O/T Meat and Fish Market

Not living in Barnsley, can anyone let me know how the new market is doing now?

 

The problem that BMC and Sir steve has.. is they have their hands tied in just what they can do... Most if not all the town center is owned by private companies... The market area is owned by Norwich Union who dictate what can and cant be done.. Hence they will be having a large say in rents lease holding etc .. When Paul Sykes offered Barnsley the meadow Hall build Norwich Union threatened to pull out of bsly completely and turn vast areas in to nothing but derelict properties if they accepted hence Barnsley Council refused his offer... And why PS hates BMC.... Other vast areas in the town fall under the same problem and that's why certain other areas of the town haven't been developed

 

It's actually quite nice. I do share concerns about increase in rent, long term rents, and a lot of stalls have disappeared but I have to say the building is good, the stalls are well placed, and the same old Barnsley quality is there. There was another thread just after the market opened which had many positive comments on it.

 

Large parts were compulsory purchased by the council from the various freeholders....

Norwich Union and the other investment trusts which is essentially what they are can only blow hot air as empty properties equals no rent. No rent equals a reduction in people’s pensions... which in turn leads to angry pensioners. Or higher insurance premiums which in turn means fewer customers paying in.

 

Agreed no rent no profit ... But some body or bodies took the threat seriously
as for compulsory purchase BMC have/ are to my knowledge struggling massively within this area

 

I get a ham sandwich from the first meat stall you see when you walk in on most days. £1.50 and sometimes its got half a pig on it. Great quality meat as well. I have a walk through sometimes, the only thing is it needs to attract some younger shoppers as most of the people in there are of an older age.

 

They brought a number of retail units on cheapside.

Council pensions will be with Norwich Union!

 

If I'm not mistaken they bought back the leases on certain retail units which is a big difference to compulsive purchase
Pension wise its possible ..

 

I think you are wrong on this Shed.in the past the Norwich Union Pension fund owned the Metropolitan Centre. The value of this lowered and they wanted to sell,eventually after the initial redevelopment stalled. BMBC obtained Central government funding grant of £30 million pounds plus £5million from another source and purchased the centre. This makes us quite rare in the UK as we actually own land in a town centre and have some control and opportunity to have a long term income. It took a long time to obtain the remainder of the funding to start the work.BMBC are revolutionary in the build method they are using and reusing a lot of the existing buildings.
Living in Barnsley, it doesn't matter what the Council do,some people criticise them out of hand. The new plan is a lot smaller than the original and I think will fit in with future shopping and leisure behaviour. Pop down to Wakefield and Sheffield city centre's and see how derelict and out of scale to current retail trends they are. Look at how Out of Town and Large Superstores are out of fashion now,they were once the future.
I'm optimistic and confident about the long term future of the town centre and the town. Despite the criticism and derision of others.
HTH

 

I would love to see Barnsley regenerated. However, I think there are two aspects of perverse thinking that are coming home to roost and the downward spiral will be hard to reverse. Both relate to cars. Firstly, like a lot of councils theres been a "cars bad, public transport great" mantra. They may have a point but in a dose of reality, who in their right mind becomes a hostage to fortune with northern rail and leaves the car at home. Secondly, councils haven't kept business rates but keep parking revenue, so beggar the empty shops, we'll keep our £1.80 an hour parking fee. It's not the cost, it's scratching for change and getting a penalty notice for being two minutes late back. I contested a notice and won. I also did a foi request and found that year fifty percent of all contested Barnsley penalties were canned. I now think like most people why even bother.

 

A big part of regeneration should be building homes in the town centre and let Barnsley, where housing is cheaper, become a dormitory town for Leeds and Sheffield. People living in town will then spend money in town.

 

The other link is http://barnsleyfc.org.uk/threads/new-market.273199/#post-2203536

 

It's the same all over the Nation, you nieve? Don't blame BMBC. It is believable.

Fkin moan about the state of my town, make it better n then fkin moan

 

Barnsley do a lot more than most local towns with regards cars. Free parking at weekends when most want/need it. That's a huge step. Brand new carpark opened a few years ago with high quality materials used to make the experience better for car owners. Paying for a state of the art bridge to go straight to it.
New multi story carpark being built.

Short of giving free parking to everyone all the time which they simply can't afford to do what else do you expect?

 

Talking of the bridge .... I thought that would have started by now. Isn't the crossing closing very soon (I had March in my head). Also, where is the new multistory going? I've lost track since the Barnsley newsletter finished.

 

BTW, I BLAME that dead BITCH.

 

I've not been in the new market yet but am I right in thinking that the ceiling has been left bare much like the concourse of the east stand?

 

Yes, if you look up it does seem a little odd and unfinished.
I also would have expected proper shutters on the stalls so stock can be safely left when closed (as market now open 6 days a week).

Value and quality of goods is amazing though - And Pickles do proper Lancashire*/Red Cheddar cheese again which made my year.

* Their crumbly Lancashire is the best cheese of its type in the country - FACT.

 

Weirdly the newsletter didn't stop it just required you to sign up again due to the new data protection laws. For some reason they didn't bother to tell anyone that though. It's now every two weeks instead of every one and imo much poorer quality than it used to be. You also can't access back copies anymore as again for some bizarre reason they aren't saved.

As I understand it the multi story is going where the carpet world used to be. At least I think it was carpet world, it became some fake ice skating thing. Basically next to where it was but closer to harborough hills.

Last I heard the bridge is supposed to be started by the end of the year but I'm sure originally we were told that northern rail would only half fund it on the condition it was built by this spring

 

That's disappointing. The one thing I hoped wouldn't happen was that they'd start scrimping and saving on the furnishings but that looks to be exactly what they've done.

I've also noticed that from the outside that yellowish finish on the top half of the building looks really low quality compared to the glass.