Barrow Rising and the Mythical Field of Dreams

[Jonty]

Unfortunately a hell.of a lot do live away and travel up daily. I don't think there is such a thing as relocation packages like vsel used to do are there?

Ex wife's family came here via the relocation package if the time..

Don't want to go off topic, but the whole Team Barrow has got to do something to attract and keep the under 30’s. There’s very little here for them. That should be the driver. I do see signs of positive things happening here. Thats why I think Barrow AFC should be right in there, seeing how the club can help and benefit. It is a dream to see the club play in a fantastic venue, with an Academy and boys and girls teams all age groups.

[barrowaberdeen]

Dont disagree but the order of importance, for me is the other way round. Better facilities for all that borh clubs can utilise first.

[liverpoolann]

We do get some contractors come to the football have chatted to a few from north east but they usually here on short term appointments and soon go home and watch their local clubs

[Methuselah]

Regarding York City,Let,s .be realistic here,York is in a much more affluent part of the country than Barrow is.I hear you say that there are lots if well paid jobs in the shipyard,but a lot of the workforce are on contract and don,t live here so as a result take their money out of the area.The greater part of the population are on fairly low wages so do not have the disposable income.
If you built a shiny new stadium.where are the crowds going to come from.There are plenty of other places near York from which people can travel.Barrow is on it,s own at the end of a 38 mile cul-de-sac and therein.lies the problem.


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[Blue Bayou]

Regarding York City,Let,s .be realistic here,York is in a much more affluent part of the country than Barrow is.I hear you say that there are lots if well paid jobs in the shipyard,but a lot of the workforce are on contract and don,t live here so as a result take their money out of the area.The greater part of the population are on fairly low wages so do not have the disposable income.
If you built a shiny new stadium.where are the crowds going to come from.There are plenty of other places near York from which people can travel.Barrow is on it,s own at the end of a 38 mile cul-de-sac and therein.lies the problem.

Exactly, spot on.
York has no real industry apart from chocolate and white collar, and is financed in the main by being a major tourist attraction-which is reflected in the 'affluency' let's say,of its 180,000 population.
Barrow on the other hand 'has' industry but is isolated and relies in the main, on it's 'own' footfall.


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[barrowaberdeen]

Weve got to make Barrow somewhere more people want to live, stay and study in.

How do we do that then?

There's the question.

A good start would be understanding exactly what population we are preparing for. There's massive contradictions between a falling birthrate and a huge influx of workers.Thats making it very hard to focus.

Housing has to be at the centre. Barrow in terms of wealth inequality is the most unequal between very good wages and poor standard of living than anywhere in the UK except for Tower Hamlets.So we have 22 year olds living at home on 50k a year renting out a thre bedroom terrace to a family on benefits, and spending their leisure miney in Manchester, Dubai whstever. Nowt against tgat at all but the cumulative effect on the town's economy hollows Barrow out.

Because attracting developers to brownfield sites in Barrow is difficult we have to clear them and offer incentives. Ironically, we have to guard against a thousand times version of our training ground happening, where the mantra is ' work in Barrow? Nah, don't worry, you don't have to go too often'

To do that there needs to be an attractive town with things to do. Hence the town centre redevelopment. And of course having a university here.Again ironically, Barrow is a bit like Holker St in that the infrastructure is so under invested it feels impossible without rsdical change.

Let's say 80 percent of the money goes on the above. The other 20 percent there's things like education and heslth spending. But because it is the MODs/BAEs budget they want transformational change- so the money won't go to help fix the SEND crisis, or offer higher wages for social workers, heslth workers to relocate.

And all this needs to be done in the face of a scepttical local population who have had a lot of knocks over decades and a generally fatalistic attitude.

Christ Barra Soccer really is a metaphor for the whole thing.

Id say get in there as a community and say what is required. And that's got to start with getting more families to come and people to stay, while raising living standards for those left behind. But it is fiendisly tricky and 20 million a year will need to be match funded.

[Jonty]

Regarding York City,Let,s .be realistic here,York is in a much more affluent part of the country than Barrow is.I hear you say that there are lots if well paid jobs in the shipyard,but a lot of the workforce are on contract and don,t live here so as a result take their money out of the area.The greater part of the population are on fairly low wages so do not have the disposable income.
If you built a shiny new stadium.where are the crowds going to come from.There are plenty of other places near York from which people can travel.Barrow is on it,s own at the end of a 38 mile cul-de-sac and therein.lies the problem.

Here we go again with the negativity. Forget the York comparison if you think thats too far fetched for “little old Barrow.” That was just an example of success. Bottom line- Holker St is falling to pieces. Let’s not get political and make reference's to poor wards due to years of under investment through successive governments. That’s another debate.
There’s a potential opportunity through Team Barrow, Thats all it is, a potential opportunity, and through sport and community initiatives, education, etc Barrow AFC should be part of the conversation.

[Methuselah]

Regarding York City,Let,s .be realistic here,York is in a much more affluent part of the country than Barrow is.I hear you say that there are lots if well paid jobs in the shipyard,but a lot of the workforce are on contract and don,t live here so as a result take their money out of the area.The greater part of the population are on fairly low wages so do not have the disposable income.
If you built a shiny new stadium.where are the crowds going to come from.There are plenty of other places near York from which people can travel.Barrow is on it,s own at the end of a 38 mile cul-de-sac and therein.lies the problem.

Here we go again with the negativity. Forget the York comparison if you think thats too far fetched for “little old Barrow.” That was just an example of success. Bottom line- Holker St is falling to pieces. Let’s not get political and make reference's to poor wards due to years of under investment through successive governments. That’s another debate.
There’s a potential opportunity through Team Barrow, Thats all it is, a potential opportunity, and through sport and community initiatives, education, etc Barrow AFC should be part of the conversation.

I agree that a shiny new stadium would be nice,but unless it is accompanied by investment in the town centre and also new housing people are not going to want to live here.The submarine programme for Aukus is in danger of being handed to other yards because the house building programme is way behind where it needs to.be due to the inaction of Westmorland and Furness Council.Without the housing nothing will move forward.
Everything needs to.happen together for the plan for a new stadium.to work.
That is not being negative it is being realistic.I would love a new stadium,but it needs everyone involved pulling in the same direction.
..

[Jonty]

Here we go again with the negativity. Forget the York comparison if you think thats too far fetched for “little old Barrow.” That was just an example of success. Bottom line- Holker St is falling to pieces. Let’s not get political and make reference's to poor wards due to years of under investment through successive governments. That’s another debate.
There’s a potential opportunity through Team Barrow, Thats all it is, a potential opportunity, and through sport and community initiatives, education, etc Barrow AFC should be part of the conversation.

I agree that a shiny new stadium would be nice,but unless it is accompanied by investment in the town centre and also new housing people are not going to want to live here.The submarine programme for Aukus is in danger of being handed to other yards because the house building programme is way behind where it needs to.be due to the inaction of Westmorland and Furness Council.Without the housing nothing will move forward.
Everything needs to.happen together for the plan for a new stadium.to work.
That is not being negative it is being realistic.I would love a new stadium,but it needs everyone involved pulling in the same direction.
..

Have you actually read what is happening with regards to housing and the aims and objectives of Team Barrow? They know the problems, the scepticism locally and they know the timescales.

[Wintergreen]

Some great thought-provoking comments there from SteveA, Jonty and others. Fascinating stuff really but as Jonty intimated there is a danger of us going down a much wider rabbit hole with this topic. Back at the multi-use community facility, I have been speaking to someone connected who told me that the current thinking is swinging towards the facility. The reasons being they want something of a flagship edifice to show people in their literature as they try to make Barrow more appealing to anyone considering a move here. There are more important projects for Team Barrow of course with Marina Village, the university and housing being three of their big-hitters.

At the moment we don’t know if Barrow AFC are in the talks in any capacity but I recently had a terrible dream. The multi-use community facility was given the green light but our owners decided that they are out because it is not viable for them. So the facility is built and Barrow RLFC are the main attraction amongst the other new and popular amenities. To ‘sweat the asset’ the facility operations team invite Barrow Wanderers to use the facility for a peppercorn rent. People go to watch Barrow Wanderers just to experience the new stadium and liked what they saw. Some Barrow AFC supporters start to go when Barrow have an away fixture. Soon this became a habit and Barrow Wanderers, awash with cash, start to climb through the leagues. At the SO Legal Stadium the main stand is condemned and we couldn't get a licence for EFL football or build a new stand quick enough. That is when I woke up and that is probably the key phrase here I think.

[McMark]

Talks of having a ski run incorporated into the facility just in case either side were to go down the slippery slope are a little off piste.

[Methuselah]

I agree that a shiny new stadium would be nice,but unless it is accompanied by investment in the town centre and also new housing people are not going to want to live here.The submarine programme for Aukus is in danger of being handed to other yards because the house building programme is way behind where it needs to.be due to the inaction of Westmorland and Furness Council.Without the housing nothing will move forward.
Everything needs to.happen together for the plan for a new stadium.to work.
That is not being negative it is being realistic.I would love a new stadium,but it needs everyone involved pulling in the same direction.
..

Have you actually read what is happening with regards to housing and the aims and objectives of Team Barrow? They know the problems, the scepticism locally and they know the timescales.

I have read what is supposed to be happening but why did the person in charge when asked about the infrastructure programme regarding house building say to a parliamentary committee that unless the houses started to be built soon there could be a danger if the Aukus programme falling behind because there won,t be the availability of housing for people to live and work here. The first parcel of land at Salthouse has been ready to be built on for quite a while now but there is still no sign of any house building starting.Everything needs to start moving a lot quicker.
I, like you would like a community stadium with facilities for everyone,but because of the way the money is allocated and everything interlinked certain criteria have to be met before anything can.happen.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

Have you actually read what is happening with regards to housing and the aims and objectives of Team Barrow? They know the problems, the scepticism locally and they know the timescales.

I have read what is supposed to be happening but why did the person in charge when asked about the infrastructure programme regarding house building say to a parliamentary committee that unless the houses started to be built soon there could be a danger if the Aukus programme falling behind because there won,t be the availability of housing for people to live and work here. The first parcel of land at Salthouse has been ready to be built on for quite a while now but there is still no sign of any house building starting.Everything needs to start moving a lot quicker.
I, like you would like a community stadium with facilities for everyone,but because of the way the money is allocated and everything interlinked certain criteria have to be met before anything can.happen.

The land at Salthouse is not ready yet work on it is still ongoing plus the refuse department that store the bin wagons have yet to be relocated at their new proposed depot up at Sowerby Woods so that land can be cleared I did read a while ago they were hoping to start laying bricks late 2026 then build at a rate of 80 homes a year with a completion date of 2036

[bluessupporter]

Not sure if the large area near Enterprise Car Rental has been sold yet but there are plans for houses there, and there is a lot of house building going on in Ulverston at 6 different sites I am told, and new ones due to go up in Dalton, so we shouldn't just be looking at Barrow in isolation.

[Hadrian]

Methuselah - what council inaction is stopping house building? There seems to be no large house building application that they are sitting on and we won't be seeing council house building.

Money for the remediation of the docks site off Salthouse Road has come from central rather than local government. National governments have released that in phases.