Dear readers — as well as covering the action in Sheffield, we try to get out and about to our neighbouring towns when we can. And this week's story is a bit of a cross-boundary affair, about someone who lives in Sheffield but is making waves in Chesterfield.
As the national debate about flag flying continues to rumble on, one flag fan has decided that bigger is better. After flying a 30ft wide flag opposite Chesterfield Council's offices, Holmes was told to stop or face a fine. Now he's planning to hoist one ten times the size. Mollie joined Holmes in his Land Rover Defender to ask why.
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🏛️ Mohammed Umar Khan, the schoolboy who stabbed and killed 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose at All Saints Catholic High School on 3 February, has been detained for life with a minimum term of 16 years. Khan, also 15, was named for the first time yesterday after media including The Star and BBC Sheffield successfully campaigned for his identity to be made public. Sentencing Khan, Mrs Justice Naomi Ellenbogen described him as “the aggressor” in a confrontation with Harvey, who was his former friend, after the two had taken opposite sides in a separate conflict between two other pupils, which led to the school being briefly locked down five days previously. Khan’s lawyers argued he had "snapped" and "lost control" of his actions, adding he experienced racist abuse and taunts on social media about a medical condition, and that he had been neglected and suffered physical and emotional abuse at home. However, the prosecution said he had "wanted to show he was hard" and "knew exactly what he was doing".
🦉 In breaking news, reports are circulating that Sheffield Wednesday is going into administration today. In the last few minutes, Mike Keegan, the Chief Sports Reporter at the Daily Mail has tweeted: "There’s an all staff meeting going on now at Wednesday. Understand Begbies Traynor set to be appointed administrators. Appears HMRC bill has forced the hand". This appears to confirm earlier suggestions from Sheffield football expert Alan Biggs. In his column in the Sheffield Telegraph, he argues that if that were to happen, Wednesday could be forced to leave Hillsborough and share a ground with another club for a time.
⛷️ Sheffield council is set to spend £12 million on a new access road for the former ski village site, report The Star. The proposed access road would create a link from Rutland Road, through Parkwood Industrial and Trade Park, to Douglas Road, and would use up more than half of a £19.4 million government grant to redevelop the site into a country park. The council hope the access road will pave the way for a new attraction at the site, with the company Skyline Luge reportedly interested in building a new gravity park. A Sheffield council spokesperson said the access road would be discussed at a finance and performance committee meeting before the end of 2025. A clean up of the site is also set to start this month, the spokesperson added.
🍻 Sheffield’s newest pub, The Fargate, is now open. The venue, which is based in the former Yorkshire Bank building and jointly-run by the Bakewell brewery Thornbridge and York-based firm Pivovar, held a special VIP launch on Tuesday night followed by a public opening at 12 noon on Wednesday. As you might expect given who is running it, the Fargate has lots of great beers, plus fresh pizza from a traditional Italian pizza oven. A review by Sheffield Forum is here.
By Mollie Simpson
James Holmes is expecting a very large parcel. It’s a 100ft wide Union Jack, which he plans to drape over the side of a large former council office building in Chesterfield. Holmes has owned the currently empty building, prominently placed on Saltergate, since 2021.
He tells me the flag has cost him £3,000. The white diagonal lines, which were printed incorrectly last time, have been fixed, and on the day he and “his men” drop the flag from the roof of the building, cameras will be fixed on the spectacle, broadcasting it to the world (or at least, Holmes’ 4,000-plus followers).
But this isn’t Holmes’ first rodeo. The last time he was hoisting a flag on the side of this building, it was a more modest affair — a mere 30ft wide. Its position — bang opposite the council's offices in Chesterfield Town Hall – seemed calculated to generate maximum attention – and opposition. Two weeks ago, though, disaster struck. Storm Amy, which caused major damage across Europe, claimed another victim: Holmes’ flag. A senior Labour councillor in Chesterfield council, who asks to speak off the record, finds it hilarious. “An act of God! Thank you, God,” she howls.
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