NHS Barnsley staff will vote on health care being provided by businesses as part of a national shake-up by the Department of Health. Union officials are worried employees have not been made aware of the significance of the ballot which they say could ultimately result in job cuts and a decline in standards of patient care.

BARNSLEY Youth Theatre will stage a production of The Pirates of Penzance next week using Edward Sheerien School as its stage. It will be the first show since the group nearly folded earlier this year after the council axed drama and dance at the former PADS centre on Grove Street and made the the group's director, Chris Rooke redundant.

THE FIRE Authority has resorted to bully boy tactics to push through changes to shift times, according to the Fire Brigades Union. Union bosses were stunned to learn by fax the Fire Authority will carry out a mass sacking of 744 fire-fighters across South Yorkshire on January 1 and reinstate them under a new contract which will have revised working hours.

AN EX-MINER is looking forward to watching the snooker and reading the Chronicle after an operation restored his sight, 57 years after he lost it in a pit accident. Eric Harrison, 85, lost the sight in his right eye when a piece of stone pierced his pupil in a roof collapse at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery in 1952.

Supporters will need to show a little patience as Barnsley boss Simon Davey goes about his summer transfer business.