Rebranding plan for Penistone to be finalised this summer

Barnsley Council set aside the money to help ensure smaller ‘principal towns’ like Penistone, Hoyland and Goldthorpe were not left behind by the extensive regeneration work going off in the town centre, with some cash also expected to go into projects to help urban centres such as Dodworth, Lundwood and Mapplewell.

A bidding process for specific projects is taking place and it is expected a board will decide on the successful applicants in the Autumn, with initial expressions of interest now moving into a phase of bids support by feasibility work.

In Penistone that is expected to include a range of measures intended to support the viability of the town centre and improve its appeal as a tourist destination, a package put together following work by University of Sheffield architecture students who carried out consultation work with residents and compiled a package of suggested measures.

The feasibility process will involve the opportunity to make changes and a consultant has just been employed to complete the feasibility work, with widespread consultation now expected to involve interested parties including Penistone Town Council.

Suggested schemes involve revised car parking, signage to help guide unfamiliar visitors from the railway station into the town centre and to link the town’s Paramount cinema with the Town Hall next door to provide a more flexible space which could be used for more film screenings, art exhibitions or other events.

Barnsley Council officer Elaine Equeall told town councillors: “In Penistone the outline is a more holistic approach. Some areas have gone for car parks or shop fronts. In Penistone, on the back of consultation with the students, the idea was to look at the whole town centre and the tourism experience.

“There has been further consultation with businesses. We have been waiting a long time for consultants to be appointed but they have started.

“We want the feasibility plan to be totally inclusive, so it is based on everyone’s perspective.”

The meeting was told the ‘holistic’ approach adopted in Penistone had been well received in its early stages by the commissioning board which will decide which schemes get funding from the £5m available.

It is expected that will be spent by 2020, though the work involved will not necessarily be complete by that date.

In the towns, each scheme is expected to have a minimum cost of £100,000, with half that figure for projects which would benefit the smaller urban centres.