14 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH · 28 FEB - 6 MAR 2011

Cut and cut again

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abolished. The scheme’s Housing Market Renewal(HMR) funding has been completely cut.

The plans have already cost £20 million – yet theynow face a shortfall of £10 million. And councilofficers admit they have little idea where the fundswill come from.

Plans included the demolition of Goldthorpe’s1960s-built shopping parade, along with 108 terracedhomes around the Main Street area, to be replaced bya new, relocated Goldthorpe Primary School,marketplace, town square and shops.

Some homes have been refurbished. But the due tobe demolished terraces still lie boarded up, with ahandful locked in legal negotiations with the council.

Council acquisitions first started in March 2010,and many residents have lived amongst boarded-uphouses for almost a year.

Recent reductions in crime and antisocialbehaviour are also set to suffer. HMR pumped moneyinto local anti-social behaviour patrols on theBroadwater Farm Estate, which, Noble says, werehaving an impact. And according to Unison, 300police jobs could go across South Yorkshire over thenext four years.

Billy Wardle, 22, is hanging around the boarded-uphouses of Main Street. He carries a Valentine’s cardfor his girlfriend, who’s just had their three-day-oldbaby.

He explains that he has just finished a six-monthplacement with Barnsley Council as part of theFuture Jobs Fund (FJF), which provides skills andexperience for the long-term unemployed.Unfortunately, there was no permanent work for him.

“I was committed,” Wardle says. “I would havestayed with it but it finished. It’s rubbish around here.It’s not our country anymore – it’s everybody else’s.”

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SPENDING CUTS: GOLDTHORPE

Councillor May Noble sighs as she sips her hotdrink, the cafe she is sat in flanked by boarded-upunits in a shopping parade condemned todemolition.

The site was due to become a new marketplace atthe heart of a regenerated Goldthorpe. Butgovernment cuts have put paid to such plans, andinstead the town’s high street is blighted bydereliction.

“We wanted to raise people’s aspirations and givethem something to be proud of. But now we are justback to square one,” Noble says. “We got people tocome out to meetings and get involved. But nowpeople just put their hands in the air and say: ‘What’sthe point?’”

A former mining village of around 6,700 people,Goldthorpe is 15 minutes drive from Barnsley. Itsabandoned former pit, one of the last to shut in 1994,sits just outside the town centre.

Now used by dog walkers, it is one of many potentsymbols of Goldthorpe’s past. But none are sopowerful as the continued legacy of unemployment,unbroken since the mass lay-offs following the minersstrike.

Across Barnsley, a third of the population is relianton benefits. The gap between local life expectancyand the national average is now around two years,and has been steadily increasing since the 1990s.Youth unemployment is a huge problem, and only athird of pupils have five or more GCSEs at grade C orabove.

All this provides a shaky foundation for the impactof huge government cuts. On 10 March, BarnsleyCouncil looks set to give the go-ahead for 1,200 jobsto be axed, saving £45 million over the next fouryears. The authority has to save £26 million this yearalone.

Reports speak of a “bleak economic future” forBarnsley, as a huge amount of public sectorinvestment from quangos into the commercial sectoris slowly pulled out. The cut prompted council chiefexecutive Phil Coppard to brand CommunitiesSecretary Eric Pickles a “clown”.

One quango, Yorkshire Forward, initiated thescheme to regenerate Goldthorpe as part of itsRenaissance Market Town Plan. But it wasannounced in June that Yorkshire Forward is to be

Goldthorpe’sabandoned pit,one of the lastto shut in 1994,sits just outsidethe town centre

Unemployment has scarredGoldthorpe since the miners strikeand now government cuts threatenevery housing scheme, communitycentre and training course thatsupports people in the impoverishedSouth Yorkshire area. The first in amajor series on how the cuts areaffecting our towns and cities byHelen Clifton

Councillor May Noble (left)says many local youngpeople don’t have theconfidence to apply forjobs in call centres – one ofthe few sources ofemployment in the area.Above, Billy Wardle,carrying a Valentine’s card,and friends. Photos: HelenClifton

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going. She relies on nine volunteers and is runningcourses on behalf of Dearne Valley College.

Lowe agrees her organisation represents the futurefor the area’s 164 voluntary organisations. “I dobelieve in what Cameron is trying to do. I thinkpeople need to take more responsibility.

“What we’ve had to do is look at what funding isavailable. There was not much for substance misusebut there was lots for health. We now work withpeople post-detox.

“There is still grant funding out there. But I wishthe people who made these cuts came out and sawthe good work that we do. It is going to be a longhaul.”

Yorkshire Forward is not the only quango to haveprovided benefits to the area. Since April 2008, theCoalfields Regeneration Trust has funded 128 projectsin Barnsley, awarding a total of almost £4 million. It too will close at the end of the month.

Noble chastises him sharply and shakes her head.“It’s wrong but I don’t blame them for feeling likethat,” she says.

Although the FJF has now been abolished, BarnsleyCouncil leader Stephen Houghton has called on thegovernment to bring it back to the local area, saying itachieved success in giving people real jobs and“dignity”.

In an area where call centre work is often the onlychoice, Noble agrees that an alternative is crucial.

“Many of our children don’t have that confidenceto sit there and do what can seem like an academicinterview,” says Noble, who worked in a call centreon and off for five years. “It’s a highly pressurisedenvironment. I hated it. I have worked all my life butin Ventura there was no union representation – noneat all.”

She says it will take generations to changeGoldthorpe.

“The previous government have invested in schoolslike the Dearne Valley Learning Centre and it’salready started to change the kids. It’s absolutelywonderful how they seem to be more confident. Butyou just can’t change a brass button into a gold onestraight away.”

Recovering alcoholic Mandy Lowe is one of thosedetermined people Cameron will be relying on tobuild the big society in places like Goldthorpe. Sevenyears ago, she launched Turnaround, a substancemisuse service.

“It’s a huge problem here, absolutely huge,” shesays. “People have lost their aspirations. It just has asnowball effect and drugs are relatively cheaplyavailable.”

When it was set up, Turnaround received £35,000funding from the Department for Work and Pensions.Lowe has since helped 500 people get off drugs andalcohol and into training or employment.

But as funding became scarce, Lowe was forced tochange priorities. She opened the Lavender TrainingCafe in January, and has used up all her savings andremortgaged her house to keep the social enterprise

Top: the team atGoldthorpe Credit Union,which has provided nearly12,000 much needed low-interest loans since itopened. It was funded bythe CoalfieldsRegeneration Trust, whichis to close at the end of themonth. Above: trainedplumber Michael Webster,who has been unemployedsince 2004, is learningcomputing

SPENDING CUTS: GOLDTHORPE

“I don’t knowwhat I’d dowithout thelibrary and thecentre. They’vebeenneglected, allthese littletowns.”

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18 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH · 7-13 MARCH 2010

One of these projects was the Goldthorpe CreditUnion, which received £380,000 over six years.Across Barnsley, credit unions have provided 11,712low-interest loans worth a total of £4.5 million –saving locals a huge £1.78 million in interest – andtaking 2,000 new members on last year.

“The amount we have lent has gone up by over£17,000 since last January – so you can see in 12 months how much things have changed,” saysmanager Gail Foster, whose grandfather launched theSouth Yorkshire Credit Union from his bedroom inthe 1980s.

Research from charity Church Action on Povertyfound that Goldthorpe Credit Union members pay anaverage annual “poverty premium” of £1,170 extra forbasic services, making them extremely financiallyvulnerable. People on low incomes often face higherrates of interest on credit from mainstream providersand loan sharks, and are unable to get the best dealson energy bills

“It makes me angry when they say there are jobsaround here – there are, but there are hundreds goingfor one job,” Foster says. “There are a lot of peoplebeing taken off incapacity benefits and being put onthe new Employment Support Allowance at themoment. But they are often waiting six weeks or morefor their new claim. And what do they do in themeantime?”

According to the research body Local Futures, morethan 37 per cent of all jobs in Barnsley come from thepublic sector. By 2016 the total number of job losseswill be around 1,500 in an area which, according toBBC research, is one of the 20 least resilient localauthorities in the country. And it’s not just thecouncil which is laying people off.

“The NHS, which is also a large employer in thearea, is shedding jobs and the college is alsodownsizing,” explains Malcolm Clements, UnisonBarnsley convenor. “The government’s solution to allthis is that the private sector is just going to come andrescue us. I just don’t see that in Barnsley.

SPENDING CUTS: GOLDTHORPE

“I dread tothink what theworst casescenario couldbe forGoldthorpe,because itcould be quitehorrendous.”

“People havelost theiraspirations. Ithas a snowballeffect anddrugs arecheaplyavailable.”

“When you have people in a politically neutral roleopenly criticising the government, it makes youwonder. And the government have the effrontery tocome round, saying it is less than a ten per cent cut. Itjust beggars belief. I dread to think what the worstcase scenario could be for Goldthorpe, because itcould be quite horrendous.”

Over at Goldthorpe Job Centre, trained plumberMichael Webster, 48, queues to see an adviser. He hasbeen unemployed since September 2004.

That morning, he was presented with an NVQ inhealth and safety at the Lavender Training Café.“That’s got to help, hasn’t it?” he says brightly. He’salso attending college to upgrade his plumbingcertificates and is learning computing.

“But plumbing is a young man’s game,” he says. “I have arthritis in my knees from kneeling down allmy life. That’s why I’m looking for something else.

“The only computing I’ve done is what I’ve learntmyself. People can ask me what’s this and that, and I don’t understand what they are talking about – but I know myself. That’s why I’ve done these computercourses – to help.”

The future of Goldthorpe Enterprise Centre, whereWebster looks for jobs and attends courses, is alsouncertain. “I don’t know what I’d do without thelibrary and the centre,” he says. “They’ve beenneglected, all these little towns. The market’s not howit used to be – that’s more or less dead now. We usedto thrive. Now it just seems like everything isgrinding to a standstill.”

NEXT WEEK: “If the community centreclosed down, it would just rip the heart outof Meir itself.” How Stoke is fighting backagainst the cuts. Are you battling spendingcuts in your area? Email kevin.gopal@bigissuenorth.co.uk

Above: part way throughhousing regeneration,funding has dried up.Right: Mandy Lowe ofTurnaround

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