Begging, boozing, loitering; decision day for city centre crackdown plans

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

After consulting with residents earlier this year, the council wants to bring in a public space protection order (PSPO) to tackle street drinking and aggressive begging. It’s a move many city centre businesses and Sheffield citizens have been calling for — but will it help? That’s our big story today.

As well as that, we have big news about the former Debenhams on The Moor, the return of some 90s Britpop legends to Sheffield, and a doer-upper in Nether Green.

Catch up

On Saturday, food writer Mina Miller travelled to Sheffield’s Christmas Markets to try out the best and worst it had to offer. She tried bratwurst, venison burgers, Dutch pancakes and even a Greggs festive bake. But the ultimate winner was the Swiss raclette which got an impressive 10/10. We love Mina’s writing and it turns out that plenty of you agree. “Hilarious article!” wrote Meg Senior. “I loved reading Mina’s perspective, especially ‘What could be more Christmassy than eating Rudolf?’” You can read that piece here.

Last week our paying members received two great newsletters. In the first, Dan went in search of Paul Joseph Watson, a loudmouth alt-right YouTuber who has millions of followers online but when he was a pupil at Bradfield School had a very different image. And in the second, Victoria looked into what’s happening at Sheffield's struggling probation service, after the organisation received yet another damning inspection report. An extract from that first piece is below.

If Watson’s online persona is in large part a product of his own myth-making, what was he actually like at school? We’ve been told that the Watson brothers were as different as could be. Steven was confident, a singer in a band with “a bit of swagger about him”. Paul on the other hand was quiet, introverted and spent a lot of time on his own. The schoolmate said they don’t remember him having any particular interests, describing him as an “isolated character” who “kept himself to himself”. “He was a bit of a loner, a bit weird to be honest,” he says. In the unforgiving world of a British high school, this meant he became a target. “He got a bit of bullying for it,” he added.

Editor’s note: We now have 2,446 members, with lots of you joining last week — a warm welcome to all. That puts us within tantalising reach of our big target: to hit 2,500 members by the end of the year. We’re just 54 short.

Could you be one of those 54? Not only will you get lots of extra articles, you’ll send us into 2025 with a big smile on our faces — and the confidence that Sheffielders are behind us. (And if you want to help, but you’re already a member, read on for news about our Christmas gift subscriptions.)

The big picture: Gifts galore 🎁

The 30th Kelham Island Museum Victorian Christmas Market took place at the weekend, bringing more than 80 market stalls and thousands of people to one of our most fascinating places. This wonderful photo of the upper gallery was taken by top Sheffield photographer Emma Bothamley.

The big story: Decision day for public space protection order

Top line: Councillors in Sheffield will vote next week on whether to introduce a public space protection order (PSPO) in the city centre. The council hope that the order will help council officers and police tackle persistent anti-social behaviour. But what effect will it have on Sheffield’s most vulnerable people?

What is a PSPO? Sometimes known as “ASBOs for spaces”, PSPOs were introduced 10 years ago by the then-coalition government. Councils can introduce them to crack down on activities deemed to have a “detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality”. Many other cities already have them, including Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, but until now Sheffield has resisted the urge to follow suit.

How will it work? The proposed PSPO will cover the area within the inner ring road, plus the area around the train station and South Street Park/Amphitheatre behind it. Within this area, the council plan to crack down on:

• Alcohol: Not all consumption will be banned, only that which is “likely to cause anti-social behaviour”.
• Begging: Making verbal, non-verbal, or written requests for money will be forbidden if done in a manner that “causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any person”.
• Loitering: The same wording (harassment, alarm or distress) is applied to anyone loitering in doorways or supermarkets.
• Drugs: This ban covers psychoactive substances (as defined in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 section 2 paragraph 1).
• Urination/defecation

Crime and punishment: The council insist their first response to people engaging in this kind of behaviour will be “education, advice and prevention”. That said, where this tactic fails…

• People are asked to stop whatever they are doing (for example, by surrendering their alcohol), before being instructed to leave the PSPO area for a period of 24 hours.
• If they don’t comply, a Notice of Intended Action (NIA) process can begin, ultimately leading to the offending person receiving a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £1,000 (but more typically £100). The council is keen to emphasise that this would not be the “default response” to poor behaviour.

Public opinion: During a consultation which took place earlier this year, just over two-thirds of individual respondents supported the move, while a higher proportion (87%) of organisations who responded agreed with the introduction (businesses in particular tend to be in favour).

But concerns were expressed that the PSPO would have a disproportionate impact on homeless people, and that the setting of a boundary could simply move anti-social behaviour issues to other areas.

Hurting, not helping? And some argued that preventing many of the identified anti-social behaviours relied on people having access to appropriate services, support and facilities. As Dan found in his piece on the PSPO from February, many organisations which help vulnerable people in Sheffield are concerned that these facilities do not exist.

When we spoke to him earlier this year, Daryl Bishop, the CEO of Ben’s Centre, said he believed that there wasn’t enough support out there to meet the needs of everyone who will be affected. “I think if used right this could help funnel people into the right services,” he told us. “But I don't think anyone's got enough money to make this work well.” Now, he told us the homelessness services in Sheffield were in an “even worse position” than they were before, and that he was really hoping that councillors would not vote to implement the PSPO.

Our take: When The Tribune broke the news that Sheffield was considering bringing in a PSPO last year, we said that a thorough consultation exercise needed to be conducted before any decision was taken. That has now taken place, but concerns still remain. In the last few months, several people have died on the streets of Sheffield, indicating support services are not yet at the level where a PSPO could be made to work. We’re now rapidly running out of time. If councillors agree, the PSPO will come into effect in April 2025.

Give the gift of great journalism 💝

It’s December. There’s no getting around it. You need to start sorting out those Christmas presents pronto.

But don’t fear — we have the perfect gift for the Sheffield lover in your life. With a subscription to the Sheffield Tribune, they’ll spend the next year being reminded four times a week just how much they mean to you.

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There is a tiny snag! In order to offer these deals, we need to get off our current web platform (Substack) which doesn’t have this functionality. But we’re moving over to a new site in the next two weeks — so will have it set up in plenty of time for Christmas.

The weekly Whitworth ✏️

Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on the news that Sheffield’s probation service has once again failed its inspection.

This week’s weather 🌤️

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say it will be a changeable week as multiple systems battle for supremacy. Often breezy, with a chilly start giving way to a milder midweek.

Monday 🌧 Unsettled with patchy outbreaks of showery rain, most common through the morning. Limited brightness despite a clearance later in the day. Breezy from the NW; highs of 9°C.

Tuesday ⛅ A brighter but colder day with light winds and sunny spells. Chance of a late shower, as well as a frost overnight. Dry otherwise, with highs of just 6°C.

Wednesday 🌥 A little milder, with a dry and bright day giving way to cloud and less settled conditions later in the evening. Windy from the SW overnight; highs of 8°C.

Thursday 🌦 Windy and unsettled from the southwest with bright spells and spells of showery rain. Feeling much milder with highs of 13°C.

Friday 🌥 Expected to be drier and more settled for a time with bright spells. Still rather mild and also breezy from the west-southwest with highs of 11°C.

Outlook: Turning unsettled and colder into the weekend with low pressure bringing a mix of rain (possibly wintry over the hills) and strong winds.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

Our media picks 🔗

Can England’s new breed of mayors help fix its left-behind regions? 📈 The Financial Times holds up Oliver Coppard as the leading example of a “new breed of mayors,” which this piece argues could do for neglected towns what the previous government’s Levelling Up agenda didn’t. It’s clear Kier Starmer is keen to empower England’s 12 metro mayors, given one of his first acts as Prime Minister was to invite them all to Downing Street and ask them each to draw up a growth strategy for their region. However, it remains to be seen whether the central government will cough up the cash necessary to put any grand plans in motion.

Department store up for auction again — for just £1 🏬 The Debenhams on The Moor is being put up for auction next week, with a minimum price of a single pound. It was last sold in 2021 for £1.5 million (after the retail chain went bust) but the company that bought it, Lewisham MHA Ltd, also went into liquidation last year. Moorfields Advisory, who then took over the building, tried to sell it for £850,000 in September but couldn’t find any takers. For more on this building’s recent history — and what could be done with it next — read our piece from April.

"We do LGBTQ+ events, album releases... at some point I want a fashion show in there" 🪩 Now Then interviewed the owner of a new venue in the city centre: Panke Social, which has taken over the unit that once belonged to Bal Fashions. Owner Ray previously opened the Crookes bar Berlin Calling and is drawing similar inspiration from the famous party city for his latest venture. “There’s a place [in Berlin] called Mein am See,” he says. “I liked some of the design features there, and I am from Riga. So I brought the vibe from those places”.

Coming up

This week our paying members will get two extra newsletters packed with original journalism. In the first, Dan goes on a shisha bar crawl to find out why it’s becoming so popular in Sheffield. And in the second, we investigate questionable business practices at another prominent Sheffield firm. If you want to receive both those pieces in full (who wouldn’t?) click the link below.

Home of the week 🏡

This three-bedroom mid-terrace in the sought-after area of Nether Green has loads of trendy exposed brickwork inside an interesting raised garden to the rear. It is also just a few minutes walk from beautiful Bingham Park. The estate agents accept that the property “requires some upgrading”, but insist it has therefore been “priced accordingly”. It is on the market for £265,000.

Tribune tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please get in touch with us by emailing editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are happy to speak to people off the record, and we guarantee we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Talk 🗣️ On Tuesday at Sheffield Central Library, join local historian Janet Ridler for a festive look at The Tudor Christmas. Christmas in Tudor times was a 12-day-long festival of entertainment, feasting and pageants; a time when all ranks were free from everyday cares for a short period of revelry and fun. Discover the feasts, festivals and customs of the Tudor Royal Court, and how these became our Christmas traditions today. The free talk lasts an hour and begins at 11am.

Music 🎸 To Network (formerly Plug) on Wednesday come legendary 90s indie band Echobelly. 30 years after releasing their acclaimed debut album Everyone’s Got One, unlike many of their Britpop contemporaries who reformed, they never actually split up. However, this tour comes as they prepare to release their first new material in seven years. Expect a mix of the old and the new, including the band’s 1995 banger Great Things. Tickets are £21 and doors open at 7.30pm.

Art 🖼️ Starting this Thursday at the Yorkshire Artspace’s Persistence Works building on Brown Street is an exhibition of work by finalists in this year's Contemporary British Painting Prize. The exhibition features exciting work by 17 contemporary painters from across the country, who were shortlisted from more than 1,200 applicants. The free exhibition is on until Saturday, 11 January and the gallery is open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 12 noon until 4pm.