Dear readers — Well, the contrast to last week couldn't be more stark. While we were writing last week’s briefing sweltering in 30 degree heat, this week we’re contemplating putting the heating on! Let’s hope the weather finds a happy medium soon.
Cameras aimed at stopping people parking in bus lanes have popped up at six locations in south west Sheffield, a decision that should have a knock-on effect for the rest of the city. There have been predictable howls of anger from some motorists on social media, but is this really such a bad thing? That’s today’s big story.
Breathtaking opera in the Peak District
Every year, Buxton International Festival puts on some of the very best opera in Britain. In 2026, their two lead operas, La traviata and The Merry Widow are set to be sell-outs with tickets being snapped up fast.
Take a trip to 19th-century Paris with Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata for a fresh take on the classic tale of forbidden love, sacrifice and social prejudice. Or let Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow transport you to 1950s Manhattan, for a deliciously rich comedy of bankruptcy, infidelity, and social climbing.
Whether you’re a long-time opera lover or looking to try something new this summer, escape the city and head to Buxton for an evening at the opera – grab your tickets below. With over 160 stellar events, there’s a show for everyone.
Interested in sponsoring The Tribune? Get in touch.
It’s been a busy two weeks for our campaign to add 1,000 paying members to our list. Last week saw the team take a brief break from being long-form journalists and have a go at being amateur paperboys, schlepping copies of our free print edition to various sunny parks around the city. A special thank you to Chris and Isabelle, who stopped by to see us distributing our papers in Meersbrook Park and asked to take two dozen to give to their friends, plus the good folk at Abbeydale Beerworks and La Biblioteka for posting about our campaign efforts on Instagram. If you would also like to help with the handing-out efforts, get in touch.
But while the print edition is lovely, this campaign is about so much more. We’re trying to dramatically increase the role The Tribune plays in the city by fulfilling a series of five pledges, chosen by you, to make Sheffield even better.
We can only fulfil these pledges if we hit our target of 1,000 members – we’re now just over a quarter of the way there, and we need a big push from our readers over the next few weeks to help us get over the line. If you’d like to help, tell any of your friends who aren’t already Tribune members and remind them they can pay what they feel for the first two months (including nothing at all!). We can only do this with your support.
In even more exciting news, tonight the whole Trib gang will hop on a train down to London for Private Eye’s annual Paul Foot Award ceremony, which commends the best investigative journalism of the year. We’ve made it to the final shortlist of nominees for our multi-part series of investigations into the lawyer Andrew Milne and we find out tonight who the winner is – please do keep your fingers fully crossed for us.
In case you missed it
For our weekend read, Dan visited Victoria Quays to ask why the area has never quite taken off, unlike similar waterside spots in Manchester and Leeds. It’s a story that touches on shadowy corporations and byzantine land ownership and which almost saw Dan sucked into a late-night poker game in his desperation to land an elusive interview. “I've been banging on about VQ for years, it's got huge potential,” wrote commenter Aidan Stones. The piece provoked some spirited debate, including several calls for the gone-but-not-forgotten Dorothy Pax to be revived. Its owner, one comment argued, “singlehandedly did more to generate footfall there than any one else ever has”.
On Tuesday, in Dan's latest writer's edition he touched on topics as diverse as political disintegration and his stuttering attempts to get better at Chinese cooking. And on Thursday, Victoria spoke to local teachers to find out how many of this city’s schoolkids are being taken in by online misinformation — and what we should be doing about it. We know full well this is a topic that really concerns many of our readers, which is why it’s one of the five pledges we’ve made to the city if we hit 1,000 new members. Find out more about the campaign, and how you can get us over the line, here.
The big picture: Mother earth 🌍
The residents of Park Hill flats have an interesting new view from their windows. On The Edge, the winning garden from this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, is currently being installed just outside. It was designed by landscape architect Sarah Eberle, features a carved wooden figure of the Greek Earth goddess Gaia, and will become a permanent feature of Park Hill’s gardens (which are open to all).
The big story: Who’s afraid of bus lane cameras?
Top line: Drivers of Sheffield: be on your best behaviour. Today, new cameras which have their beady eyes trained on three of Sheffield’s busiest roads are being switched on, in order to catch anyone misusing the bus lanes. Sheffield council insists they’ve installed the cameras to encourage more people to use public transport, arguing that it will make bus journeys quicker, more reliable and thus more enticing. But will it work?
Where are the cameras? The cameras are being rolled out in six locations in the south west of the city. Four have been placed on London Road: outside the Potato Oven, at the corner of Keeton's Hill, near Bennett Street, and opposite Randall Place. One camera has been placed on Abbeydale Road at the corner of Miller Road, while another has been set up on Ecclesall Road near Hickmott Road.
What happens if you get caught? From today, these cameras will automatically detect vehicles parking in bus lanes while they’re in use. (If it’s during the weekend or between 9.30am and 4pm on a weekday, you’re in the clear.)
- If you break the rules, a Penalty Charge Notice (PCNs) of £70 will be issued to the car’s registered owner, although it will be cut in half if it’s paid within 21 days.
- However, despite the fact that parking in these bus lanes during certain hours is already a fineable offence (as one of Victoria’s housemates learned the hard way… several times), the council is still giving local drivers a month to change their ways. For the next month, offending motorists caught out by these cameras will receive a warning notice, with no fine attached.
Mad motorists: The announcement provoked predictable howls of anger from (some) motorists. “More money for council to create new needless cycle lanes,” wrote one, while another added: “The war on Sheffield people and motorists continues.”
A ‘full-time car park’: Is it that much of a problem, you might be wondering? And, if you don’t live in this specific corner of Sheffield, why should I care?
Those who live within spitting distance of London Road, where the bulk of these new cameras are located, will know how much they’re needed. As one person wrote on Reddit: “That stretch between Aldi and Jabbarwocky is basically a full-time car park. This will be interesting.” But congestion here also has a knock-on effect on the bus service in many other parts of the city, because of how many routes have to pass along this road. If an 86 bus is stuck behind a parked car on London Road, it’ll take far longer to reach its passengers in Parson Cross.
Competitive edge: Bus lanes are meant to give buses a competitive advantage over car traffic. But, if they get stuck in the same traffic as other vehicles, you might as well still be in your car. As we found out in our Secret Bus Driver piece last year, delays to buses cause huge knock-on problems to the system:
Five minutes delay is just about manageable, but if it gets much longer, things start to unravel. I am picking up passengers later and later, which means that I am starting to take passengers who should really have caught the bus that is following me. I am also having to onboard more passengers than I would expect, which increases my delay. The bus now following me is arriving at bus stops that are empty and so they just carry on driving, getting nearer and nearer. Eventually they will catch me up.
At this point, if they can overtake me they will move on to the next stop where they will pick up all the passengers who should have caught my bus, together with the passengers they should have collected. In the meantime I am now behind their bus so if I can overtake them I will and then at the next stop it’s my turn to pick up two buses’ passengers. This absurd “dance” continues for the remainder of the journey all the way to the terminus. Often both buses are actually late to start off their return journey and so the dance continues.
Of course, there’s also the money: While the fact Sheffield council is offering a month-long grace period does suggest they’re not being too avaricious here, it won’t hurt that they probably expect to bring in a steady source of income from these cameras. Last year, as reported by The Star, the council made a record £7m profit from its various parking services, having generated almost £13m in income and only spent £5.7m. Of the money it earned, more than £6m came from issuing PCNs, significantly more than the sums the council earned from people paying to park legitimately.
It’s worth noting that any profit the council makes from parking is ringfenced for specific uses, which includes road improvement projects and supporting public transport. Council reports are adamant that issuing PCNs is “not a profit focused activity” and that its enforcement officers do not have any targets for the number of fines to issue each day.
Bottom line: These cameras will likely prove unpopular with some drivers, but the logic is sound. You can take buses under public control, but there won’t be a huge deal of point if they can’t get anywhere fast because of cars clogging up the bus lanes.
Your Tribune briefing 🗞️
🚨 Two people arrested in connection with the murder of 30-year-old Shanice Brookes — the “innocent bystander” who was shot and killed outside a West Street nightclub in the early hours of last Bank Holiday Monday — will today appear before Sheffield Crown Court. Jemele Rhone, 30, of Outram Road, Sheffield, has been charged with Shanice's murder, while Deiryen Dyce, 32, of Ellesmere Road North, Sheffield, has been charged with assisting an offender. At Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Friday, the prosecution revealed the pair were arrested in Stockport last Monday on the A555 Manchester Airport link road.
🏗️ The biggest empty plot in Sheffield could soon be filled. The Star report that the huge piece of land outside the train station, which has lain empty for just shy of two decades, will receive £20 million from the national government, in order to finally get shovels in the ground. The new Station Campus development will include 767 homes, offices, commercial space and a bridge for cyclists and walkers to Park Hill. The site was previously earmarked for Channel 4 (which eventually went to Leeds) and Sheffield’s HS2 station (which never happened). The site’s owner Homes England says the first office buildings will pop up in the next five years.
🚂 A new “light well” at Sheffield station has given rail passengers the chance to see a section of the River Sheaf, which has been hidden for over 150 years. The project, organised by the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, exposes a previously hidden shaft down to the river from the southern end of Platform 5A (Chesterfield end). Trust chair Simon Ogden says that — as well as enabling the public to hear, glimpse and smell the river — the light well also helps wildlife by allowing fish and other animals to migrate more easily up and down.
The weekly Whitworth ✍️
Cartoonist James Whitworth on the many challenges facing new Sheffield council leader Fran Belbin as she seeks to manage a political landscape more fragmented than ever.
Home of the week 🏡
This is a bit out of Home of the Week’s normal price range, but it could be an opportunity too good to pass up. The four bedroom, three bathroom detached bungalow in Hollow Meadows is nice enough, but the real star is the location. Set in 8.5 acres of beautiful Peak District moorland, the plot is blessed with stunning 360° views and the potential to build anything from a self-contained annexe to equestrian facilities. It is on the market for £800,000.
Things to do 📆
Theatre 🎭 2:22: A Ghost Story opens at the Lyceum tonight. Winner of best new play at the WhatsOnStage Awards, this supernatural thriller has enjoyed a seven season West End run, a record-breaking UK and Ireland tour and thirty productions across the globe. Described as a “brilliantly funny and adrenaline-filled night where secrets emerge and ghosts may or may not appear”, the production runs until Saturday. Tickets are £15-£66.
Learn ⚒️ On Wednesday, discover your creative side with Ed's Workshop's woodworking classes in Sheffield city centre. Whether you’re picking up tools for the first time or looking to build on existing skills, the hands-on sessions offer expert guidance in a relaxed, welcoming environment where you can learn practical techniques and gain confidence at your own pace. The six-week course costs £180 (£15 per hour). Our piece on Ed’s Workshop is here.
Food 🍜 On Wednesday, visit the Cambridge Street Collective food hall for an Italian Japanese Fusion cookery course. Designed to be fun and informal, expert chefs will guide you step-by-step through classic dishes made with authentic ingredients. On the menu will be yuzu and saffron arancini, crab and wasabi ravioli, soy and miso butter sauce and matcha tiramisu. Tickets are £59.40. For a full list of all the upcoming courses, click here.
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