Barnsley Council seeks contractor for £1.7m Rockingham Sports Ground replacement works

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council hopes contractors will submit expressions of interest for the works, which form part of the authority’s Hoyland masterplan redevelopment.

Applications will close on May 10, with the contract due to begin on September 16, 2024.

Despite campaigns and petitions to save it, the relocation of Rockingham Sports Ground to Parkside was approved in November 2023.

Campaigners hoped that the existing facility would remain, and Barnsley Council denied breaching a historic covenant protecting the existing sports ground, which was gifted to miners by Earl Fitzwilliam of Wentworth Woodhouse.

Planning bosses said the old site was no longer fit for purpose, and when complete, will “provide a new purpose-built community and sports facility”.

Plans include a single-story 40.5m by 17.9m building with a reception area, café, studio spaces, changing rooms, and a floodlit artificial grass pitch.