A NEGLECTED piece of land in Kingstone is finally set to receive some much-needed TLC after the council and Department for Education reached a solution to transfer the land back into the local authority’s use.

In January 2023, Barnsley Council disposed the whole site - known as Broadway Playing Field - to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for the construction of Trinity Academy.

As part of the approved planning permission the applicant agreed to create an area of Public Open Space which would be separate from the new school site.

The Department for Education (DfE) did not want the liability of maintaining this land.

It has now been agreed with the DfE that the land will be transferred back to the council for a nominal consideration - £1 if demanded - and the use of the land will be restricted to an area of Public Open Space, whilst ever the school is in existence and being operated as a school.

Coun Phil Wright has been calling for work to be done at the overgrown site.

He said: “I have requested several times for the land to be cut back and tidied, making it a usable pubic open space.

“Late last year I eventually managed to get the overgrowth cut back.

“It was the first time since it was blocked off by the ‘concrete Lego blocks’ which were placed in the gateway to stop caravans accessing the field.

“Unfortunately they also stopped access to grass-cutting tractors.

“The neighbours had taken to cutting a ten-foot fire break alongside their garden fences and hedges as a method of self-protection.”