it’s a way to generate electricity not bomb Japan.

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Yes, I was disappointed not to see more depth in this article. I'm afraid I don't feel particularly enlightened having read it. Which is a a shame as it's genuinely interesting and important to the local economy if these endeavours are actually viable. Could a round of redundancies and a pivot towards more promising avenues actually save it?

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Some context as to how many high skilled manufacturing jobs overall this effects would be usefully too. Don’t we still have McLaren, Boeing etc in the amrc? Are there reasons the university may want to focus more on these? Are non nuclear areas expanding or contracting?

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Do we need events central AND the Cole’s development within a few yards of each other

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The current VC at the Uni doesn't like the AMRC does he! We should definitely do what we can to keep it even if it means another organisation runs it.

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Do you know why he doesn’t like it?

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