"The world is our oyster" - local leaders unveil ambitious new vision for Barnsley's future
There are plans to improve health, education, the economy, and sustainability
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we're told the world is Barnsley's oyster as local leaders prepare to outline an ambitious new vision for the town's future.
Politicians, businesses and other partners will launch the plan for the town at an online event later, laying out what they want to achieve between now and 2030.
It will focuss on improving four areas: health, education, the economy and sustainability.
Leader of Barnsley Council Steve Houghton says the town will have to recover from Covid first:
"It's about getting our businesses open again, making sure they're safe, getting people back to work, managing the impact of furlough starting to wind down in a few months' time because all the predictions are unemployment will rise as a result of that.
"But still having some big ambitions for Barnsley. We need to be ambitious.
"The town centre's looking great, it's coming on, and the business interest in that is incredible given what's just happened over the last twelve months. We also want over the next few years not just to invest in the town centre but invest in our district centres and our wider communities."
Barnsley has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, often having some of the highest rates of the virus in the country.
Steve tells us it's highlighted health inequalities that have always been present:
"We need to think about the way we live our lives - can we get more exercise, active travel rather than just driving the car, educating people about what's a good diet.
"It's not easy if you're very poor with not much money - you can only do what you can do. So it's identifying those who are most vulnerable and working with them to improve matters."
The plan's been drawn up after a big public consultation last year about what the people of Barnsley want the town to look like by 2030.
Despite the challenges, Steve thinks the town has an exciting future ahead of it:
"You really can buld a business here, you really can build a quality of life here. We have got great schools to go to. It's not easy - there are no magic bullets to solve everybody's problems - but I think if everybody pulls together, the world really is our oyster here."
There's more on Barnsley 2030 here.