Sheffield church staff 'mortified' after complaining about noise at reception for Prince of Wales

  • Ruth Ballantyne and Debbie Wheeler said they were "embarrassed" after complaining about the noise

Staff at a church have admitted they were left "mortified" after asking a neighbouring community centre to turn down its music – only to be told a group of youngsters were about to welcome the Prince of Wales.

Ruth Ballantyne and Debbie Wheeler were busy working at The Methodist Church in Sheffield on Tuesday when they were disturbed by loud music coming from the nearby Verdon Street Recreation Centre.

After enduring the interruption for several minutes, they decided politely to ask their neighbours to reduce the volume.

Debbie said: "We were concerned about the noise, but Ruth very kindly offered to go across to the community centre and ask them very politely to turn the sound down."

Ruth added: "We were working in the office and it was the bassline, which is great when you're at a party, but when you're working and emailing and answering the phone it's loud."

After discovering that the music was turned up to welcome Prince William, Ruth admitted: "I'm very embarrassed."

"Mortified," Debbie added.

The Prince of Wales was in Sheffield as part of a mission to eradicate homelessness.

William toured the Tillydrone Campus to support the Homewards initiative Credit: Euan Duff/PA

Britain's future King has launched Homewards, a five-year project initially focusing on six locations, including Sheffield.

Local businesses, organisations and individuals will be encouraged to join forces to develop plans to tackle homelessness.

They will be supported, with up to £500,000 of funding, to deliver a housing project which will test new ways to unlock homes at scale within the area and beyond. 

He visited the Reach Up Youth project in Sheffield, which was founded in 2013 by a local resident, who wanted to improve the area. The charity also supports young people who are sofa surfing or struggling with housing.

Ruth and Debbie welcomed the initiative.

Ruth said: "It's fantastic. It's a great job, helping the homeless is a special thing to do."

Debbie added: "We didn't know Sheffield was one of the main cities, so that was interesting to find that out for the first time."

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