Barnsley: The Yorkshire town providing the blueprint for the regeneration of town centres

It was coined back in March 2002 as Will Alsop unveiled his groundbreaking masterplan to breathe new life into the town centre.

The partnership between the Stirling Prize-winning architect and the then down on its luck mining town - pit closures had seen unemployment soar to 9.5 per cent - already seemed unlikely. W hen it hit the headlines that Alsop had visions of transforming Barnsley into a Tuscan hill village, it further cemented the idea that this was the stuff of pipedreams.

“Tuscany was never mentioned anywhere in the plans,” remembers Stephen Houghton, who had been elected leader of Barnsley Council six years earlier.

“Central to the plans was that the boundaries of the town centre should be clearly defined and at one public meeting Will referenced how Tuscan hill villages were defined by a physical wall. It was an aside, nothing more.”

The comment was manna from heaven for a Guardian newspaper journalist at the meeting and when the story appeared a few days later on April 1, many assumed it was a well-crafted April Fool’s joke.

However, two decades on, the town might finally be having the last laugh.

“It’s thriving,” adds Cllr Houghton, whose enthusiasm has not been dimmed by two decades on the local authority.

“People used to go to Sheffield for a weekend or Leeds. Now they come to Barnsley.”

It sounds like a grand claim, but it has some foundation.

While the formula for successful town centre regeneration has evaded many places, Barnsley is an example of the art of the possible and one which, ironically, was helped by the 2008 credit crunch.

When austerity put pay to the p rivate sector funding earmarked for Alsop’s proposals, the team had to go back to the drawing board and scale back some of the more leftfield elements, namely the 60ft halo meant to encase Barnsley in a permanent warm glow.

“It didn’t feel like it at the time, but the credit crunch was a godsend because what we had planned to build wouldn’t have fitted with the modern retail landscape,” admits Cllr Houghton. “It was drawn up before online shopping and was focused too much on retail.

“However, while it might not have happened in quite the way Will envisioned, we have stuck to the philosophy of the original template.

“Will said we needed to focus the plans around the market, that we needed to create attractive spaces and that we needed to be brave.”

Key to the success was sticking to the logistically difficult decision to redevelop the existing town centre rather than adding new bits to the outskirts.

It has over recent years inevitably meant road closures, streets marred by hoardings and frustrating traffic diversions, but Barnsley is finally reaping the rewards.

The new Cineworld has created a night-time economy and with 90 per cent of units in the £200 million Glass Works, home to both an indoor and outdoor market, now occupied, by the end of the year footfall is predicted to be 50 per cent up on pre-Covid levels.

Even the notoriously difficult to please market traders are happy.

“When I was growing up you didn’t want to come into the town centre,” says 26-year-old Callum McKinlay, the latest generation to work in the family-run Joseph Cliff Fishmonger.

“It was rough, but it’s a totally different atmosphere now. There’s a good feeling to the place and it’s attracting lots more young people. Our takings our up and we are the busiest we have been for the last years.”

The journey has not always been easy and as plans were hastily rewritten against an ever changing economic backdrop, public support also wavered.

“I remember one day when building work had started on the Glass Works overhearing a couple of onlookers saying, ‘I don’t reckon it will ever happen’,” laughs Cllr Houghton.

“It is difficult to persuade people to keep the faith, but we have done it and while it can never be one size fits all I think there are lessons other places can learn.

“One of the first things Will said was that we should put a hospital in the centre. We haven’t quite done that but the NHS has opened a Community Diagnostic Centre.

“As a result, mammograms have increased by 22 per cent and the number of missed appointments have dropped by almost a quarter.

“That’s not just making the town centre better, it’s changing people’s lives.”

Sixteen or so miles up the M1, another redevelopment is taking place.

While Leah’s Yard might not be on the same scale as Barnsley, many hope the warren of little mesters will deliver a similar economic jolt into a city centre which over recent years has lost both John Lewis and Debenhams.

Work is ongoing and when Leah’s Yard opens this summer, it will be home to some of the city’s much-loved independent names, chief among them artist Pete McKee who is relocating from his Sharrow Vale Road gallery.

“We get the keys next month and it’s an exciting time for us and the city,” says Mr McKee, best known for prints inspired by his twin loves of music and football.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision to move. We’d been in Sharrow Vale Road for 15 years, the lease was up on the shop and it seemed like the right time for a new chapter and a chance to support the city centre which, let’s face it, has seen some dark days.

“After the economic downturn and the move to online shopping, Covid sucked the workforce out of city centres.

“It’s been a perfect storm and the problems we are facing are not unique to Sheffield, but it does feel like we have the assets to turn it around.

“Leah’s Yard was once the centre of what made Sheffield great - these artisan workshops where generations of the same family spent crafting knife handles are a real treasure.

“There is something irresistible about that history.”

Mr McKee hopes that Leah’s Yard and the wider city centre will channel the spirit of Sheffield’s suburban shopping areas like Sharrow Vale and Abbeydale Road

“They are communities in their own right with a heavy focus on independent stores,” he says. “The reality is that in a city centre you need the big name stores, but you also need to create interest and have businesses that speak directly to the people of that town or city.

“It’s why we are reworking the idea of the gallery so that it also operates as a bit of a community hangout. People want a bit of an experience when they go shopping and hopefully that’s what Leah’s Yard will give them.”

New powers to help stem the blight of empty shops are due to come into force this summer.

Under the High Street Rental Auctions programme, where a retail property has been empty for more than a year, local authorities will be allowed to step in and sell off a rental lease for up to five years.

The auctions will take place with no reserve price, giving local businesses and community groups the opportunity to secure space on the high street at a competitive market rate.

It is expected that the first auctions will take place in September and the proposals are running alongside a pilot scheme aiming to accelerate the regeneration of 10 struggling high streets, including the Stepney area of Beverley Road in Hull.

Accessing a share of £5 million, the aim is to transform previously overlooked spaces through the planting of new trees and greenery as well as improving nearby parks to give people more reason to visit.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We want to bring high streets back to life and these new levelling up powers will help do just that.

“A lively high street brings an irreplaceable community spirit – one that is unique to its own area – along with new jobs and opportunities for local people.”

However, the Labour Party has accused the Conservatives of doing too little too late, pointing out there are now 3,710 fewer fruit and vegetable shops, butchers and newsagents than there were in 2010.

Its plans include rolling out banking hubs to fill the gaps left by successive branch closures, overhauling business rates and increasing the number of Police Community Support Officers to help reduce shoplifting and antisocial behaviour.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Rishi Sunak’s recession has hammered small business and consumers alike, with the soaring cost of living, eye-watering mortgage and rent payments contributing to businesses closing and shops boarded up.

“Since 2022 alone, an additional 385 towns have seen their last bank branch close, or announce that they will be closing imminently. This has left local people and businesses without any options to bank locally.

“As part of Labour’s missions to get Britain building again and take back our streets, we will work to rejuvenate our high streets and bring economic growth back to towns across the country.”