A new team of advisers will be deployed on Rotherham’s high streets in a bid to give local businesses more hands on support and help town centres thrive.
When it meets on 11 May, Rotherham Council’s Cabinet is set to approve the recruitment of three new High Street Business Advisers, who will work directly with traders in Rotherham town centre and the borough’s principal town centres – Wath, Swinton, Dinnington and Maltby.
The investment, agreed as part of the council budget in March, forms part of a wider push to strengthen Rotherham’s high streets.
Each of the five locations will also benefit from a £25,000 activity fund, designed to back local promotions, events and campaigns to bring more people through the doors of independent shops and services.
Under the plans, the advisers will act as a familiar face for traders, working with them on a range of issues from street safety and cleanliness to promotion, footfall and access to grants.
Rather than focusing on a single issue, the advisers will have oversight of what is happening in each area, coordinating activity around events, crime prevention and wider business support.
The advisers will also play a key role in delivering the popular Shopfront Grants scheme, which has secured a further year of funding for 2026/27 through the Local Growth Fund, worth around £600,000. The scheme has already helped businesses improve the appearance of their premises.
In addition, the team will work with ward councillors, residents and traders to decide how the £25,000 activity budgets in each area are spent, ensuring local priorities shape the projects on the ground. This could include marketing campaigns, seasonal events or joint promotions aimed at increasing footfall.
Recruitment to the new adviser posts is expected to begin shortly, with the team due to be in place to start work with traders later this year.
Cllr John Williams, Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy, said: “Our high streets are the heart of our communities, and this new team of High Street Business Advisers is about giving traders the direct, practical support they’ve told us they need.
“The advisers will be a visible, familiar presence, helping businesses tackle everyday issues, make the most of funding opportunities and work together to attract more people into our town and township centres. Alongside the £25,000 activity fund in each location, this investment will help strengthen Rotherham’s high streets, part of our wider commitment to ensuring our places are thriving, safe and clean.”
The recruitment of the new team and activity fund is the latest example of the Council’s commitment to revitalising Rotherham’s towns and villages.
The £4 million Our Places Fund will be delivered between January 2025 and March 2026, focusing on improvement projects to key gateways into principal towns and villages. Work to revamp the public realm in Swinton is already underway while work will soon begin in Maltby.
Elsewhere, £20m - funded through Council investment and the Local Regeneration Grant - will support the redevelopment of Dinnington, which will feature high-quality public spaces and landscaping to promote a healthy, sustainable town, and in Wath, where there are plans to build a new commercial space, enhance green spaces and create a new library, providing a modern and inclusive community facility.
It follows ongoing investment in Rotherham town centre which has seen the delivery of the £47m leisure hub Forge Island, with work also underway on major public realm regeneration project Riverside Gardens. Meanwhile, market traders are preparing to move into their temporary home in the new Market Hall – formerly the outdoor covered market – this summer.
The investment across Rotherham’s high streets is complemented by the Street Safe Team, focused on increasing safety in town and village centres.
