THE LEEDS BRIEF ⏰ Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Light Night starts tonight, £1.6m for Leeds to tackle rough sleeping, and an old Meanwood school building goes up for auction.
Morning, Leeds! ☔ Light Night switches on tonight, so we've got what's new, where to look and how to get home. Also today: £1.6m for Leeds to help get rough sleepers indoors before winter, an old Meanwood school building heads to auction, and a new hand-pulled noodle spot for the Merrion Centre.
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✨ Light Night starts tonight: what's new this year
Light Night Leeds switches on tonight (Wednesday 28 October) and again tomorrow, from 6pm to 9.30pm, free, with more than 40 artworks around the city centre under this year's theme, "A City Speaks…", part of Leeds 400. The big one is "Call My Name, Call Me Home" on the front of The Queens Hotel, where Leeds-founded imitating the dog and local band Hope & Social map one person's five decades of Leeds memories onto the changing streets, bars and homes of the city (the song came first, then the visuals, they say). Over at Civic Hall, Belgian artists Nele Fack and Niels Blondeel's "In Dual Light" plays with the mathematical idea of duality, while Lou Chapelle's holographic owls, inspired by the owl on the city crest, take over Leeds City Museum. At Leeds City Library there's a virtual reality workshop bringing 400 years of the library's collections to life, from 17th-century manuscripts and rare maps to football fanzines. Even the Park and Ride sites are in on it: Dan Fox's illuminated "Projector Bikes" at Elland Road and Kumquat Lab's "Reunion" at Stourton. The council says more than 200,000 people came over the two nights last year, so expect busy pavements. Tonight looks drizzly; Thursday looks dry.
👉 Read more: BBC News · Leeds City Council · Visit Leeds
📰 NEWS
🏠 £1.6m for Leeds to tackle rough sleeping
West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has announced £3.7m from the combined authority to provide accommodation and targeted support for rough sleepers with the most complex needs, and Leeds gets the biggest share: £1,641,767. Government figures suggest at least 141 people sleep rough every night across West Yorkshire. Shelley Joyce of Leeds charity Homeless Street Angels said it sounded "great in theory" but wants to know where the money will go, adding that her charity had been told it wasn't eligible for funding because it doesn't provide accommodation.
👉 Read the full story at BBC News
🛡️ Project Vigilant: plain-clothes officers in the city centre
West Yorkshire Police's Project Vigilant puts uniformed and plain-clothes officers into busy city centre areas, working with venues, transport providers and taxi drivers, while bar staff, door supervisors and public transport workers have been trained to recognise predatory behaviour. The YEP reports more than 30 interventions in its first four weeks. Mayor Tracy Brabin backs it: "if you're a predator and you think it's easy pickings here in West Yorkshire, you've got another thing coming." Women Friendly Leeds, which runs a Saturday-night safe space bus near the Corn Exchange (10pm–3am), welcomed the scheme but says it's "not the only answer", calling for better lighting and CCTV too.
👉 Read more: BBC News · YEP
🕯️ New Wortley victim named
The man who died after being attacked in New Wortley on Saturday has been named as Rahiem Jackson, 38. Police say he was attacked by four people armed with weapons outside a property in what they describe as a targeted incident. His family said he had a "beautiful heart and soul" and called his death "a very cowardly, cruel and senseless act of vicious violence". Detectives are continuing their inquiries and have appealed for witnesses.
👉 Read the full story at BBC News
🏫 Old Meanwood school building up for auction
The former Bentley Primary School building on Clipston Street, Meanwood, is going to auction on 12 December with a guide price of £450,000-plus, after the council declared it surplus. The single-storey red-brick building, thought to date from the 1930s, is believed to have been the library of the original school, and was last used as a community and learning centre by Leeds City College and the Springwell Trust. It's been empty since November 2018, and the auctioneers, BTG Eddisons, say it could suit housing, subject to consents.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🌶️ No 3am finish for Pepe's in Beeston
A council licensing panel has unanimously refused Pepe's Piri Piri on Beeston Road a late-night refreshment licence to open until 3am. The restaurant, which doesn't sell alcohol and currently shuts at 11pm, said later hours would help night-shift workers. But police and council officers objected because the area is a Cumulative Impact Area, raising worries about street drinking, anti-social behaviour and litter. As one licensing officer put it, "You have to do more than just be a good, well-run premises."
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🏘️ Otley: have your say on 250 new homes
Persimmon Homes is holding two drop-in consultations on plans for 250 homes east of Otley, the first phase of a bigger scheme, on Friday 6 November (3pm–7pm) and Tuesday 10 November (2pm–6pm), before it submits an application to the council. Later phases would add a primary school, another 330 homes and land for businesses, and the council would build a new road to ease congestion in the town centre. The developer says 35% of the homes would be sold at a discount or handed to a housing provider.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🏙️ AROUND THE CITY
🍜 Lano Noodles heading to the Merrion Centre
Independent restaurant Lano Noodles is fitting out a two-floor, 2,150 sq ft unit on Merrion Way, opposite the first direct bank arena, for its very first restaurant. Expect freshly made hand-pulled noodles, Lanzhou-style beef noodle soup and Chinese snacks, plus grab-and-go options, and seven to 10 new jobs. No opening date yet. Pre-gig slurping, sorted.
👉 Read the full story at Leeds Live
🍺 Toast gets an extra half-hour
Toast Sports Pub and Kitchen at West Point on Wellington Street has been allowed to stay open 30 minutes longer each day, with last orders unchanged, so customers have time to drink up and leave in an orderly way. A neighbour living above the bar objected over noise, but councillors granted the change after hearing that management had received no recent complaints.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
🚦 GETTING ABOUT
🚌 Light Night by Park and Ride
Elland Road and Stourton Park and Ride have free parking and a £3 return after 1pm, with up to three children free per paying adult, and extra buses run during Light Night. The last Elland Road bus (PR1) leaves Trinity stop P on Boar Lane at 11.16pm, and the last Stourton bus (PR3) leaves Trinity stop K on Lower Briggate at 11.36pm.
👉 More at Visit Leeds
🗓️ Bus timetables changed last weekend
Some West Yorkshire bus services changed from Saturday 24 October. If your usual bus suddenly seems to have a mind of its own, Metro has the full list in its service changes PDF.
👉 More at WY Metro
⚽ SPORT
Bogle's "crazy runs"
Jayden Bogle has revealed Daniel Farke's instruction to him: make "crazy runs" to disrupt defences. Speaking on the Official Leeds United podcast, the wing-back said the manager tells him "just to make these crazy runs and it just, it throws people off". His crosses have been a regular source of chances for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and co. Next up is Bournemouth away on Saturday (3pm), then Tottenham at Elland Road on Saturday 7 November (12.30pm).
👉 Read more: YEP · Leeds United fixtures
Rhinos pair face England's do-or-die World Cup game
England Women must beat Samoa in Wollongong on Friday (6.45am UK time) to finish second in their group and reach the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals, after beating Wales 70-6 and losing 78-0 to Australia. Leeds Rhinos' Keara Bennett and Connie Boyd, who scored a hat-trick on her England debut against Wales, were both in the squad for the Australia game, with Rhinos teammate Lucy Murray named as 20th player.
👉 Read more: BBC Sport · Leeds Rhinos
Rhinos add Gittens
Catching up from last week: Leeds Rhinos have signed Halifax Panthers and Jamaica forward Delaine Gittens, 25, on a one-year deal until the end of 2027. He played 16 times for Halifax this season and says: "I'm not coming in expecting anything to be handed to me."
👉 Read the full story at Leeds Rhinos
🎭 CULTURE
🎸 Yard Act: one night gone, one to go
Leeds' own Yard Act play the O2 Academy on Friday 6 November and Saturday 7 November, with Lava La Rue supporting. The Friday is sold out; the Saturday is still listed at £28 in advance on the Brudenell's listings, so don't hang about.
👉 More at Brudenell Social Club
🎤 Tonight at the Brudenell
Not a Light Night person? Nina Winder-Lind and Heka co-headline in the Brudenell's Attic tonight, with Troutflies in support (doors 7.30pm, £12 in advance).
👉 More at Brudenell Social Club
📅 THIS WEEK IN LEEDS
✨ Tonight and Thursday, 6pm–9.30pm: Light Night Leeds across the city centre. Free.
⛺ Thursday 29 October: Leeds Big Sleep at AMT Headingley Stadium, raising money for St George's Crypt with the Leeds Rhinos Foundation.
🎸 Thursday 29 October: Wandering Summer + Adult Contemporary + Pretty Fried at the Brudenell, free entry.
🏉 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.
Sources: Visit Leeds: Light Night · Leeds Rhinos · Brudenell Social Club · BBC Sport · Leeds United
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🎃 AND FINALLY...
Carved a pumpkin for Halloween? Pest experts would rather you didn't leave it on the doorstep. Kevin Lawrenson of the National Pest Technicians Association says a rotting pumpkin is basically an invitation to rats: "You wouldn't go and leave your rubbish outside the front of your house to attract rats to it, would you?" And Leeds has form: Rentokil says rodent inquiries in Leeds and Bradford rose 23% between 2024 and 2025. Enjoy the lantern on Saturday, then it's straight in the food waste. Sorry, Jack.
👉 Read the full story at the YEP
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