Barnsley Council’s newest cabinet member hopes to see “clean, green spaces” and Wombwell improvements

Councillor James Higginbottom was elected to represent Wombwell in May 2021 – and has been promoted to the position of cabinet member for environment and transportation just a year into his term.

Under his wide- ranging portfolio, Coun Higginbottom will oversee the areas that residents see most – bins, roads and green spaces – and Coun Higginbottom is keen to ensure the council is keeping on top on maintenance, and innovating where they can.

Although becoming a cabinet member “wasn’t in the plan” for Coun Higginbottom, he says he wouldn’t be where he is if it wasn’t for former councillor and deputy leader of BMBC, Jim Andrews, who lost his Rockingham seat at May’s election after 36 years on the council.

“An absolute stalwart lost his seat, that was a really hard, difficult blow for us to face as a Labour group,” he added.

“I owe all of my political career to Jim Andrews. I was devastated when he lost his seat – but that necessitated a change.

MORE: £10m investment plan including new gyms, parks and offices agreed for Barnsley’s principal towns

“You can’t dwell on it, the people have spoken. It created that space that I’ve stepped into.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t feel that sense of responsibility, but you also see the opportunity.”

When asked what his priorities are for his portfolio, Coun Higginbottom said: “Simple really – clean, green, safe – that’s what we’re about.”

“People out there want to see clean streets, they want to see green neighbourhoods, and they want to feel safe.

“That means getting the services right first time. That means that the bins are emptied on time, the grass is cut, streets are clean and the litter’s been picked up and swept.

“On the highways side, making sure the road are in as good a condition as we can – we’re always going to have challenges with that, we’re always going to have a backlog to be cleared.

“That’s people’s priorities – but also innovating where we can with it.”

Innovation is well on the way in Barnsley, with an electric bin lorry to be added to Barnsley Council’s fleet, as part of a £6m vehicle procurement programme.

However, BMBC is not without its challenges – on the back of a decade of cuts, the council has seen its revenue support grant reduced by £95m between 2010 and 2021 – a a 58 percent reduction in cash.

The council is estimating that over the next financial year, a £6.9m shortfall will need to be met from budget savings.

“Most people appreciate the challenges that we’ve been through,” added Coun Higginbottom.

“We’ve had over £100m cut from our budget, we employ much, much fewer staff than we did 10 years ago, we’ve come through a period of real, real financial hardship.

“That’s been difficult – that’s meant services had to be cut, we’ve had to reshape how we do things.

“We’re less of a council now about doing things for people – and we’re a council that does things with people, we work with communities.

“All credit to Sir Steve [Houghton, leader of the council] on this, we’ve got now more area councils and ward alliances that bring the council closer to people, but also bring people closer to the council.

“We don’t know what the next few years are going to bring financially, it’s going to be tough times on the horizon.

“For the first time in a long while, we’re looking at actually putting money back into front-line services.”

Wombwell

In Coun Higginbottom’s Wombwell ward, 28 per cent of residents were in fuel poverty as of 2021, and 27 percent of children are from low-income families.

“At the minute, people haven’t got enough money in their pocket, and I’m worried about my residents,” added Coun Higginbottom.

“Without some real, significant interventions, we’re really worried about how residents are going to manage this cost of living crisis.”

A £3m investment has been announced for Wombwell, under the council’s principal towns investment programme.

The programme includes the acquisition of the Burton’s building, a community art project, improvements to parks, green spaces, and cycling and walking routes, as well as a scheme to find a site for a potential gym.

“The intention is to acquire the Burton building, provided it all goes through , our plans for that are a mini DMC [digital media centre] downstairs, so six more units for businesses, and BPL [Barnsley Premier Leisure] taking the upstairs, and then social referrals for people who have got long-term disabilities.

“It’s been a long time in the making – we’ve had this money there for a long time but delivering on those highways improvements, decluttering the street furniture, the notorious toilet block – I really want to see that back in our hands and that’s certainly our intention.

“We’re engaging constructively with the owners about it, I’m hoping that we can we can get to a place of..bringing it back into use.”