Barnsley Council’s Cabinet set to approve £2.1 million investment into Barnsley’s parks and open spaces

Next week, Barnsley Council’s Cabinet will discuss a significant £2.1 million investment into Barnsley’s parks and open spaces. The investment will seek to improve parks in Barnsley’s 21 wards as part of Barnsley’s Council’s Love Where You Live and investment programme.

The proposed funding will support a range of improvements, including new play equipment, footways, signage and entrance ways, planting and additional facilities, including bins and benches. 

This investment is part of Barnsley Council’s ongoing work to transform our parks and green spaces, reinforcing our commitment to providing accessible, cleaner, greener and more sustainable outdoor spaces for our residents.

Councillor James Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways, said: “We want to make sure that every community in Barnsley has access to safe, welcoming and vibrant green spaces.

“Investing in our parks and green spaces is more than improving the look of our borough; it’s about supporting the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of our residents.

“Our parks play a crucial role in protecting our environment by providing natural habitats for wildlife and open spaces where people can relax, socialise and exercise to help improve their wellbeing.”

Our Parks team have undertaken surveys to highlight potential areas and will be engaging with local members. We hope by enhancing our parks and open spaces will also help reduce anti-social behaviour. This will be achieved by attracting more people to these spaces and fostering community ownership through activities and the use of the refurbished spaces. 

As part of Barnsley Council’s Love Where You Live programme, our six Area Councils have been allocated £25,000 each to be used on a project which would make a difference to their local community. It’s proposed that the parks and open spaces investment can be used to complement the Love Where You Live programme, where it is supporting the revitalisation of our local communities, bringing people together through social action and community pride while also contributing to the council's Sustainable Barnsley and Healthy Barnsley priorities.

This investment has been made possible by additional one-off funds from an improved local government financial settlement for 2025/26. This enables us to invest in initiatives that support our Council Plan priorities, such as improving Barnsley’s roads, helping families with the costs of school uniform and free bus travel for under 18s. Read more about Barnsley Council’s investments into local communities.