What's your unpopular opinion about Barnsley?

The "stink" from the greasy spoons pervades the whole upper floor of the market. I certainly wouldn't want to buy any clothes from up there. I appreciate that people like this kind of food, it's always busy, but the place does smell better after 5:00 pm when these providers have shut.

 

The fact that all our green spaces are disappearing at an alarming rate turning what were lovely communal villages into concrete jungles with little thought for the villages histories and infrastucture to cope with it ie roads' schools' doctors' drains etc' but hey if theres money to be made...

 

But there's a difference between development and ugly development. Absolutely no reason why the Hermes building has to be so in your face and painted blue. Houghton wouldn't like it if someone built a bright blue house opposite his

 

Really? Are you sure it was the smell from the fish market? There's only a couple of fish stalls and they're a long way from market kitchen

 

Well I wouldn’t know as I’ve little sense of smell, but ‘ I appreciate that people like this kind of food’ does sound rather snobbish and insulting to people that just want to eat ‘traditional English style cafe food’

 

Thanks for posting that...a brilliant piece by Nairn, pretty much hit the nail on the head.

 

My wife commented about a week or so ago about smelling the fish counters from the new shopping precinct entrance. Having briefly worked on the Tesco fish counter for about 6 months, I can only assume that they’ve had a batch of poor quality fish or someone hasn’t being doing their job properly because that’s the only time you got a fishy smell in the Tesco Store where I worked.

 

As a child, I fainted on the one occasion I entered the fish market the smell was that bad. I always was a sensitive soul!

 

Meant to write " I love you Chunk"

 

I can't comment specifically on the Birdwell/Tankersley issue...but on the face of it it seems typical of so many developments elsewhere, developers pick the easiest, cheapest places to build on....usually greenfield sites, promising thousands of jobs which often never materialise ...certainly in the numbers promised . The most disappointing aspect for me though, particularly if we all accept there is a climate change emergency, is that these developments have hundreds of thousands of square metres of roof and walls that could be covered with a mixture of solar panels and living walls to at least try and mitigate some of the greenspace related losses...it could be a huge solar electricity farm...but they won't do it...it costs too much is the stock answer, the question then remains are they remotely serious about tackling climate change or not?
Over the next few years thousands of houses will be built and there will be no requirement to have solar roofs as standard, it's shameful to be honest.

 

As a teenager I once came out of 'the Temple' ( shown in Nairn's film) after 4 hours drinking and the smell of the fresh air made me fall down.

 

as most people know i was born and raised in donny until i was 15 (i'm 65 now) i can remember the old arndale centre being built ( frenchgate centre) the bus stn's being built and rebuilt, the old A1 going through the middle of town before the bypass but whenever i go over to visit rellies old school friends the odd fwb i feel nothing, no affinity nothing but when i'm coming home and i see redfearns ( ardagh glass) the town hall and hospital thats when i feel happy. when i get to shafton and think " i'll nip through cudworth and get a couple of pork pies from farmfoods" and people i know wave as i drive past ( personlized no plate). i've been in barnsley 40+ years and i call it home for all its faults.......................... and in the past i've looked out of my married quarter window into china

 

I hear so many story’s of the opposite feeling of people yearning for their birth or early upbringing places ,
Mate of mine was in the Army and married a. Barnsley lass but divorced whilst still in the Army then Married again ,non UK .
She hated the the north of England for some reason and Barnsley In particular and all he wanted to do was come home . They settled in south West Midlands but he came to. Barnsley on his own frequently particularly to watch Tarn but mainly to see friends and relatives and have a night of two round Town or in WMCs .
He yearned to be back but rightly so his marriage and Children came first .
Whilst he was in the forces there were a good number from in or around town and they couldn’t wait to get passes to come home to get round town and see Tarn play I’ve been out with them on numerous occasdions in the past along with a few Sourhern based stragglers lol that had come along with them to see what s the fuss was about .
They loved it in Town ( eighties to mid nineties) and couldn’t get over his near and how many pubs and clubs there were .
Suppose it’s horses for courses I expect but I think I would miss it and would definitely done in the time slot above .

 

The amusing thing with that is Hermes don’t even own the building, they’re only a tenant. I’m all for brand identity and corporate colours, but I don’t think it needs to be so obvious on such a huge, imposing building.

The issue is that locals are so hell bent on trying to stop any development (which just won’t happen) they miss out on providing any feedback that CAN make a difference. At consultation and with reserved matters applications they really should be rallying together and pushing the council to impose conditions on the development - conditions to mitigate the loss of green space, materials used, location and scale etc. above and beyond what the council may impose. Look at places like Holmfirth, Kirklees Council accepted developments from Aldi and Lidl, but they forced them to use stone and natural materials so the developments aren’t out of place with local architecture.

By nature, warehouses are just tin sheds, but things like ‘green screens’ and ‘living walls’ can reduce the impact of these buildings. The only new development at Birdwell to have any of this is the McDonald’s that’s currently being built!

 

When my Wife first came up to god's allotment the first thing she said was "its not a myth is it, it really is friendlier up here", yes you have your ring bits like any other place but she never knew the name of her neighbours down here, its quite rare down here to stand at a bus stop and have a conversation with a stranger, where up home after 10 minutes you know what size feet they are and what their daily cycle of bowel movements are, I miss home and nothing ( imo) compares