Barnsley’s status as ‘Tech Town’ is to be welcomed but local people cannot be left behind - Jayne Dowle

So we had better get it right; there will be no second chances.

Is the Dearne Valley going to become the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley? Let’s get the jokes out of the way. There is a lot of nonsense said and written about Barnsley in the national media, and a lot of misunderstanding, even from our own.

Hannah Kitching, leader of Barnsley council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, told reporters that investment in the town was welcome but “there is a lot of anxiety among people about the use of AI and whether it is a force for good. We know it could be but there are darker sides as well.

“[Barnsley] is still really connected to its mining past,” she added. “Younger people see the jobs and opportunities around the tech town idea but older generations perhaps don’t. There is a job to be done to get people onboard.”

She’s absolutely correct on the first point, but I disagree with Kitching about our umbilical link to our coalmining past. With huge respect – so many of my family members were miners I’ve stopped counting – and as the editor of a number of local history books chronicling mining community life, I’ve seen a shift in the last five years or so. The last pits closed in the early 1990s; we have moved forward, painfully.

The town has suffered from the lack of jobs the mining industry provided and the businesses it supported, undoubtedly, but it hasn’t stood still since. Now, we’re a key centre for logistics and distribution, alongside digital innovation, engineering and construction.

Since becoming leader of the Labour council in 1996, Sir Steve – a decent, down-to-earth bloke and devoted Barnsley FC fan – has worked tirelessly to champion Barnsley. He has his detractors, especially those who believe that Reform UK would do a better job of running things, but he’s steered the town through choppy waters for 30 years.

We now benefit from one of the best and most thriving town centres in Yorkshire; the £210m Glassworks development has brought new retailers, restaurants, a multiplex cinema and family-friendly outdoor space to once windswept precincts.

Part of the Glassworks, Barnsley Market has just won Best Large Indoor Market at the 2026 NABMA Great British Market Awards, with judges praising its work with start-ups, young traders and public sector partners.

Barnsley has also been highlighted in recent research by the Centre for Cities think tank; disposable income – the amount of money residents have to spend after bills and outgoings are paid – has grown faster (5.6 per cent) between 2013 and 2023 than anywhere else except Brighton, Worthing and London.

And now, on top of all this, we are to become a trailblazing tech town. Here last week to announce a £500,000 government investment to get the ball rolling, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said, “where Barnsley leads, others will follow”.

It was Sir Steve who should be credited, she explained, writing to her when she was appointed to the Cabinet and arguing that he wanted Barnsley to become the UK’s leading digital centre.

Barnsley has been chosen because we have already adopted AI faster than many other places, using AI assistants in adult social care and children’s services, bin lorries have been enabled with tech to scan roads for potholes and Evri, which has a huge logistics hub at Junction 36 of the M1, has trialled robot delivery dogs on a local street.

The first challenge, I think, is hooking up the possibilities of AI with local people. We are to be invited to a series of ‘Tech Town Halls’ – to give us a say in how AI is used across our communities and opportunities to feedback our experiences of using the technology. But will this message get out to outlying deprived villages?

The second is to ensure that AI brings jobs to Barnsley, rather than taking them over.

It’s very early days and much is to be ironed out, but my fear is that early adoption could come at a cost. Whilst Sir Steve is right and Barnsley should be at the forefront of this technological revolution, we have to consider that such positivity runs counter to the public narrative, that AI could bring about catastrophic unemployment, even in major commercial and financial centres such as London.