THE LEEDS BRIEF ⏰ Thursday, 29 October 2026
£200m to rebuild Leeds station, a £100 winter energy payment, and lung cancer checks arrive at the White Rose.
Morning, Leeds! ☁️ The big one: Leeds station is getting another £200m for a top-to-bottom rebuild, with three new entrances and a new bridge over the platforms. Also today: who gets the new £100 winter energy payment, lung cancer checks arrive at the White Rose, and Emmerdale's village tours bid to carry on.
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🚉 £200m to rebuild Leeds station
Leeds station is getting an extra £200m, announced alongside the Budget, taking total investment in its transformation past £300m, with the work due by 2030. The plans include a new central overbridge, three new entrances linking the station to the South Bank, the Dark Arches and Princes Square, bigger concourses, a longer Platform 14, about 40% more ticket barriers and better lifts. More than 27 million passengers use the station each year, and 8 in 10 West Yorkshire rail services start or finish there; passenger numbers are forecast to grow by almost 12 million a year by 2043. Mayor Tracy Brabin called it the "beating heart" of the region's network: "We can't cope, we need that money." Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said it would become "a station this city can be proud of". Not everyone's popping the champagne just yet: a YEP columnist points out that the New Station Street entrance, started in May 2022, has been delayed again and again, and asks for assurances this bigger scheme won't go the same way.
👉 Read more: BBC News · YEP: first look · YEP: opinion
📰 NEWS
💷 £100 off winter energy bills for many Leeds homes
Households in council tax bands A to D will get a £100 winter energy payment, paid directly into their bank accounts, under a Budget announcement. The VAT cut on electricity has also been extended to July, and gas standing charges are being moved onto unit rates. It comes after Ofgem's price cap rose 3.6% to £1,723 on 1 October, with a rise of around 22% forecast for January. Simon Francis of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said the payment will "barely dent" that increase.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🫁 Lung cancer checks for 90,000 people in Leeds
Around 90,000 people in Leeds aged 55 to 74 who smoke or used to smoke are being offered lung cancer screening. A mobile CT scanner has started at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Beeston and will run for two years, scanning six days a week. An earlier Leeds trial, from 2018 to 2024, screened 8,800 people and found more than 400 cancers. Anyone registered with a Leeds GP who has ever smoked can expect a letter. The service is run by Leeds Teaching Hospitals with Alliance Medical; first through the door was David Barraclough, 71: "I just hope my lungs are up for it."
👉 Read the full story at BBC News
📺 Emmerdale tours bid to carry on
ITV Studios has applied to Leeds City Council to keep running its Emmerdale village tours at the Harewood set once the current permission lapses. Planning documents say the tours attract more than 42,000 visitors a year and about £7.72m in visitor spending. Under the new plans the coaches would go, with visitors arriving by car, bike, on foot or by being collected from a nearby bus stop. A separate application seeks permanent filming rights at Stub House and Burdon Head Farm on Harrogate Road, where permission runs out next June. Consultation on the tours closes on 13 November.
👉 Read more: YEP · Leeds Live
🚜 Kirkstall Valley Farm asks for help after arson
Kirkstall Valley Farm is crowdfunding £10,000 for perimeter security and an electricity supply for CCTV after repeated vandalism. Most recently a caravan called "Dolly", which was due to become a tea and coffee shop, was set alight. Adele Rae, chief executive of the Kirkstall Valley Development Trust, said: "The arson has taken it to a whole different level." The farm, running since 2021, supplies 130 food boxes a week. Anyone with information can call Leeds West NPT on 101, quoting crime number 13260580937.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🛒 Bigger Aldi planned at Cardigan Fields
Aldi wants to extend its store at Cardigan Fields on Evanston Avenue, off Kirkstall Road, adding more than 250 sq m of sales space, a new entrance lobby, solar panels and new landscaping. You can comment on the plans until 10 November.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🏙️ AROUND THE CITY
⛺ Leeds Big Sleep turns 10 tonight
The Leeds Big Sleep is back at Headingley Stadium tonight for its 10th anniversary, with people sleeping out to raise money for St George's Crypt alongside the Leeds Rhinos Foundation. It has raised more than £330,000 since it began, and organisers expect this year's to be the biggest yet. At least it's set to stay dry.
👉 Read more: YEP · Leeds Rhinos
🗺️ A map app for Leeds independents only
Brothers Corran and Chris Hull have launched TripTro, a free iOS map app that only lists independent businesses. As Chris puts it: "We don't want any large chains appearing on searches."
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
💼 Big employers open their doors to care leavers
Leeds Building Society, Mott MacDonald, Balfour Beatty, DLA Piper, Addleshaw Goddard and CGI were among the Leeds Business Anchors that hosted young people aged 16 and over with care experience during last week's Career Explorer Week, alongside the council and Leeds City College, including a visit to a Balfour Beatty site in Calverley.
👉 Read the full story at Leeds City Council
🚦 GETTING ABOUT
🚌 Light Night bus diversions again tonight
Lots of city centre bus services will be affected from about 4.30pm until the end of service tonight for Light Night, and Elland Road and Stourton Park and Ride have extra evening buses. Check Metro's alerts before you set off.
👉 More at WY Metro
🍂 It's not just a leaf
Northern and TransPennine Express have launched a joint campaign, "It's not just a leaf", explaining autumn delays. In 2025 the two operators recorded more than 6,000 leaf-related incidents and more than 100,000 minutes of delay.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
⚽ SPORT
Rail seating coming to the South Stand
Leeds United say rail seating in Elland Road's South Stand will be ready in the upper tier and in sections FA1 and FA6 for Tottenham on Saturday 7 November, with the rest of the lower tier following for Coventry City on Saturday 28 November. The club says it follows advice from the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the rails won't affect sightlines.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
Salisbury in charge at Bournemouth
Michael Salisbury will referee Bournemouth v Leeds on Saturday (3pm). Leeds drew 0-0 at Sunderland last time out, while Bournemouth have won their last four without conceding, including 3-0 at Old Trafford. Goals may follow the ref, though: Leeds' last three games with Salisbury averaged 5.3 goals.
👉 Read more: YEP · Leeds United fixtures
England's World Cup weekend
England Women, with Rhinos players in the squad, take on Samoa in Wollongong early tomorrow (6.45am UK time) needing a win to reach the semi-finals. England's men must beat Papua New Guinea on Friday and then need results elsewhere to go through.
👉 Read more: BBC Sport: England Women · BBC Sport: England men
🎭 CULTURE
✨ Light Night: last chance tonight
Light Night Leeds is back for its second and final evening, 6pm to 9.30pm, free, with more than 40 artworks around the city centre, including the projection on The Queens Hotel and the holographic owls at Leeds City Museum. And tonight it's dry.
👉 More at Visit Leeds
🎤 Three gigs tonight
Stornoway play the Brudenell (£25 in advance), Penelope Isles are at Hyde Park Book Club (£15), and Wandering Summer, Adult Contemporary and Pretty Fried are free entry at the Brudenell. Doors 7.30pm for all three.
👉 More at Brudenell Social Club
📅 THIS WEEK IN LEEDS
✨ Tonight, 6pm–9.30pm: Light Night Leeds, final night. Free.
⛺ Tonight: Leeds Big Sleep at Headingley Stadium for St George's Crypt.
🏉 Friday 30 October, 6.45am: England Women v Samoa at the Rugby League World Cup.
🦇 Friday 30 October: VAINGLORIOUS II at the Brudenell, with £1 of each ticket going to Macmillan.
⚽ Saturday 31 October, 3pm: Bournemouth v Leeds United.
🎸 Saturday 31 October: Republica (£30) and The Bar Stool Preachers (£19) at the Brudenell.
Sources: Visit Leeds: Light Night · Leeds Rhinos · Brudenell Social Club · BBC Sport · Leeds United
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🔮 AND FINALLY...
Just in time for Halloween, Leeds City Library has dusted off an early-1800s book of prophecies from Mother Shipton, the Knaresborough soothsayer said to have been born in 1488 as Ursula Southeil. It's in the library's special collections, and includes the legend of a handkerchief that wouldn't burn in the fire, plus cheery lines like "Triumphant death rides London thro'…". No word on what she foresaw for Leeds station's timetable.
👉 Read the full story at Leeds City Council
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