Today, 14th September 2018, is an exciting day for Kelham Island as the neighbourhood in City Ward hosts a judges’ visit for a prestigious award.
Kelham Island is just one of three places in the country to be shortlisted in the Academy of Urbanism’s 2019 awards for a “Great Neighbourhood”
The Academy of Urbanism “brings together both the current and next generation of urban leaders, thinkers and practitioners.” Famous Barnsley poet, Ian MacMillan, is its official poet-in-residence and we hope he will be writing something for the Kelham Neighbourhood.
Kelham Island is up against Ancoats in Manchester and Hackney Wick in London. Both those areas have seen regeneration but have controversially priced out the original residents. Kelham Island, by contrast, has evolved a new community in an area where there was no housing at all.
The Kelham community has been getting together to prepare for the visit. An organising group has been planning the route and sounding out local businesses to tell the judges what they do. Local residents have been cleaning up the streets and been rewarded with free food and drink from places like Kelham Wine Bar, Craft & Dough and The Riverside. People really do care and have pride in the place they live in.
We’d better win the award now …