Cut and cut again

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BITN 866_14,15,17,18 (cuts):BITN 772_20,21 (orbit)

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Cut and cut again
14 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH · 28 FEB - 6 MAR 2011

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SPENDING CUTS: GOLDTHORPE

Unemployment has scarred Goldthorpe since the miners strike and now government cuts threaten every housing scheme, community centre and training course that supports people in the impoverished South Yorkshire area. The first in a major series on how the cuts are affecting our towns and cities by Helen Clifton

Councillor May Noble sighs as she sips her hot drink, the cafe she is sat in flanked by boarded-up units in a shopping parade condemned to demolition. The site was due to become a new marketplace at the heart of a regenerated Goldthorpe. But government cuts have put paid to such plans, and instead the town’s high street is blighted by dereliction. “We wanted to raise people’s aspirations and give them something to be proud of. But now we are just back to square one,” Noble says. “We got people to come out to meetings and get involved. But now people just put their hands in the air and say: ‘What’s the point?’” A former mining village of around 6,700 people, Goldthorpe is 15 minutes drive from Barnsley. Its abandoned 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 potent symbols of Goldthorpe’s past. But none are so powerful as the continued legacy of unemployment, unbroken since the mass lay-offs following the miners strike. Across Barnsley, a third of the population is reliant on benefits. The gap between local life expectancy and the national average is now around two years, and has been steadily increasing since the 1990s. Youth unemployment is a huge problem, and only a third of pupils have five or more GCSEs at grade C or above. All this provides a shaky foundation for the impact of huge government cuts. On 10 March, Barnsley Council looks set to give the go-ahead for 1,200 jobs to be axed, saving £45 million over the next four years. The authority has to save £26 million this year alone. Reports speak of a “bleak economic future” for Barnsley, as a huge amount of public sector investment from quangos into the commercial sector is slowly pulled out. The cut prompted council chief executive Phil Coppard to brand Communities Secretary Eric Pickles a “clown”. One quango, Yorkshire Forward, initiated the scheme to regenerate Goldthorpe as part of its Renaissance Market Town Plan. But it was announced in June that Yorkshire Forward is to be

Councillor May Noble (left) says many local young people don’t have the confidence to apply for jobs in call centres – one of the few sources of employment in the area. Above, Billy Wardle, carrying a Valentine’s card, and friends. Photos: Helen Clifton

Goldthorpe’s abandoned pit, one of the last to shut in 1994, sits just outside the town centre

abolished. The scheme’s Housing Market Renewal (HMR) funding has been completely cut. The plans have already cost £20 million – yet they now face a shortfall of £10 million. And council officers admit they have little idea where the funds will come from. Plans included the demolition of Goldthorpe’s 1960s-built shopping parade, along with 108 terraced homes around the Main Street area, to be replaced by a new, relocated Goldthorpe Primary School, marketplace, town square and shops. Some homes have been refurbished. But the due to be demolished terraces still lie boarded up, with a handful locked in legal negotiations with the council. Council acquisitions first started in March 2010, and many residents have lived amongst boarded-up houses for almost a year. Recent reductions in crime and antisocial behaviour are also set to suffer. HMR pumped money into local anti-social behaviour patrols on the Broadwater Farm Estate, which, Noble says, were having an impact. And according to Unison, 300 police jobs could go across South Yorkshire over the next four years. Billy Wardle, 22, is hanging around the boarded-up houses of Main Street. He carries a Valentine’s card for his girlfriend, who’s just had their three-day-old baby. He explains that he has just finished a six-month placement with Barnsley Council as part of the Future Jobs Fund (FJF), which provides skills and experience for the long-term unemployed. Unfortunately, there was no permanent work for him. “I was committed,” Wardle says. “I would have stayed 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

“I don’t know what I’d do without the library and the centre. They’ve been neglected, all these little towns.”
Noble chastises him sharply and shakes her head. “It’s wrong but I don’t blame them for feeling like that,” she says. Although the FJF has now been abolished, Barnsley Council leader Stephen Houghton has called on the government to bring it back to the local area, saying it achieved success in giving people real jobs and “dignity”. In an area where call centre work is often the only choice, Noble agrees that an alternative is crucial. “Many of our children don’t have that confidence to sit there and do what can seem like an academic interview,” says Noble, who worked in a call centre on and off for five years. “It’s a highly pressurised environment. I hated it. I have worked all my life but in Ventura there was no union representation – none at all.” She says it will take generations to change Goldthorpe. “The previous government have invested in schools like the Dearne Valley Learning Centre and it’s already started to change the kids. It’s absolutely wonderful how they seem to be more confident. But you just can’t change a brass button into a gold one straight away.” Recovering alcoholic Mandy Lowe is one of those determined people Cameron will be relying on to build the big society in places like Goldthorpe. Seven years ago, she launched Turnaround, a substance misuse service. “It’s a huge problem here, absolutely huge,” she says. “People have lost their aspirations. It just has a snowball effect and drugs are relatively cheaply available.” When it was set up, Turnaround received £35,000 funding from the Department for Work and Pensions. Lowe has since helped 500 people get off drugs and alcohol and into training or employment. But as funding became scarce, Lowe was forced to change priorities. She opened the Lavender Training Cafe in January, and has used up all her savings and remortgaged her house to keep the social enterprise

going. She relies on nine volunteers and is running courses on behalf of Dearne Valley College. Lowe agrees her organisation represents the future for the area’s 164 voluntary organisations. “I do believe in what Cameron is trying to do. I think people need to take more responsibility. “What we’ve had to do is look at what funding is available. There was not much for substance misuse but there was lots for health. We now work with people post-detox. “There is still grant funding out there. But I wish the people who made these cuts came out and saw the good work that we do. It is going to be a long haul.” Yorkshire Forward is not the only quango to have provided benefits to the area. Since April 2008, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust has funded 128 projects in Barnsley, awarding a total of almost £4 million. It too will close at the end of the month.

Top: the team at Goldthorpe Credit Union, which has provided nearly 12,000 much needed lowinterest loans since it opened. It was funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, which is to close at the end of the month. Above: trained plumber Michael Webster, who has been unemployed since 2004, is learning computing

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SPENDING CUTS: GOLDTHORPE

Above: part way through housing regeneration, funding has dried up. Right: Mandy Lowe of Turnaround

“I dread to think what the worst case scenario could be for Goldthorpe, because it could be quite horrendous.”

“People have lost their aspirations. It has a snowball effect and drugs are cheaply available.”
18

One of these projects was the Goldthorpe Credit Union, which received £380,000 over six years. Across Barnsley, credit unions have provided 11,712 low-interest loans worth a total of £4.5 million – saving locals a huge £1.78 million in interest – and taking 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,” says manager Gail Foster, whose grandfather launched the South Yorkshire Credit Union from his bedroom in the 1980s. Research from charity Church Action on Poverty found that Goldthorpe Credit Union members pay an average annual “poverty premium” of £1,170 extra for basic services, making them extremely financially vulnerable. People on low incomes often face higher rates of interest on credit from mainstream providers and loan sharks, and are unable to get the best deals on energy bills “It makes me angry when they say there are jobs around here – there are, but there are hundreds going for one job,” Foster says. “There are a lot of people being taken off incapacity benefits and being put on the new Employment Support Allowance at the moment. But they are often waiting six weeks or more for their new claim. And what do they do in the meantime?” According to the research body Local Futures, more than 37 per cent of all jobs in Barnsley come from the public sector. By 2016 the total number of job losses will be around 1,500 in an area which, according to BBC research, is one of the 20 least resilient local authorities in the country. And it’s not just the council which is laying people off. “The NHS, which is also a large employer in the area, is shedding jobs and the college is also downsizing,” explains Malcolm Clements, Unison Barnsley convenor. “The government’s solution to all this is that the private sector is just going to come and rescue us. I just don’t see that in Barnsley.

“When you have people in a politically neutral role openly criticising the government, it makes you wonder. And the government have the effrontery to come round, saying it is less than a ten per cent cut. It just beggars belief. I dread to think what the worst case scenario could be for Goldthorpe, because it could be quite horrendous.” Over at Goldthorpe Job Centre, trained plumber Michael Webster, 48, queues to see an adviser. He has been unemployed since September 2004. That morning, he was presented with an NVQ in health and safety at the Lavender Training Café. “That’s got to help, hasn’t it?” he says brightly. He’s also attending college to upgrade his plumbing certificates and is learning computing. “But plumbing is a young man’s game,” he says. “I have arthritis in my knees from kneeling down all my life. That’s why I’m looking for something else. “The only computing I’ve done is what I’ve learnt myself. 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 computer courses – to help.” The future of Goldthorpe Enterprise Centre, where Webster looks for jobs and attends courses, is also uncertain. “I don’t know what I’d do without the library and the centre,” he says. “They’ve been neglected, all these little towns. The market’s not how it used to be – that’s more or less dead now. We used to thrive. Now it just seems like everything is grinding to a standstill.”

NEXT WEEK: “If the community centre closed down, it would just rip the heart out of Meir itself.” How Stoke is fighting back against the cuts. Are you battling spending cuts in your area? Email kevin.gopal@ bigissuenorth.co.uk

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

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