Base71 Youth Zone

Base71 Youth Zone is a safe and aspirational place for young people which is managed by an independent national youth charity OnSide. Named ‘Base71’ by local young people, it's the first OnSide youth zone in Yorkshire.

Located in the town centre on Schwäbisch Gmünd Way, near the train station and bus interchange, this is a state-of-the-art space with fantastic facilities and is staffed by skilled youth workers who'll help young people realise their aims and achievements.

Base71 will offer:

indoor climbing wall
a four-court indoor sports hall
fitness suite with state-of-the-art gym equipment
boxing and martial arts room
performing arts and dance studio
music suite with instruments and recording equipment
large open plan recreation area
project rooms, including arts and crafts and sensory room
film and multi-media facilities
teaching/mentoring kitchen
café serving hot nutritious meals costing no more than £1
multi-use games area/kick pitch with flood lights
breakout room to include activities such as employability workshops, general and gender specific health/youth issue topics/projects and youth participation.

Base71 Youth Zone in Barnsley will have an invitation-only soft opening in Autumn 2025. From January 2026, a full range of activities will be available for all young people.

Membership

Base71 Youth Zone membership is £5 per year and then just 50p per visit. Visit Base71 Youth Zone for more details.

Great Childhoods Ambition membership offer

As part of our Great Childhoods Ambition, we'll cover the £5 annual membership fee for the first year for all eligible young people between the ages of 8 and 18 who sign up with Base71 Youth Zone in Barnsley before 31 March 2026.

To take advantage of this offer just sign up as normal through Base71 and once they have verified that your child is a resident in the Barnsley local authority area, the first-year annual fee of £5 will be waived. This offer will have no impact on the amount of Universal Credit you receive if you're on a low income as no funding is being provided directly to parents or carers.

Unfortunately if you live outside the borough, even if your child goes to a school here, they'll not eligible for the offer as it's for Barnsley residents only. They can however still join and pay the annual £5 membership fee.

All free first-year annual memberships will start on 19 January 2026 or from the sign-up date after this, and will run until 31 March 2026.

Why we're funding membership through Great Childhood Ambitions

We want every child in Barnsley to have the opportunity to visit this exciting facility and access the enrichment activities, and we aim to support families with a universal offer through our Great Childhoods Ambition. This proposal supports the ‘Explore’ priority from our Great Childhoods Ambition strategy.

The investment to fund the membership offer 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 financial support for businesses and Barnsley’s school uniform scheme, announced earlier this year.

We'll work with Base71 Youth Zone to assess enrolments and engagement with the provision to evaluate its impact. We'll also gather feedback through various channels.