The new Facebook group peddling conspiracy theories about Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

Sheffield’s long-delayed Clean Air Zone is due to go live in less than a month. The scheme will charge certain vehicles for entering or driving on the inner ring road — but many people aren’t happy. After a Facebook group was set up to campaign against the zone, we took a closer look at what it contains. We’ve covered the problems of disinformation on social media a number of times already in The Tribune, but this time it feels really close to home. People clearly have a right to protest, but is spreading conspiracy theories acceptable?

As well as that, we have a lovely apartment in Philadelphia and details of a great new art exhibition taking place now across three city centre galleries.

Catch up and coming up

Our weekend story was about how the controversial Streets Ahead contract is still causing Sheffield problems over a decade after it was signed. You can still read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 1,097 paying members. The first included a piece by University of Sheffield masters student Rachel Flynn about the city’s vibrant jazz scene. And the second was a piece by me about whether Kelham Island is really one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the UK. An extract from that second piece is below.

“It’s not just pubs and restaurants, there is a real community here,” he tells me. For McGarry, these are the aspects of the neighbourhood that don’t make it into Time Out, but are equally important in terms of making the area sustainable. And as well as the beautiful seating areas and street art they have helped create, they are also behind some slightly more surprising projects too. Later this year, KINCA have arranged for a pack of llamas to be brought to from the Graves Park Animal Farm to chomp vegetation in the goit which became overgrown during lockdown (presumably a more eco-friendly approach than using a strimmer).

This week we’ll send out two more including a review of an interesting new play at the Crucible theatre which has been written in conjunction with young people from across the UK. To help fund a new way of doing journalism in Sheffield focused on local readers rather than shareholders, please consider subscribing using the button below. It costs £1.34 a week if you pay for 12 months up front.

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The big picture: The Crosspool owl 🦉

Thanks to Sheffield photographer Andy Jones for letting us use his brilliant photo of the Crosspool owl from last week. The tawny owl, which is often seen in an ash tree on Lydgate Lane, became an unlikely social media star during the Covid lockdowns when people from across the region came to Sheffield to see him.

This week’s weather ⛅

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say this week sees deep lows threaten to the north, with high pressure squashed further south. The result is a changeable and windy week.

Monday 🌤️ Breezy but generally dry with good sunny spells. Cloudier and damp overnight with highs of 8°C.

Tuesday 🌦️ Early dampness gives way to a gusty day with sunshine and blustery showers. Highs of 8°C.

Wednesday ☁️ More cloud threatens at times, and it will still be rather breezy. Risk of patchy rain or showers, but a good deal of dry weather, too. Highs of 9°C.

Thursday ☔ Milder but rather cloudy as a warm front dangles down from the north. Breezy again with a patchy rain risk. Highs of 10°C.

Friday ☁️ Staying rather cloudy, but brightening up should fronts clear east quickly enough. Again a light rain risk, but dry periods, too. Highs of 11°C.

Outlook: Colder air attempts to topple over the high building to the south during the weekend, so our double-digits highs may decline sharply. Risk of showers from the northwest.

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

The big story: The new Facebook group peddling conspiracy theories about Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone

Top line: A new Facebook group created to fight Sheffield’s new Clean Air Zone has already attracted more than 4,000 members — but is the information on there trustworthy?

The campaign: The group — Campaign against chargeable clean air zone Sheffield — was set up in July last year. The new CAZ, which is due to go live in less than a month (Monday, 27 February) will charge certain vehicles for driving on or inside the inner ring road. The charge applies to more polluting taxis, goods vehicles, buses and coaches — but private cars and motorbikes are exempt.

• The group is part of a slate of Facebook sites set up to fight CAZs in different cities. All have similar branding, suggesting they might be the work of the same people.
• Two of the admins of the anti-CAZ group in Sheffield — Matthew Betts and Susan Radford — are based in Bradford, which started its clean air zone last September.

Complaints: Many of the posts contain what could be considered legitimate complaints about the Clean Air Zone. These include confusing and contradictory road signs, concerns about drivers who live near the zone being charged through no fault of their own, and the idea that the charges will just be used as a way of making money for Sheffield City Council.

However, quite a few also seem to be spreading baseless conspiracy theories. One post suggested that the city’s media has colluded with the council to keep coverage of the CAZ to a minimum, while others suggested the idea of “15-minute neighbourhoods” was part of a plan to turn UK cities into concentration camps. One user, Graham Bellamy said: “This CAZ is not about the air. It is about dictatorship and control.”

Another post used on the group (shown above) showed a Clean Air Zone sign on Derek Dooley Way with the Veolia waste incinerator seemingly belching out toxic fumes in the background. “Photo says it all,” fumed one reader about the supposed irony. However, in this instance other group members did point out that the substance being emitted from the incinerator was nothing but water vapour.

Direct action: The group is trying to get people to attend a protest outside Sheffield Town Hall on Saturday, 4 February. The protest, which is scheduled to start at 12 noon, is being organised by Sean Lambert, an administrator of the group who is from Sheffield. 25 people currently say they will be attending. 

• Matthew Betts has also set up a Go Fund Me page to pay for leaflets, car stickers and possibly even a legal challenge against Sheffield City Council.
• He says money will only be spent after a group vote and if no money is spent it will be returned. The page has so far raised £152 of its £1,000 goal.

Bottom line: The anti-CAZ groups neatly illustrate the problem with the way people now consume media. As a result of the shrinking of local newspapers, more and more people now rely on social media for their news. While this often includes many legitimate complaints and concerns, misinformation is also rife. Very little of the information on there is challenged or fact checked, and some posts even dip into unhinged conspiracy theories.

Home of the week 🏡

This three to four bedroom apartment in Philadelphia has an allocated parking space as well as tons of original features including exposed brick walls. It is on the market for £200,000.

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity. Get in touch.

Our media picks 🎧

Yorkshire gets lowest share of Levelling Up money 💷 Yorkshire lost out on more levelling up money than any other region, new analysis by the Yorkshire Post has shown. In the last round, only 13% of the region’s bids were accepted by the government, while between £800,000 and £1.2 million was wasted by councils on unsuccessful bids. “This seems to prove what we’ve always known — levelling-up is a fiction,” said South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard.

A Bit Black Over Bill's Mother's 🗞 Out regular contributor David Bocking has a new site of his own where he’ll be publishing regular pieces about nature, the environment and active travel. He’ll be publishing around 6/7 new pieces a month, with Sunday’s piece including a round up of news as well as a long read about a trip he made with National Park rangers to the Howden Moors. Details of how you can support him financially are included in the piece.

Yorkshire Gold: The rise of Bullion Chocolate 🍫 Now Then have a lovely piece about Max Scotford, the man behind Sheffield’s first (and as yet only) craft chocolate maker. Based in Neepsend since 2016, Bullion Chocolate is part of the “bean-to-bar” chocolate movement, and uses ethically-sourced cocoa beans from Bolivia, Guatemala and Madagascar to make small batches of high quality chocolate. They also have a cafe and bar on Harvest Lane.

To the Manor born 🎨

At The Tribune we’re huge fans of Conor Rogers, a young artist who was brought up on the Manor. Conor paints scenes from growing up on the deprived Sheffield estate, but with none of the “poverty porn” vibe that you might expect. This new piece, Stone fight?, is of an electricity substation on Vikinglea Road, painted in acrylic onto two bus tickets. The artist is also currently selling some pieces via his Instagram page. To read our piece about Conor and his work, click here.

Things to do 📆

Art 🖼️ Exhibited across three venues, Platform 22 showcases the work five artists’ have created during the first year of a two-year residency with three Sheffield galleries. Adebola Oyekanmi, Kedisha Coakley and Tyler Mellins present Dark Echoes, a group exhibition tracing echoes of the past and future through the legacies of empire, outer space and the paranormal. The exhibition is presented across Site, Yorkshire Artspace and Bloc Projects.

Books 🎭 On Tuesday, 31 January, Dr Mary Grover will present a lecture at Sheffield Hallam University about her new book Steel City Readers, a collection of 65 personal reading histories from people in Sheffield in the first half of the twentieth century. The oral histories reveal the compulsion to read amongst men and women living in an industrial city at a time when reading had little economic or social value. The free lecture runs from 6.15pm-7.45pm.

Talk 🧠 Taking place on Thursday, 2 February at Site Gallery is Interface, a series of talks all about the relationship between art and technology. Whether you are an artist, scientist, technologist, or simply curious about the intersection of these fields, this event is definitely for you. Speakers include live coder, musician and researcher Alex McLean, robotics lecturer Shuhei Miyashita, and cognitive scientist (and friend of The Tribune) Professor Tom Stafford.