Firstly the aesthetics. The Superbowl site is looking really good, it will definitely be an asset to the town centre, the new promenade that you can now see also looks excellent. The market stalls with their own signage up look great too, from the ones I saw in the meat and fish market they all seem to have gone for simple understated signs which give them some identity whilst keeping the overall clean look. The negative is still the back of the glassworks. Plain ugly. The majority of people are being reasonably sensible in terms of keeping themselves safe. Most tend to be keeping a bit of distance between each other and not being areholes really. The exception to this was within the market where I was constantly witnessing and dodging elderly folk with their head down walking straight at people, brushing past people and generally not giving a **** about anyone else or their own safety. Utterly irresponsible but something I've seen as a trend for months. Then there's the organisation. I think it's absolutely crazy that the Alhambra has seating areas open right in the middle of walkways. People sat down with others having to get close past them, not anyone's fault because it's where the seats have been placed. Add that to the Christmas decorations which are taking up large areas of floorspace and I think it's ridiculous. We are told to keep our distance yet the big companies are making that as hard as possible. The same goes for at Asda, I only popped in for a few items but was saddened to see that once again customers are forced to queue in the food aisles with shoppers doing their best to avoid them whilst doing their shopping. On top of that I noticed for the first time that their one way in and out entrance/exit is the wrong way round. Looking from the front of the shop inwards the checkouts are on the left yet Asda in their wisdom have made the entrance the left hand door and the exit the right meaning every shopper going in and out has to cross each others paths. Why not just enter through the right hand door and exit through the left? Its so frustrating that the public in general are being fairly sensible and the small independent shops are too (one in at a time in some for example) but the greedy and thoughtless big busineses are putting everyone at risk by refusing to make the most obvious of changes. A couple of other things to note. In the Alhambra a young boy became separated from presumably his father on the escalator leaving the boy stood at the top. Quick as a flash a lady shouted down 'ill help him if it's ok' and preceded to ride the escalator down with the boy keeping him safe. A very kind thing to do I thought. But then as soon as she handed the boy over she got back on the up escalator and went back to the first floor. This kind lady wasn't even going down at all she went out of her way for the boy. Near budgets bridge an lady slipped over and an elderly man straight away went to see if she was ok. Again full respect there sir. On the negative side I saw two absolute morons on mobility scooters absolutely flying on the pavement near Asda nearly taking out a family who were walking. Utterly selfish. And one which wasn't selfish but was so stupid was an old man on Sheffield road who with his head down slowly stepped out into the road. It was thick with snow and he stepped out in front of cars. What s tool. Town centre is looking great though that's the main thing.
Found Barnsley really empty when I nipped in NYE morning. It was a sunny morning which made the new brickwork look good. One thing I think Barnsley is good for is looking out for folk.
Great stuff. Although no longer in Barnsley I still take a keen interest in the town centre redevelopment. Looks like it will offer more than Huddersfield town centre when it's complete. When is the whole project due for completion? I have a big refurbishment job starting just outside Barnsley town centre very shortly so will be over that way weekly for the best part of 12 months.
It really does look good. The market is a bit soulless inside but I'm sure as it gets bigger and more full it will improve. From the main town centre area on cheapside it all looks better than it ever has in my life time. You'll have to have a good look when you come over, you'll be impressed
