The shadow of the coal miners' strike has long hung over Barnsley in South Yorkshire. Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill was himself born near Barnsley and it was as late as 1994 that the borough's last colliery, Goldthorpe, closed.

Now, almost 30 years later, Barnsley MBC's chief executive Sarah Norman is on a mission to shrug off the narrative of a failing, downtrodden industrial town.

The fact that mining took place underground means there is not much brownfield land in the borough, meaning the council's local plan has had to selectively encroach into greener areas.

Concern among some residents around one development that campaigners claim has ‘destroyed' the area's green land meant deputy leader of the council Jim Andrews was unseated earlier this year.

Walking through the market town of Barnsley on a cool post-heatwave day, she talks about how it is becoming ‘much more than a retail centre' and a ‘destination for activities'.

Joining a large number of independent businesses that have taken advantage of Barnsley's relatively reasonable rates, recent additions include a state-of-the-art library – opened by the Barnsley bard Ian McMillan – a soon-to-open 13-screen cinema and an indoor market replacing a ‘pretty dilapidated' one. The latter are all part of the centrepiece £200m Glassworks development owned and managed by the council.

‘There are new shops but it's more than that,' says Ms Norman. ‘Our footfall is higher now than in 2014. We've bounced back a lot more than other places.'

She believes Glassworks represents the result of a transformation of the council's organisational culture. ‘Barnsley is becoming a can-do place,' she says.

‘It's something the council has worked really hard at. We want to keep that "be bold, be brave" culture.

‘This deep repurposing started in Barnsley and we now want to roll it out to the other towns in the borough.'

Over the next eight years, Barnsley has ambitious objectives to improve its ‘quite horrifying' healthy life expectancy statistics for men (55.9 years) and further boost educational attainment. ‘We are really ambitious for the place,' says Ms Norman.

Standing in the middle of the Glassworks development, Ms Norman ponders what advice she would give others looking to replicate such a scheme.

‘You need a clear plan, be bold and brave, take calculated risks and believe in your place,' she says.

In the wake of coal mining, a big logistics sector has also taken full advantage of Barnsley's location off the M1, including a warehouse employing up to 4,000 people operated by online fashion giant Asos, and the council has pushed forward growth of a digital sector, including many start-ups. The borough's slogan is ‘place of possibilities,' which Ms Norman says aims to capture the essence of an area ‘punching above its weight'.

However, none of this has come easy and the council has had to push through what it wants to achieve instead of just waiting for private sector investment.

Across the road from one another stand two digital media centres owned and run by the Labour-run council, with an 85% occupancy rate. The aim was not to make a profit, but rather, boost growth of a budding sector.

‘Our frustration was that the council has had to do this more or less itself,' confesses Ms Norman. ‘Private partnerships have fallen through. We've had to take a lot of the risks. Partly through experience, we take the view that we're not going to rely on Government.'

Ms Norman gives the example of Barnsley failing to be placed in the highest category of need for the Levelling Up Fund, meaning it has so far failed to receive any cash from the pot. ‘The concept of levelling up is good but it feels like it's been politicised,' she suggests.

‘Cost of living is something we're very worried about. The anxiety is really growing. Families need to know what support they're going to get.

‘We know austerity is coming but I have no confidence the Government understands the financial pressures on local government.'

The council now faces a £13m in-year pressure, with £10m of that down to inflation and the proposed pay award, and the remaining £3m due to growing demand, particularly in children's services.

But the challenges don't seem to faze Ms Norman. ‘It's not stressful in a bad way. There's a lot of adrenaline. I love the job,' she enthuses, as she walks off into the town centre that has been so transformed.