Vision for a 21st Century Market Town - Interview with the Mayor of Barnsley

Barnsley (South Yorkshire, UK) has a population of 218,000 (82.000 in town) and it has a great history as a centre of coal mining. In the beginning of the 21st century a huge regeneration effort followed in order to rebuild an economic base that would offer a future for the people and to eradicate the dereliction left by industrial decline. Barnsley is contributing to the URBACT Creative Clusters network through its experience on: re-using old industrial sites for creative activities; institutionalization of a creative-oriented local development; branding the creative place; PPP schemes in creative strategies; networking creative people; art incubators; new digital media cluster; and supporting tools for creative entrepreneurs.

Mr. Houghton, could you please make a preliminary assessment of your participation in URBACT?

Involvement in the Creative Clusters Network is a fantastic opportunity for Barnsley. It will enable us to progress further our vision for Barnsley as a 21st Century Market town through learning, sharing of best practice and opportunities to showcase and develop our plans with like minded peers. We see this URBACT project as a step towards a stronger European profile for the town and we hope to retain and grow links with the other partners in the network long after the current project has been delivered.

Specific areas in which we could gain knowledge from our European partners are: enhancing our local cultural agenda and developing a street life for our town, eco-tourism, networking our creative local people with local industrial businesses, assist with providing a creative education for primary and secondary schools and insight into the digital media sector to enhance our own. 

What is your view regarding creative industries and the city?

To realize our vision of becoming a culturally inspiring 21st Century Market town, Barnsley faces challenges associated with supporting the growth and development of the cultural industries sector.  These challenges range from providing adequate transport links to cultural sites around the borough making them more accessible to raising awareness for local companies as to what is going on locally within the sector.  The difficulties are in the uncertainty over the level and timescale of future funding streams and also the fact that the sector is currently reliant upon a few individuals who are vital to making it work.  The Yorkshire region in which Barnsley is situated boasts similar local strategies and without funding and the knowledge to develop our offer, companies could be attracted into developments elsewhere around the region.

Current crisis is hitting particularly the retail sector. Are you considering any specific measure to re-activate commercial life in Barnsley?

Barnsley's commercial centre has performed well so far through the economic downturn. In particular our Indoor meat and fish market is fully let for the first time in eight years. Therefore the need to 'reactivate' commercial life in Barnsley has not been felt as strongly as the question suggests.

We continue to be fully committed to growing our economy and support our existing retailers and businesses through established partnership networks working to the common goal of improving and developing our town centre.

We have created new space for retail in the Civic development and our Enterprise team is dedicated to attracting inward investment into Barnsley.

Our creative and cultural sector has continued to show its support for the growth of the commercial centre through programming events and activity to encourage and increase dwell time in precinct areas and also the utilization of empty retail space as temporary galleries. These both improve the appearance of the town and also showcase local emerging talent and community groups.

What about the articulation between regional and local levels in Yorkshire? Are the public bodies at the regional level really aligned with your strategy promoting the creative city?

The regional bodies Yorkshire Forward, Welcome to Yorkshire and the regional offices of Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund are all fully supportive of our endeavors to be a 21st century market town. They have partnered with us in many initiatives enabling key investment to come to the town, both capital and revenue, and facilitate both the creation of a new urban landscape and the activity that animates it.

They continue to work with us on key projects including the development of a new Market, development and improvements to Elsecar Heritage centre as a key cultural attraction, development of a new museum and archives centre for our town hall and the programming and delivery of cultural activity within our venues and open public areas. They hold seats on our key partnership groups and we are in strong dialogue about the future of Barnsley and its creative & cultural development.

We all wish you success to Barnsley candidature to the UK City of culture for 2013. It is a real challenge for a medium-sized town. How to settle this initiative into your strategy promoting a creative cluster in your city?

At the time of responding, Barnsley has unfortunately not been short listed for the second stage of bidding for the UK City of Culture accolade. The creative and artistic work that went into the initial bid and also the focus on repositioning culture to contribute effectively to both the economic and social development of Barnsley and its communities still stands.

Barnsley's creative cluster is about the growth of opportunity for local people and visitors to the borough to experience a vibrant and engaging town. It focuses on developing our higher education community in creative subjects to grow our entrepreneurs of tomorrow; it is committed to filling and utilizing our managed workspace offer to both creative and digital businesses. Through the first phase of Remaking Barnsley we have spent considerable time building and establishing the corner stones of our physical regeneration incorporating modern design, space and opportunity to grow business and embracing the creative and digital agenda to its fullest.

Our UK City of Culture bid was about the second phase of this development. It was about using culture and creativity to animate, fulfill and enhance the physical assets created. It was about engaging our local communities and taking them forward with their town. It was designed to create jobs, training opportunities and build social capital to invest in the town's future.

To this end our ambitions and plans through the learning gained from the creative clusters project and our plans for the UK City of Culture bid were the same.


Read more:

• Creative Clusters – URBACT website
• Creative Clusters: diversifying local economic base and opportunities to young people - URBACT website