S Yorks women " suffer low pay " .sx By Helen Barnes .sx WOMEN manual workers in South Yorkshire are the lowest paid in the country .sx A new survey shows women´s pay lags far behind the rates for men .sx A woman full-time manual worker in Yorkshire and Humberside could , on average , hope to receive barely half the average gross weekly wage for all workers .sx The report issued by Labour employment spokesman Tony Blair and shadow minister for women Jo Richardson hit at the " poverty and inequality " facing women .sx Sheffield Central MP Richard Caborn , Labour spokesman on trade and industry , said Britain needed a minimum wage and continous training to upgrade skills .sx " As long as there is this pool of workers on poverty wages we will not be realising the potential of our workforce , " he said .sx Chairman of Sheffield council personnel committee Coun Mike Bower , said many women earned less than pounds100 a week with some women working for private cleaning firms earning as little as pound1 an hour .sx A minimum wage would hold no worries for the council , which already paid over that rate , he said .sx South Yorkshire was a low-pay area because unemployment left workers little bargaining power .sx Figures from the Low Pay Unit said the average gross pay for manual women workers in Yorkshire and Humberside was pounds149 .sx 10. Women non-manual workers received just over three-quarters of the regional average of all workers - the second lowest in England .sx Female manual workers in Yorkshire and Humberside were paid just under 61 per cent of the average for men , including overtime - the third lowest out of the eight English regions .sx Hospitals lining up for new Trust bid .sx By Hugh Lawrence , Parliamentary Correspondent .sx MORE hospital opt-outs in South Yorkshire could be on the way in a new wave for 1993 .sx A new list of possibles follows Health Secretary William Waldegrave´s approval for more than 100 hospitals and health units around the country to opt out of health authority control and become self-governing from next April .sx Now he has given a green light for more to go ahead with putting in formal opt-out applications after voicing initial " expressions of interest " .sx The list of units now being allowed to put in applications for opting out from April 1993 includes :sx Barnsley District General Hospital , Rotherham General Hospitals , Derbyshire Royal Infirmary , Derbyshire Ambulance Service and Rotherham Priority Health Services .sx These are among more than 150 hospitals and health units nationwide being told by Mr Waldegrave they can make a bid for approval for self-governing Trust status from 1993 .sx And Sheffield MPs have accused the Government of ignoring the wishes of people on hospital opt-outs .sx Labour MPs Bill Michie ( Heeley ) , Richard Caborn ( Sheffield Central ) , David Blunkett ( Brightside ) , Martin Flannery ( Hillsborough ) and Sir Patrick Duffy ( Attercliffe ) protested the latest batch of opt-out hospitals and services had been given a go-ahead before the first wave had been properly assessed .sx In a Commons motion also backed by North-East Derbyshire MP Harry Barnes , they say most Sheffield people , the City Council , health workers , trade unions , GPs and the Community Health Council were " totally opposed " to switches to self-governing Trust status .sx The MPs say people´s views had been " contemptuously ignored " .sx Protest as minister rejects final plea - strike call marks closure of library .sx By Jill Ward and Neil Fieldhouse .sx LIBRARY Staff across Sheffield were threatening strike action this afternoon .sx They were planning the protest at staff cuts and the decision to close Ecclesall Library .sx But campaigners fighting to keep the branch open admit their chances are now slim after being told the Government has refused to intervene to save it .sx Conservative leader David Heslop said the community wouls oppose any plans by the Labour-controlled city council to use the site for housing or anything other than leisure .sx " Appalled " He spoke out after returning from a trip to Westminster , where he made a personal plea to ministers to block the shutdown .sx He argued that the council was breaching its legal duty to provide library services .sx Said Mr. Heslop :sx " The response was that the council was a duty to provide a service across the city in general , not to an area in particular and so was not in breach , " he said .sx " But the minister was also appalled at the closedown , which is clearly for political reasons and will leave a void in library provision in the south west .sx .sx Meanwhile library chiefs are advising the public to phone their branch libraries to see if they will be open later today .sx Officials from the national and Local Government Officers Association have called on their members to strike this afternoon and attend a protest rally at Ecclesall Library .sx Secret bid for cash to boost run down areas .sx By Neil Fieldhouse , Political Editor .sx SHEFFIELD'S best kept secret - which could unlock doors to a new future for the city - was being delivered to the Government this afternoon .sx Two city council officials took details of Sheffield's bid for a share in a pounds350m urban aid package announced by Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine to tackle decay and decline .sx Wide area .sx Fifteen areas have been invited to compete for City Challenge funds - but only ten will win .sx Sheffield has kept its ideas strictly under wraps to prevent rivals gaining inside information to steal an advantage .sx And officials this afternoon declined to give away any clues before delivering the package to Mr Heseltine's office by today's deadline for submissions .sx All that is known is that Sheffield proposes the funds should be spent in a wide area across Attercliffe , the Manor , city centre , Wybourn and Kelham .sx The project , put together by a partnership of the council , development corporation , and the private sector , would improve the fabric of Sheffield as well as create new training and employment opportunities .sx " It would provide the resources to turn our vision of the future Sheffield into a reality , " said businessman Norman Adsetts .sx City closure schools in pledge to fight on .sx By Neil Fieldhouse , Political Editor .sx CITY schools are today drawing up battle plans after the council voted through a package of closures and mergers amid angry and stormy scenes in the Town Hall .sx Scores of parents , governors , teachers and children lobbied councillors as they arrived for a special meeting , but failed to win a single change .sx Labour used its overwhelming majority to throw out demands for a re-think of the proposals , led by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and backed by protesters who packed the public gallery .sx The council agreed to axe Bolsterstone J and I , Clifford F , Handsworth F , Roscoe Bank J and I , Stand House F , Warren J and I , Norfolk Secondary and the sixth form at Abbeydale Grange .sx All have vowed to challenge the decision , including many of the 40 schools which will be merged .sx Threatened change .sx They argue that the proposals are no longer " logical " and schools which are smaller and less viable than their own have been reprieved on political not educational grounds - a charge hotly denied by Labour .sx Chapeltown's Warren School headteacher Andy Chambers today said the doomed schools would continue to battle individually and collectively for survival .sx He said :sx " We will put in our objections to the council and in September we will be going to London to put our case to the Secretary of State for Education .sx " We could have accepted it if 20 schools were to close as there would have been substantial savings .sx Surplus places would have been lost and the council would get more Government money .sx " But closing seven excellent schools is not going to save anything .sx We are all very upset about how the review has been done .sx " .sx Education chairman Steve Jones told the meeting amid boos and hisses from the gallery that it had been " an open and honest " review and it was only natural that schools would oppose threatened change .sx A last-ditch plan to save Bolsterstone Infant and Junior School from closure will be discussed tomorrow in a meeting at the school hall at 7.30pm. The school is earmarked for closure next September and parents and teachers are considering opting out of city council control .sx " Bully Boy " rap by Tory MP .sx By Hugh Lawrence .sx SHEFFIELD Tory MP Irvine Patnick has accused city councillors of " bully boy " bias against areas which do not back Labour .sx He hit out about school and library closures and claimed the council was penalising the Tory-voting area of Hallam .sx Mr Patnick said :sx " They are like political bully boys saying if you live in one area we will protect you , live in another political area with a different MP and councillors and you are for the chop .sx " .sx The onslaught came in a row about school closure decisions .sx Today Mr Patnick stepped up protests about closure plans for Clifford CE School .sx Attempts by opposition councilors to have Bolsterstone CE School and Warren Junior and Infant School removed from the closure list have also been rejected .sx Mr Patnick blasted plans to close Ecclesall Library , which he said was one of the most popular and best-used in the city .sx Sheffield " will go the way of Liverpool " .sx By Neil Fieldhouse , Political Editor .sx SHEFFIELD is on course to become a second Liverpool with the city facing a budget gap of between pounds30m and pounds40m next year , union officials fear .sx Council workers predict widespread cuts to jobs and services which could plunge the city into damaging strikes and conflict this winter .sx The Council's controlling Labour group was fast to give assurances that they will manage the situation better than their strife-torn Liverpool colleagues - and appealed to workers to help .sx They dismissed visions of rubbish piled high in the streets , bodies unburied and a council with its leadership and city in disarray and torn apart .sx Finance chairman Howard Knight said they have already managed to avoid one winter of discontent - and would survive next year , although he admitted great difficulties .sx He said Sheffield faced a deficit of pounds30m to pounds40m if inflation and Government support remains the same .sx " It will not be possible to make those reductions without devastating effects on services , " he added .sx He made a public plea to unions and workers .sx " We either work together or sink .sx .sx He spoke out after local government workers union NALGO's Sheffield branch said it was meeting tonight to vote on passing on its support to colleagues in Liverpool .sx Spokesman David Granville said :sx " The position there highlights the similarity between the two cities and how narrowly we avoided the same thing here .sx " We in Sheffield are under no illusions .sx " We are very concerned that under the weight of the financial costs of the World Student Games in particular we could be in for a very difficult period .sx .sx This year nearly 2,000 Sheffield council workers volunteered to give up their jobs and Labour ordered spending cuts and freezes across the board .sx Drive to bring back life to the valley .sx By Neil Fieldhouse , Political Editor .sx MORE than 4,000 jobs and the complete reclamation of the UK's worst area of dereliction would the prize if South Yorkshire wins one of its two City Challenge bids .sx The package will be officially unwrapped on Monday when Barnsley , Doncaster and Rotherham put their case to the Government for being one of 15 areas chosen to share pounds350m of grant aid .sx The three towns want pounds39 .sx 5m to help transform the Dearne Valley area , reclaiming the vast Wath/Manvers pit site - which is officially the biggest eyesore in the country - and pumping new life into the decaying communities .sx Twenty other areas are also competing for a share including neighboring Sheffield .sx Partnership If the Dearne Valley succeeds , projects to get support would include new bisness and industry developments , housing , a new college , golf course and national centre for the environment .sx They would also include a hotel , large tracts of parkland and an array of training and support scheme for residents aimed at getting the region back to work .sx The five-year package will be put to Envinronment Minister Robert Key on Monday morning although no decision on whether the Dearne has succeeded is expected until the end of this month .sx A partnership of Barnsley , Doncaster and Rotherham councils and private business will put forward the ideas .sx