Rotherham locals say town centre investment hasn’t yet turned around high street’s fortunes
In 2017, Rotherham Council published its ambitious Town Centre Masterplan, noting a decline in high street retail in recent years.
Some residents feel the regeneration of Rotherham has not yet turned the town’s luck around on the high street compared to Barnsley, despite council and government investment.
In 2017, Rotherham Council published its ambitious Town Centre Masterplan, noting a decline in high street retail in recent years.
The masterplan outlined council aims to revitalise the town centre, boosting footfall and changing to family-friendly leisure, rather than traditional retail alone.
Crucial backing came from the government’s Future High Street Fund, awarding £12.6 million in May, 2021 to rebuild markets and public spaces.
In June, 2026, the Rotherham Together Partnership announced its 10-year-plan which included transforming the centre into a place where people want to spend their time visiting, with new shops, cafes and more.
However, some Rotherham locals say they aren’t feeling the effects of this regeneration plan yet.
Sabrina Hinchcliffe, aged 71, said: “It’s been going downhill for years. To be honest, I don’t know what they’re spending that money on.”
Liz Marsden, 65, from Rawmarsh, said: “It’s desolate. There’s too many barbers and vape shops, vape shops seem to have taken over.
“It’s a shame because it’s a good town that’s gone. When you walk past, everywhere is boarded up.”
They reminisced on spending time in the centre in their younger years with friends.
Liz said: “In my late teens early twenties, I used to come to town on a Saturday morning and I’d spend all day here looking around shops.
“It’s not got any character anymore, no character at all.”
Sabrina said: “I remember when I was young and you could spend a day down town, you used to have all sorts of shops but now they’ve gone on to retail parks.”
Both locals highlighted the lack of variety of shops being crucial to the high street.
“It used to be good when there were more fashion shops. Now it’s just Poundland, Home Bargains, charity shops, hairdressers and nail bars,” Sabrina said.
Liz added: “I think they need to put some shops, there’s no clothes shops or greengrocers. There’s some lovely charity shops but there’s no clothes shops in Rotherham apart from Bonmarche.”
She compared Rotherham to the buzzing nature of Barnsley’s regenerated town centre.
“Barnsley is a lot nicer. There’s a lot of little cafes in Barnsley that aren’t here. There’s even a big indoor market that is probably twice the size of what this is here.
“I thought there’d be more shops in Rotherham’s new market, I thought they’d have more on offer.”
Rotherham’s new indoor market hall opened on July 10, as part of a multi- million pound development in the area including a new central library, community hub and revamped outdoor market.
This scheme will total more than £46m, funded by the government and council, with extra funding provided by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) following rising costs for further design and survey work.
in contrast,, Barnsley residents said they could see where money has been spent to improve their town centre, especially with developments like the Glass Works.
Faye Taylor, 43, from Monk Bretton, said: “We’ve lived here 10 years and I’d probably say over the last five or six years you can really see the improvements in it. It was really run down before but they’re invested in it.
“Everyone seems to congregate at the Glass Works and in the summer it’s nice, they’ve got fountains, things for kids, and it just seems a nicer area to walk through.”
The Glass Works is a major £200m retail, leisure and shopping centre, which opened in the heart of the town centre in September, 2021.
It brought together a cinema, bowling alley, market and high street brands such as Next, TK Maxx, Flannels, JD Sports and many more.
Jason Waller, 77, from Darfield, said: “When I was a lad a long time ago, you wouldn’t go into Barnsley and sit down and have a cup of tea in the middle of Barnsley, because there was nowhere to do it
“Before all this was done there wasn’t quite as much to do and now you’ve got bigger open spaces.”
Jackie Hargreaves, 66, from Ollerton, Nottingham, visits her toddler great grandson in Barnsley weekly.
“Whatever money they spent on it, it’s been worth it, totally worth it.
“I like coming here because I don’t like her grandson being stuck in the house, and it’s safe for him here because I can watch him as he is running around.”
Rotherham Council declined to comment.