Appearance of 13 Barnsley homes transformed through environmental works

Strategic Housing Senior Projects Officer Alistair West said the scheme focused on improving the street’s appearance to generate quality-of-life benefits for residents and the surrounding neighbourhood.

“Many of the front gardens, boundary gates and fences were in a poor condition and the residents felt that improvements to these and their off-street parking were required,” he said.

“The rough-surface parking area suffered from ‘car littering’ and traffic congestion. Additionally, the area had been prone to flooding due to poor drainage and so flood prevention measures were needed to protect the properties.” The area had been used for two years as a site compound, serving the works to improve properties on nearby Cemetery Road and Sheffield Road.

The environmental improvements were carried out by contractor Connaught Baldwin, with the council’s Highways, Engineering and Waste service installing a tarmacadum hard-surface in the car park and on connecting footpaths. New kerb marking and line marking removed the problem of ‘car littering’ due to badly parked vehicles, and Neighbourhood Pride officers landscaped the car park with turf and shrub beds.

Alistair added: “By using high quality materials and workmanship we hope the impact of these improvements impact will last for many years.”

Cllr William Newman, Cabinet spokesperson for Development, said: “These improvements give residents a better quality of housing and will also boost the neighbourhood’s long-term viability because they will encourage people to remain in the area and appeal to would-be buyers.”

Following completion of the scheme, a customer satisfaction survey was returned by three-quarters of residents. This demonstrated high levels of satisfaction, with all respondents answering ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Are you pleased with the improvements that have been done to your property?’

Two residents of Albion Terrace spoke of their satisfaction at the environmental improvements.

Judith Clark said: “It’s a pleasure to live here now. The off-street car park was originally created when half the terrace was demolished and it was either a dust bowl in the summer, or mud slurry in the winter. You had to keep your windows closed in the summer because of the dust, and in the winter cars some times got bogged down in the mud. But that’s all changed now and it is very pleasant to be here. The works were done speedily over about three weeks.”

Terry Connah said: “It’s been a vast improvement. Previously, people had put up their own fences made of different materials. These have been replaced with brick walls with metal railings and their footpaths have been tarmaced. I’ve lived here for more than 40 years and this is a very welcome change.”

ENDS