Today we’re looking at the launch of the People’s Network, a massive milestone in a long campaign to bring South Yorkshire’s buses and trams into public control for the first time in nearly 40 years. Molten orange buses and trams will start to become visible in Doncaster and Sheffield in September 2027, with Barnsley and Rotherham joining the fun in 2029. But what else is going to change beyond a lick of paint? That’s today’s big story.
As well as that, we have more news about freeholds in Sheffield, spring crafting at Kelham Island Museum, and a lovely flat in Nether Edge.
Send us a tip! Our new office phone is flooded with WhatsApp messages from all the people with the best gossip, but we’d always like to hear more from our community of readers. If you’d like to pass us some information in confidence, offer feedback or make a suggestion, please do get in touch by hitting the button below.
The Tribune is now on Whatsapp! Get in touch with any tips or things you think we should be looking into. All messages treated in confidence.
💼 Just one week left to apply to be our new staff writer in Birmingham, working alongside our brilliant colleagues to deliver investigative reporting, beautifully-written features and breaking news. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them this link. Deadline is Sunday.
📰 We gave ourselves one month to find 500 people in Leeds who wanted to back us to launch a new newspaper. Over the weekend, we hit that target, meaning we are now going to launch a new newspaper in West Yorkshire! A job advertisement for a staff writer to run operations in Leeds will be published in due course, but in the meantime, if you’d like to support our mission to revive local journalism in the UK, click here to sign up.
In case you missed it
For our weekend read, Victoria interviewed Dominic Madden, the man who became Sheffield’s public enemy number one a few years ago, after he told The Leadmill he would be evicting them to run his own venue in their building. (As Victoria’s previous reporting revealed, the situation was more nuanced than it first appeared.) However, now Madden has finally got what he wanted and opened Electric Studios, what does he want to do with it?
On Tuesday, Dan visited Ed’s Workshop, a community of artisan makers in Sheffield city centre which helps young people with learning difficulties secure creative, stimulating, paid employment. Lots of our members loved the story including Veronica Yuill who said “What a fantastic project! It’s a wonderful thing to release and support the creativity of these young people, and Elaine Bird, who said “Great article about Ed's workshop. Truly inspiring”.
And on Friday, Mollie travelled all the way to that there London to take a look at Sheffield Hallam University’s brand new campus at Brent Cross. The university has spent millions on the project, while at the same time cutting hundreds of academic roles in Sheffield, with many staff members complaining that the university’s leadership has got its priorities badly wrong.
This story is free to read. We rely on the generosity of our paying subscribers to keep providing lots of our journalism for free for those who are less able to afford it, so if you’re able to sign up, please click the button below.
The big picture: Happy Mother’s Day 💐
We love this new mural by top Sheffield street artist Marcus Method in tribute to his mum Sue, who died four years ago. Located at the former Debenhams building in Sheffield city centre, the artist said it was particularly fitting as it is where she used to work and where he would always go and chat to her when he was in town. The mural was funded by the Friends of Sheffield City Centre.
The big story: Sheffield goes orange 🚌
Top line: At 4.30pm on Friday, we joined a secret press conference of journalists, rail experts and bus nerds to get the first glimpse of what South Yorkshire’s brand new franchised transport system will look like. Here are the key details:
We hope you like orange, as you’re going to be seeing a lot of it. The main colour for Sheffield’s buses and trams will be “molten orange”, accompanied by asphalt black and grey. We’re told that green was considered, but West Yorkshire is going to use that, so it was decided to link to the city’s industrial heritage rather than its beautiful surroundings.
The People’s Republic Network of South Yorkshire: It will be known as the South Yorkshire People’s Network, or just “the people’s network”, and is set to launch in Doncaster and Sheffield in September 2027, followed by Rotherham and Barnsley in 2029. This will be the moment when passengers are served by buses overseen by Oliver Coppard's team rather than private companies. “I do think this is an incredibly exciting moment for South Yorkshire,” Coppard said via video link.
Background: A 2019 review of the city region’s transport network by Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts found problems with frequency, reliability, connectivity, quality, accessibility and affordability, blaming “woefully inadequate” funding and a lack of accountability and recommending the system be brought back under local control. Oliver Coppard has been advocating for a fully franchised transport network since 2022, arguing the current system is fraught with difficulties and works for the benefit of shareholders rather than passengers.
What happens next: SYMCA has secured £1.5 billion of investment to get the franchised system underway, which includes £630 million towards “the renewal and enhancement of our tram network” and £350 million towards buses. It should make it more seamless for passengers to get around South Yorkshire, by linking up bus and tram timetables.
Another advantage is that within a franchised transport system, combined authorities are allowed to “cross subsidise”, meaning they can take money from profitable bus routes to fund loss-making parts of the network which would otherwise be scrapped by private operators. “That will have significant advantages for South Yorkshire, especially the more rural parts,” Coppard noted.
But there’s still a way to go. Coppard says conversations are ongoing about how to keep fares down for passengers, and has promised free fares for those under 18. In Greater Manchester, adult bus fares are capped at £2 a journey, but Coppard wouldn’t be drawn on how much he expects passengers to have to pay in South Yorkshire. “My ambition is fares are more affordable,” he said, adding that under the privatised system, he’s seen “fares increase by up to 20% and I think that is unacceptable, I think that is wrong”.
Rail revival? SYMCA says it hopes for “four fast train services per hour between Sheffield and Leeds” by the 2030s and “four fast trains per hour between Sheffield and Manchester” in the 2040s. All of which sound like welcome changes — but how will our train services meaningfully change under the People’s Network? For a start, SYMCA won’t have control over rail infrastructure, and infrastructure accounted for 27% of all train cancellations in 2022/2023, making it difficult for them to guarantee a higher standard of rail experience. Coppard was a little vague here, but said that “governments have been very clear that mayors will play a leading role in those systems” and “I’m really ambitious and confident in the role we can play” in improving our trains.
Have your say: There will be opportunities for the public to have their say in how to make journeys more reliable, affordable and accessible in the coming months. If you want to see the bright orange buses for yourself, there’s one parked near Barker’s Pool until 4pm today.
The weekly Whitworth ✍️
Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on Sheffield Hallam University’s new London campus in Brent Cross.
Your Tribune briefing 🗞️
Is the “Andrew Milne effect” changing the property market in Sheffield? While searching for our home of the week on Rightmove, we noticed multiple freeholds of Sheffield properties for sale for between £3,500 and £12,000. This one, on Barkers Road in Nether Edge, is one of the priciest at £12,000. For investors, the adverts say that freeholds provide a “high-control, high-return asset” which allows the owner to “legally charge and collect a variety of fees in line with the lease terms”, including fees for “alterations, extensions, loft conversions” and breach of lease fees for unauthorised works. They can also "[take] formal action if necessary", and even the potential for "forfeiture of the lease" in extreme cases. The advert goes on to say that homeowners should buy their freeholds to give them peace of mind (to avoid precisely those things from their freeholder) and increase the value of their home. In one case we have been told about, a “for sale” sign even appeared outside a Sheffield resident’s home without their consent.
When The Tribune asked the estate agent for the ground rent on one of these freeholds, they told us it was between “£10-£30 a year”, suggesting that the value comes less from its potential as a standard investment, and more the opportunity to levy fees on homeowners. If the freehold of your house has appeared on Rightmove without your knowledge, please get in touch.
Households to get bigger blue bins for recycling ♻️ Everyone in Sheffield will receive a new, larger blue recycling bin by the end of this year. From 1 April, residents will also finally be able to recycle plastic pots, tubs, trays, aerosols, foil and cartons in their brown bins. Councillor Joe Otten told the BBC the new blue bins were being introduced because “more than 10,000 residents told us their current bin simply isn't big enough for the level of paper and card they recycle,” while the expansion of brown bin recycling comes following a change in national guidelines. A food recycling scheme in Sheffield, which was first run as a trial in 2022, has been delayed.
‘Daylight robbery’: M1 drivers boggle at the rising price of fuel ⛽ A petrol station near Sheffield — Woodall services off the M1 — has received the dubious honour of being named “one of the UK’s most expensive pit stops,” after the price of petrol rose to 172.9p a litre. Fuel prices reached their highest level in 18 months on Friday, as a direct result of the US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Biker Alan Harrison, who told the Guardian the price at Woodall was “daylight robbery,” said it was likely to make drivers start “seriously thinking about how often they use their car” — something not everyone will consider bad news.
Can Sheffield Hallam open its London campus in time? In a statement this morning, a spokesperson for Barnet Council has insisted the development is "on track for completion this summer” and said “we look forward to welcoming Sheffield Hallam University to the neighbourhood soon.” However, in our story last Friday, we revealed that not a single company has yet submitted a formal bid to run operations down in Brent Cross, with the university being forced to switch to a “direct award” process where they hand-pick a supplier themselves. A spokesperson for Hallam did not respond to our questions about whether the university will be able to open to students in September this year, but this morning, the university announced it would be holding open days at the London campus for applicants on 21 March and 26 April.
But when might those prospective students be able to start studying in London? A senior staff member at another regional university in the North has offered some insight. The fact that the process is ongoing “makes this really unlikely to be able to legitimately proceed”, they said, explaining “a campus will need approval, as will staff, programmes, contracts and due diligence.” In addition to this, the UCAS applications cycle is already closed, meaning “the only viable solution would be to open and deliver to the smallest of groups”.
Home of the week 🏡
We love this quirky one bedroom apartment in a fabulous period property in leafy Nether Edge. As well as loads of original features, the flat comes with a private roof terrace in the turret of the building and allocated parking for one car. It is on the market for £175,000.
Things to do 📆
Dance 🕺 On Tuesday, learn to work a runway, strut, dance and pose at Ghetto Fabulous and Andro & Eve’s fabulous queer dance and movement workshop at Revolution Studios on Bailey Street in Sheffield city centre. For those who attend, there will also be the opportunity to join further free workshops in April and May and to take to the runway at Andro & Eve’s Reyt Queer Extravaganza at Forge Warehouse on 8 May. Tickets are priced £2-£8.50.
Art 🖼️ On Wednesday at the Graves Gallery, enjoy an evening talk with acclaimed British painter Ryan Mosley, whose richly imaginative canvases have made him one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary figurative art. Discover the ideas, inspirations, and processes behind his latest exhibition When the Day is Done, which is currently on at the gallery. The free one-hour talk starts at 6pm and will be followed by an audience Q&A.
Craft 🌿 On Thursday at Kelham Island Museum, get crafty and learn how to create a fresh spring door wreath to take home. You’ll join Emma McGeehan, floral designer and owner of Orchis Floral Design to learn how to make a wreath using traditional craft techniques. The workshop starts at 6pm and costs £45. On the same day, The Lescar will be hosting a spring equinox craft workshop using natural materials and spring bulbs. Tickets are priced £35.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, click here to sign up to get quality local journalism in your inbox.
If you’d like to sponsor editions of The Tribune and reach over 30,000 readers, you can get in touch or visit our advertising page below for more information
