BARNSLEY’S newly adopted local plan which guides the future development of the district has been criticised for the way housing development has been weighted in the Penistone area with only limited job creation opportunities.

Coun Hannah Kitching told a full meeting of Barnsley Council, which voted to accept the Local Plan as future policy: “There is a recognition there are few jobs in Penistone, but there is no effort to address that.

“It is a commuter town, with one train an hour. Where is the effort to improve public transport?

“People will rely on the roads. I have seen road congestion increase in the last 12 years.

“How are these people going to get in and out of Penistone?

“What everyone says to me is ‘where is the infrastructure?’

“People in Penistone say to me all the time Penistone is being used as a cash cow. I would like to disagree with that but I cannot see anything in this plan that would allow me to disagree with it,” she said.

Coun Roy Miller, whose role on the ruling cabinet as spokesman for Place has left him heavily involved with developments, responded: “One of the things we have been doing for some time in Penistone is to try to get more jobs up there.”