Sheffield’s Supertram comes back under public control on its 30th anniversary
On its 30th anniversary, Sheffield’s iconic Supertram will return to being under control of the local authority.
South Yorkshire Future Trams Limited will officially take over all tram services from Stagecoach on Thursday 21 March.
In the future, there are hopes of expanding services. In the short term, this handing over of power will have little effect on people’s journeys, but residents will see a few changes, including a new Supertram logo, a brand new app, and some fares being discounted by 10% for the first 100 days of operation.
Stagecoach has had control of trams since 1997. The Leader of Sheffield City Council, Tom Hunt, has detailed exciting plans for the extension of the Supertram. He said: “We’re focused on working with the mayoral combined authority and our partners in central government on a plan to reopen disused rail lines.”
The council is preparing to renew disused rail lines across Sheffield to help the city be more connected. The old Sheffield Victoria Station could be reopened to provide tram services to Stocksbridge, as well as through North-East Derbyshire to Chesterfield.
Mr Hunt said: “Lots of people are commuting into Sheffield. By having tram train services running on those disused rail lines, we think that it would take off vehicle traffic from heavily congested roads.”
Plans have also been announced to create a new tram stop in Templeborough, with Network Rail and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) hoping that 200,000 people will use it each year.
However, 20 years ago, plans were proposed to extend tramlines that never came to fruition, leaving much of the public at the time skeptical of transport promises.
The city was the last to abandon its tram service in 1960 and the second to bring it back in 1994 with trams becoming synonymous with the area.
Tennis club saved from collapse by parish council funding
An Ecclesfield tennis club has beaten the odds to survive after “phenomenal” support from the public led to a burst of funding.
The £10,000 from Ecclesfield Parish Council was critical to meet the crowdfund target goal of £25,000 needed to ensure Thorncliffe Tennis Club would retain its £7,500 Sports England pledge.
The funding comes after the only club in Sheffield’s north was on the brink of collapse, unable to raise enough money in enough time to urgently resurface its courts.
Without this funding, the three outdoor courts would have been be unable to pass safety standards, and the club might have been forced to close.
Karen Lyon, fundraising manager for Thorncliffe Tennis Club, said: “When we started out with this I can tell you people really didn’t think it would succeed. It took us nine weeks but we did it.
“The public has been phenomenal. The support from local tennis clubs, the offers from companies helping us to resurface the courts, and of course the parish council have been incredible.”
Eric Smedley, 92, at Thorncliffe Tennis Club, Credit: Thorncliffe Tennis Club Facebook page.
DUP Stormont attempt to block new EU law a stunt, SDLP claims
A DUP attempt to veto a new EU law applying in Northern Ireland by using one of the democratic consent processes in the Windsor Framework is a “stunt”, the SDLP has claimed.
The unionist party is to use an applicability motion at Stormont on Tuesday to allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to vote on the protection of geographical indications for craft and industrial products.
Under the rules of the Windsor Framework, a deal agreed by the UK Government to allay unionist concerns over post-Brexit trading arrangements, some EU laws still apply in Northern Ireland.
Police seize £20k worth of drugs and illegal vapes during county lines crackdown week
South Yorkshire Police shut down over £50,000 worth of criminal activity last week as part of a national crackdown on county line crime, including thousands of pounds worth of illegal vapes.
As part of County Lines Intensification Week, police seized over £15,000 worth of cash and Class A drugs between 4 and 10 March.
Vapes and counterfeit cigarettes totalling £6,500 in value were also seized from four premises believed to be linked with organised crime in the Sharrow, Highfield, and Abbeydale areas of Sheffield.
Two county drug dealing lines were shut down and 18 arrests were made for multiple offences of child trafficking, possession of Class A and B drugs with intent to supply, theft of motor vehicles, and possession of an offensive weapon.
Chief Inspector Leanne Dean, the Force's lead for County Lines, said: "This week of intensified activity demonstrates the strength in partnership working and sends a strong message that county lines gangs have no place in South Yorkshire."
This police action also resulted in the seizure of a motor vehicle worth £30,000, 160 cannabis plants, 13 mobile phones and 10 weapons, all used for criminal activity.
Police also actively safeguarded and supported 113 men and women at risk of exploitation and modern slavery.
Engagement stalls and events across city centres, GP surgeries and pharmacies saw officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) educate members of the public on how to spot signs of exploitation, cuckooing, and modern slavery.
Council plans to make Sheffield’s most dangerous roads safer for kids
In response to concerns that Sheffield is the second most dangerous city for children using roads, a new plan has been proposed to make Sheffield roads safer.
Sheffield City Council have launched a new Road Safety Action Plan that will focus on continuing to reduce the numbers of road accidents in Sheffield.
Cllr Ben Miskell, Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee, said: “Safer roads are a human right, and we want Sheffield to be a place where everyone is free to move in a safe and healthy way, every day.”
Council plans to make Sheffield’s most dangerous roads safer for kids
Council plans to make Sheffield’s most dangerous roads safer for kids
In response to concerns that Sheffield is the second most dangerous city for children using roads, a new plan has been proposed to make Sheffield roads safer.
Sheffield City Council have launched a new Road Safety Action Plan that will focus on continuing to reduce the numbers of road accidents in Sheffield.
Cllr Ben Miskell, Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee, said: "Safer roads are a human right, and we want Sheffield to be a place where everyone is free to move in a safe and healthy way, every day."
The Road Safety Action Plan was first introduced to the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee on Wednesday 13 March.
The plan includes suggestions of projects and ideas that the Council will adopt in order to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on Sheffield's roads by half before 2030.
One of the main focuses of the plan is the safety of children going to and from school. The plan includes an expansion of the School Streets programme, as well as part-time 20mph zones during morning and afternoon school run times. It even proposed to close some roads to give students and their parents a safe place to walk to and from school.
Parking outside of schools has also been identified as an issue, with the Council proposing to work with parking enforcement teams and South Yorkshire Police to tackle the issue.
The Safety Action Plan recognises the inevitability of human error, so, instead, prioritises creating safer road environments by redesigning roads for better visibility, changing speed limits, and creating infrastructure that protects road users.
Cllr Miskell said: "Statistics for the number of people killed or seriously injured on Sheffield’s roads shows that road safety in Sheffield needs to improve. We mustn’t forget that behind each statistic is a family or loved one, torn apart by pain and grief. These numbers are about people, people who have set off on a journey and, in some cases, never come home."
This comes after it was announced last year that Sheffield has a worse record on child road causalities than nearly all metropolitan areas.
Public Health England and the Department for Transport data shows 113 under-16s were killed or seriously injured in road collisions in Sheffield from 2016-18.
Sheffield is has the second highest number of children killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents, after Leeds, with a rate of 3.06 incidents per 10,000 children, in 2020-22.
Cllr Miskell said: “We, as a community, have the power to change this and as a council we must show leadership and that is why we are adopting Vision Zero, which is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
“To achieve our vision in Sheffield, we will continue to work with our partners and develop and invest in our education, engineering, and enforcement programmes to ensure we are making our city as safe as possible.”
Sheffield council approve additional funding for new post-16 SEND accommodation
In a meeting today, an additional £1,085.0k was approved for funding of an additional 100 more post-16 SEND places at the Peaks Campus of Sheffield College.
Sheffield’s special schools have already been significantly expanded and are on constrained sites, so the most viable way to increase sufficiency is to develop provision in post-16 and increase the flow of pupils to these settings.
Finance manager, Damian Wilkinson said: "It will be really helpful for relieving places that are over filled in the secondary school area."
Post-16 learners with Education, Health and Care Plans across mainstream and special education settings are forecast to increase by 284% by 2029, with at least half these learners expected to be in special education settings
The Peaks Campus has been closed since September 2023 and capital work is needed to make it fit for purpose.
This includes remodelling rooms, new fencing, the building of life skills suites and installing a fire evacuation lift.
The funding from the project is coming from High Needs Capital Allocation (£1,193.1k) and Sheffield College (£3.9k)
“Best way out of poverty is through work” says Work and Pensions Secretary
The “best way out of poverty…is through work”, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said in response to calls for legislation to ensure Universal Credit will cover essentials such as food, household bills and travel costs.
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) told the Commons: “Research from the Trussell Trust shows the devastating truth though, more than half of people receiving Universal Credit ran out of food in January and couldn’t afford more, and 2.4 million Universal Credit claimants have fallen into debt because they couldn’t keep up with essential bills.
“Will the Secretary of State back their joint campaign with the Joseph Rowntree foundation and commit to legislating for an essentials guarantee in Universal Credit to reduce food bank use and ensure everyone has a protected minimum amount of support in order to afford life’s essentials, yes or no?”
In his reply Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said: “This Government recognises that the best way out of poverty, the best way to address the circumstances that (Ms Blackman) describes is through work, and that is why the Chancellor reduced taxation making work pay evermore, it’s why the national living wage is to be increased by close to 10% as of this April, following a similar increase around this time last year.”
Yorkshire village celebrates local art in annual festival
The village of Penistone is hosting a festival of local talent to celebrate all things art from Friday 15 to Monday 25 March.
Chrissie Yates, Chair of the festival, Penistone Arts Weeks, said: “There are a plethora of writers in Penistone with amazing artistic flair and this festival has given them a platform.”
After seven years of community success, the festival has seen the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Macmillan, and Willy Russell. Mrs Yates said: “2024 has blown us away.”
The festival includes a range of music, literature, drama, film and art.
The festival began in 2017 when Mrs Yates, invited residents and councillors to discuss setting up arts events for the community.
With no financial backing to raise funds for this year's events, The Penistone Arts Collective - a group of talented artists, have created a 2024 calendar which will be sold in local stores, cafes and venues.
One of the community's favourite events is the annual High Street Gallery, which sees Penistone Arts Collective decorating the high streets' shop windows with their artwork.
Another festival activity is the National Theatre Live's The Motive and the Cue, an award winning new play by Jack Thorne, writer of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The show will go up on 21 March at 7pm at Penistone Paramount.
To check out the festival, go to Welcome to Penistone Arts Weeks 2024 – 15-25 March 2024 (wordpress.com)
Royal Visit: Prince William expected to unveil plans to prevent homelessness in visit to Sheffield
Prince William is expected to visit Sheffield tomorrow where he will unveil major commitments, secured through The Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme, to prevent homelessness.
The Prince of Wales will meet with local landlords to discuss how they can assist with ending family homelessness within the city and hear about housing commitments they are making to support the Homewards programme.
Last year, Sheffield was announced as one of the locations to benefit from The Royal Foundation's Homewards Programme. Homewards is a five-year locally led programme launched by Prince William which hopes to show that it is possible to end homelessness.
Speaking last year, Prince William said: “In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need.
“Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate."
Media Democracy Festival disrupted by GB News reporter days before warning over “integrity and credibility” risks
A GB News reporter disrupted an annual Media Democracy Festival in Sheffield, two days before the organisation was criticised by Ofcom for its use of politicians as presenters.
The Ofcom code specifies politicians can't be used as presenters unless it is, exceptionally, editorially justified.
But during a panel discussion on Saturday titled "How to solve a problem like GB News", its reporter Charlie Peters claimed that "GB News was Britain’s number one news channel on at least one day last week", and said there was a place for the channel in today’s media landscape.
After the event, GB News published an article saying Mr Peters went along to see “what the panelists and audience at this lefty convention might say about us.”
Controversial internet personality Oli London posted on X: “Media democracy? More like media dictatorship wanting to silence Britain’s most popular news channel that speaks up for the British people.”
The statement issued by Ofcom after its investigation into having three MPs as hosts said: "In our view, the use of politicians to present the news risks undermining the integrity and credibility of regulated broadcast news."
After the event, the Media Reform Coalition said: "We were grateful that a GB News reporter attended the Festival and engaged constructively in the debate during the audience Q&A.
"This is in stark contrast to the mock outrage from his on-air colleagues at GB News, who have spent the last week attacking the Media Democracy Festival for daring to hold a free, public discussion about the channel.
"The panel's discussions on GB News have proved to be especially timely, given that the media regulator Ofcom has today ruled that GB News programming breached broadcasting standards for the 12th time in two years.
"We have always rejected the cynical implication by GB News that organising a public debate on the media in this country is a threat to freedom of speech. On the contrary, these kinds of discussions should be welcomed and celebrated as essential to a healthy democracy."
The festival’s initial advertisement for the talk on X (formerly Twitter) received backlash, with over 1,000 replies criticising what commenters saw as an unjustified attack on the channel.
The panel discussion on GB News focused on the regulation of the channel and the impact it has on the media landscape. During the talk, speaker Marcela Pizarro, former Al Jazeera producer, said that the “global rise of the far-right movement” was “relevant to this topic.”
Helen Belcher, of Trans Media Watch, said: “As a trans person I’ve not been brave enough to watch GB News.”
The panel also featured journalist and broadcaster Michael Crick, as well as Faisal Hanif from the Centre for Media Monitoring.
The Media Reform Coalition rejected the implication that the event was a threat to free speech, with Chair Tom Mills claiming the talk focused on obligations surrounding due impartiality.
The day also featured talks titled ‘The Media’s War on Gaza’, and ‘General Election 2024: Priorities for media reform’.
The closing keynote was delivered by Paul Fleming, General Secretary of Equity.
Back-to-back wins set up Steelers for historic season
A thrilling weekend of hockey for the Sheffield Steelers resulted in consecutive wins.
On Saturday night, the Steelers eked past the Nottingham Panthers in a tense 3-2 shootout win, their first match since their electric Challenge Cup Final win.
Aaron Fox said: “[I was] hopeful that the boys could find a way past Rok today. The ice was not great tonight so you weren’t seeing many moves or dekes, it was more of a shooting penalty shot tonight and just happy we were able to find a way [to win].”
The Steelers, fresh off winning their first Challenge Cup since 2020, are looking to claim its first Elite League championship since 2016 and first playoff championship since 2017.
Saturday’s game was gripping from the outset as the Steelers put contrast pressure on the Panthers. The Steelers were unable to find the back of the net as Panthers’ goaltender Rok Stojanovic routinely flashed his glove and pad, saving all of the Steelers’ 15 shots on goal in the first period.
Marc-Olivier Vallerand opened the scoring in the second period, giving the Steelers its first lead of the game. Vallerand deked towards the goal, missing his first shot attempt off Stojanovic’s pad, before knocking in an unassisted chip-shot goal off the rebound.
The Panthers quickly responded in less than two minutes thanks to a Westin Michaud goal, levelling the score to 1-1. The Steelers successfully killed off a two-minute slashing penalty by Brett Neumann before closing out the second period tied.
Following a Steelers two-minute minor penalty for too many men on the ice, the Panthers took a 2-1 lead on an Otto Nieminen power play goal, but the Steelers levelled the score within four minutes after English-born captain Robert Dowd knocked in the tying score.
In the three vs three sudden-death overtime period, the Steelers peppered Stojanovic with shots but were routinely denied, and a five shot penalty shootout ensued.
After a denial on the first penalty shot, Vallerand took an early lead in the shootout before the Panthers’ Lunsjo tied it up. Forward Patrick Watling claimed the lead for the Steelers after he calmly glided towards the crease and nailed the puck in the back of the net.
Both the Steelers and Panthers saw shots bounce off the post and crossbar while the tension mounted but a stellar performance throughout the game and into the shootout by Matthew Greenfield gave the home side a win. He denied the Panthers’ final attempt and erupted with… before being mobbed by his teammates on the ice.
The success continued into the following day, after the Steelers thrashed the Blaze 7-3. They opened the game with two goals in the opening two minutes, part of a four game first period.
Vallerand and Daniel Ciampini both scored two goals on the offensive end, while defensively, the Steelers were able to kill four Blaze power plays.
The Steelers travel to Cardiff this Wednesday to face the second place Devils.