Halloween fun for Dearne valley youngsters backed by council funding

Dozens of Dearne Valley youngsters – and their parents – turned out to enjoy a session of free Halloween fun put on to provide school holiday entertainment in Goldthorpe.
Autumn fun: Kayd-Drew Stables gets to grips with a pumpkin lantern, with Coun Pauline Phillips and grandmother Susan StablesAutumn fun: Kayd-Drew Stables gets to grips with a pumpkin lantern, with Coun Pauline Phillips and grandmother Susan Stables
Autumn fun: Kayd-Drew Stables gets to grips with a pumpkin lantern, with Coun Pauline Phillips and grandmother Susan Stables

Funding for the event, at the newly created Railway Cutting community park, was provided by the area’s Ward Alliance a body made up of councillors and others working to improve the community, with a budget of council cash to spend.Supermarket Tesco helped the money available stretch a bit further by providing a mountain of pumpkins for a hugely popular lantern cutting session.Children also had the opportunity to decorate bird feeders and get into the seasonal mood.The community park is a recently opened venue, created from a section of disused railway line running from Barnsley Road, which had previously been blighted by fly-tipping.It is now fenced off and kept secure, allowing visitors to enjoy an urban retreat.The next step of its regeneration, said Coun Pauline Phillips, who represents the Dearne North ward on Barnsley Council and was present for the event, is to try to secure the funding for a care-taker who will be able to open up the site at regular intervals for visitors.At present that is restricted, though volunteers work regularly on site and encourage those passing to drop in when they find the gates, alongside the railway bridge opposite Dearneside Motors, to call in and check on developments as the site begins to mature.