Back us in 2026. We're ambitious for The Tribune to have its biggest year to date. With our recent investigations, we've shown what we're capable of. But the more support we have the more we can do. Give yourself a gift, and back our work, by taking out an annual subscription for just £89, or £7.42 a month.
Dear readers — Christmas and New Year is a time when it’s natural to look to the future, and to the past. Earlier this month someone reminded me of something I had written over four and a half years ago, a few weeks after The Tribune had started publishing. On 23 May 2021, I wrote a piece titled “Why I left my newspaper job to start this local newsletter”.
In truth it was probably as much an attempt to convince myself I had done the right thing as anyone else. Looking back, I still remember the trepidation when I handed my notice in at The Star, a tried and tested newspaper that had been publishing for over 130 years, for an experimental new media venture. Several of my colleagues and even some family members feared that I had taken leave of my senses.
There were good reasons for wanting a change though. In the piece I talked about a growing sense that the local newspaper industry had lost its way, and a belief that there could be a better way. But at the time there was absolutely no guarantee that The Tribune would even get to its first Christmas — then an entire seven months away — let alone any further. Last week we marked our fifth Christmas and tomorrow, we go into our sixth year of existence.
In May 2021, The Tribune had just 2,413 free subscribers on our email list, and no paid members (we wouldn't open the paid scheme for another six weeks). Today, we have more than 35,000 of you on our free email list and a few weeks ago we passed 3,000 paying members. Your support has meant that we have been able to hire new editors and reporters including Daniel Timms, Victoria Munro and Mollie Simpson, and last year we were able to secure an office of our own at Leah’s Yard.
I’ve never been one for blowing my own trumpet, but when I look back at that piece, I feel a quiet sense of pride. I took a risk, and it paid off. But none of it would have been possible without the faith that you placed in us. At a drinks party for Tribune members at Abbeydale Ballroom just before Christmas, I lost count of the number of people who thanked us for the work we do. But in truth it should be us who are thanking you for the work which your funding allows us to do.
As you might expect, a hot topic of conversation on the night was our recent stories about Andrew Milne. In some ways that story feels like a culmination of what I hoped The Tribune would one day be when I wrote my message in 2021. Doing an investigation like that would have been impossible back then. Now, thanks to your continued support, we are able to.
Thank you for your support over the last 12 months, and Happy New Year.
Dan Hayes
Founder, The Tribune
We asked readers to predict what would happen in 2025. Two of them nailed it
Way back at the start of 2025 we asked Tribune readers to predict what would happen in Sheffield during the year. We came up with ten yes or no questions, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We made our own predictions, and invited readers to submit theirs — with a year’s Tribune membership on offer to the lucky winner.
So now it’s time to revisit our predictions and discover which Nostradamus got all ten right…
- Will the Blades return to the Premier League?
Sorry to open with a painful one for Blades fans, but this was the first question, and it just wasn’t to be. United finished a very comfortable third, 14 points ahead of 4th placed Sunderland. But in the play-off final at Wembley, Sunderland pulled off a 2-1 win, consigning the Blades to their tenth failure to progress from the playoffs. Since then, Sunderland have had an impressive start in the Premier League, while things haven’t been great at Bramall Lane. Chris Wilder was fired then rehired, and they’re now in the bottom half of the table.
Answer: no. The Tribune said: yes. 50% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will The Leadmill building open under new ownership?
2025 was the year the titanic struggle for the control of the Leadmill finally came to an end. Landlord Dominic Madden at long last managed to evict long-time tenant Phil Mills after a court battle in Leeds. Mills didn’t go quietly, gutting the building and trying to make off with some cultural heritage along the way — only to be stopped in the act by the council, with the result that half an artwork now sits on the side of the building.
But despite Madden’s promises to get the newly renamed “Electric Sheffield” open by September, in July the opening was set back to February 2026. So it’s a no.
Answer: no. The Tribune said: yes. 36% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will the local plan get passed at long last?
We knew this wouldn’t be straightforward, so we predicted no. But we didn’t anticipate how un-straightforward it would become. The green belt has become a battleground, with the anti-development side even releasing a protest song, and Sean Bean making a donation.
Meanwhile the council has found some green belt sites, but still not enough to hit the government’s housing targets for Sheffield, leaving the Inspector with an awkward decision between a) passing an inadequate plan for the sake of actually having one b) rejecting the plan altogether or c) trying to make some more tweaks and fudge it through. At this point, we still can’t guarantee that a plan will be passed in 2026 — 17 years since the last one.
Answer: no. The Tribune said: no. 55% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will Sheffield keep the snooker?
This year Daniel wrote an agonised cri de coeur over the endless back-and-forth over whether the snooker would move. We hoped this would be the year we’d finally get some resolution, but Barry Hearn — head honcho at Matchroom Sports — continues to keep us guessing.
Daniel Timms
This year he helpfully said that “someone, whether it’s [the] government or Sheffield, has to come up with a way of showing us that they’re going to treat us with respect”, while notably failing to offer any funds from Matchroom's very deep pockets to fund the new venue that he says he needs. This one is technically “yes”, as we haven’t lost it — but we still wait for Barry to put us out of our misery one way or the other.
Answer: yes. The Tribune said: no. 51% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will the universities hold further rounds of redundancies?
It was depressingly predictable, with this being the question most readers got right. In September, the University of Sheffield announced the second round of redundancies in just two years in an attempt to cut a further £23 million from staffing costs, while at Sheffield Hallam University, 170 jobs were lost through a voluntary severance scheme, on top of the 500 lost in 2024. There may well be more to come in 2026.
Answer: yes. The Tribune said: yes. 89% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will the city centre start to fill up?
“Yes, but slowly”, was our prediction. And that feels about right. Most of the new retail units brought forward through heart of the city are full, with Lucy&Yak, S∅strene Grene, The Cream Store and Güs sauna all moving in. Even on Fargate, things are looking up, with the building work complete and viral potato peddlers getting in on the action.
It’s one of the big good news stories of the year, and with more space coming on the market, let’s hope it continues.
Answer: yes. The Tribune said: yes. 67% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will Sheffield Council be forced to issue a “bankruptcy” (Section 114) notice?
We got this one wrong — we were sufficiently alarmed by the talk of equal pay settlements and the continued downgrading of financial forecasts that we thought this might be the year Sheffield joined Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow in the broke councils club.
Thankfully that’s been avoided, but only by drawing heavily on reserves, to plug a predicted £28m gap this year. There’s certainly no triumphalism emanating from the Town Hall, with the council telling us: “we can fund the overspend from reserves but we recognise that this is an unsustainable way to continue to manage the budget.”
Answer: no. The Tribune said: yes. 65% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will the miniature steel man be built?
It was the question on nobody’s lips — would the “Yorkshire Icon”, a miniature of the Steel Man (himself meant to be Sheffield’s answer to the Angel of the North) be erected on a roundabout near Meadowhall?
Despite much public hype, it didn’t happen. Will it be happening any time soon? We checked the website for updates and got… this:
Answer: no. The Tribune said: no. 79% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will the city centre crackdown on anti-social behaviour succeed?
We were the first to break the story: that the council were planning to introduce a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO). The PSPO came into force in April, and banned begging, loitering, drug use, public urination/defecation and drinking alcohol in an antisocial manner. People who committed these offences could be fined, though the expectation was that initially people would be warned, not least because many of those affected have few financial resources.
We wrote that: “we’ll say this has succeeded if the monthly police data shows a clear decrease in anti-social behaviour incidents in the city centre following its introduction.” We can answer that question with a high level of precision, because police crime data is logged to exact co-ordinates. It hasn’t happened — if anything, the number of incidents has gone up, though that may also be linked to increased reporting.
Answer: no. The Tribune said: no. 80% of Tribune readers got it right.
- Will Sheffield’s pub renaissance get back on track?
Sheffield’s pubs had been on a journey of recovery — after a sharp fall following the financial crisis, there was gradual growth from 2018-2023. But in 2024, disaster struck as the cost of living crisis hit and 15 pubs closed.
We were optimistic and said that the pub resurgence would get back on track. And we were right! In 2025 there were 350 pubs and bars in Sheffield, the highest number since records began in 2010. That includes various new city centre offerings including Kapital and The Fargate. Something to raise a glass to as you see the new year in.
Answer: yes. The Tribune said: yes. 66% of Tribune readers got it right.
So, we got six out of ten — slightly better than flipping a coin, but not much. Just as well our job is reporting the news, rather than predicting it.
However — of the 300 odd readers who entered, two got a straight ten out of ten. They were Laura Stephens and Rosa Tomalin. That took it down to our tie-breaker: what position would Wednesday end the 2024/25 championship in? Rosa was pessimistic, plumping for 20th, whereas Laura went for a more hopeful 7th. In the end, the lads in blue and white finished a creditable 12th, slightly closer to Laura’s guess, making her our winner!
We asked Laura for her thoughts on this week’s lottery numbers, but alas, she didn’t reply.
We considered running this feature again for 2026 but realised many of the big questions — snooker, the universities, council finances, the local plan — are still the same, making it less exciting. But maybe we’ll bring it back for 2027.
Thanks to everyone who entered. And finally, a Happy New Year from all of us at The Tribune.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, click here to sign up to get quality local journalism in your inbox.
Comments
How to comment:
If you are already a member,
click here to sign in
and leave a comment.
If you aren't a member,
sign up here
to be able to leave a comment.
To add your photo, click here to create a profile on Gravatar.
