Friday brief: Beefed up security at West Northants unitary meetings questioned
Plus news from across the county
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By Sarah Ward
Things are changing in the way they hold meetings at West Northamptonshire Council. At last week’s full council at Northampton’s Guildhall, the authority had beefed up safety, with extra security guards, a rope separating the public from the councillors and the water station had been moved, rumoured to be due to ‘fears of contamination’. One councillor was also prevented from having their proper right to speak -Cllr Paul Clark was stopped in his tracks before he had even got into a few sentences of his prepared speech, democratic services officers also rushed to cut the live You Tube feed, so online watchers were unable to see what was happening in the council meeting.
It had been an eventful meeting, with air pollution protestors staging a fake death to symbolise the impact of dirty air in the town and outside before the meeting began there had been three separate protests about services including by families of SEND children and Northampton Town Council complaining about their proposed move out of the Guildhall. All of the protests were peaceful, with frustrated residents exercising their democratic right to have their say on public services.
The public gallery inside the council chamber was full, with some recording the proceedings on their phone. When councillor Clark was stopped from speaking and the meeting brought to a break, some members of the public did shout out and were asked to leave.
After the commotion, cabinet member Matt Golby, who as leader of the former county council was involved in many angry meetings, made a speech saying the public outbursts were ‘an appalling abuse of us as politicians’, declared the meeting was not fit for purpose and something had to be done about it.
And after the meeting had ended Cllr Nigel Hinch posted on X that because of the commotion, he had not been able to ask the question he had wanted, and claimed he had received ‘death threats, abuse and intimidation’.
Sitting in the chamber, NN Journal did not hear any threats made to Cllr Hinch, although one woman did shout out his name. We did witness Cllr Hinch glaring at the public gallery throughout the meeting. We have contacted Cllr Hinch to ask him for clarification on the manner of his death threats, but have not had a response.
After the meeting we asked the authority what has prompted the change in security, in the seeming absence of any threats or events to warrant the new measures.
We received a statement from the council’s chief executive Anna Earnshaw, who said:
“We are currently reviewing security arrangements for our meetings which is timely and reassuring in the light of the current national spotlight on the safety of those in public office and concerns around intimidation, harassment and abuse.
“Some initial changes were introduced to full council in the first steps of this ongoing review, including extra security guards, changing the refreshments layout and new partitions between the council chamber and public gallery areas.
“We want all our meetings to offer a safe, welcoming and respectful environment for everyone who attends, whatever their role in the democratic process.”
Asked whether any councillors had ever experienced threats or actual harm we were told to contact the police.
The security changes have not gone down well in quarters outside of the Conservative administration.
Liberal Democrat group leader Sally Beardsworth says she can understand why members of the public are becoming more vocal and she has never been threatened in her four decades as a local councillor.
She said:
“I have never ever had a threat made to me in all my 37 years in the council.
“I think what is happening is because many people are getting angry about the situation nationally and until we get a general election it is not going to calm down.
“I don’t feel threatened. I don’t think a security guard should be standing directly by the speaker.
“If people want to come and shout at us that is fine. Do members watch Question Time?
About what happened with Cllr Clark, Cllr Beardsworth said:
“Cllr Clark should have been allowed to speak. We are getting a letter together to send to the chief executive, all three groups (Independent, Lib Dems and Labour) to say it is a democratic right for a councillor to speak. It does not matter what they say. If they say something libellous, that is up to them and they will face the consequences. To stifle somebody from speaking is totally wrong.”
The Labour group leader Cllr Wendy Randall was in agreement and said dealing with angry residents ‘was all part and parcel’ of being a councillor. She said in her experience, listening to people and talking to them would often lead to an amicable resolution.
Independent Cllr Sue Sharp, who represents Brackley, said: “The installation of a rope barrier at WNC full council meetings after literature was handed out at a recent council meeting by the peaceful clean air activists was a hasty decision. It was particularly disappointing because the barrier created a negative environment.”
A councillor, who did not wish to be named, says they think the changes are being led by a paranoia within the Conservative group.
They said:
“The new security measures show a state of paranoia. They [the conservative group] are entering into a siege mentality.’
News in brief:
Plans for the demolition of former farm buildings and construction of 60 homes in a large housing development near a Northamptonshire town have been refused by the council.
Developers Grace Homes applied to North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) for permission for a further package of residential houses in the Stanton Cross sustainable urban extension, near Wellingborough. The proposals were for four one-bed units, 11 two-beds, 21 three-beds and 24 four-bed homes at Irthlingborough Road North.
Six letters of objection were received from members of the public, stating concerns with privacy, additional traffic, and the effect on existing wildlife.
The council’s report said: “The proposed development of 60 dwellings would make a positive contribution towards meeting the housing targets for the growth town of Wellingborough and North Northamptonshire.”
NNC planning officers wrote that permission should be granted, subject to an appropriate S106 agreement and contributions from the developer. Despite the proposals being recommended for approval members decided to put a stop to the plans and deny permission.
The reasons for refusal included the development lacking infrastructure and affordable housing. They also found that it would have an unacceptable impact on neighbour residential amenity and that the road access would be insufficient for the size of the site.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) won’t sign off on its first two years of audited accounts after delays due to a continued dispute about how the former county council’s debts should be shared.
Now, at the end of the authority’s third financial year, neither the West nor the North have published a single set of audited accounts since their inception. The final accounts of Northamptonshire County Council (NCC), which was scrapped in 2021, are at a stalemate as senior bosses from both councils fail to agree where the costs should go.
In November last year, finance chief for North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) Janice Gotts revealed that the contended figure amounted to £953 million. She said the vast majority of the balances for the former county council had been agreed, but there was a significant area of disagreement.
Paul Harvey, from external auditor Grant Thornton, told the audit and governance committee that they plan to stop all work on the 2021/22 and 2022/23 accounts for West Northants and let them hit the government backstop which is set for September this year.
To clear the backlog of historical accounts and ‘reset’ the system, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has proposed putting a date in law, September 30, 2024, by which point local bodies would publish audited accounts for all outstanding years up to and including 2022/23.
Grant Thornton will instead publish a disclaimer opinion on the unfinished accounts- where an auditor states that there’s not sufficient evidence to base an opinion on the financial statements. Mr Harvey said this would allow them to focus on the 2023/24 financial period instead and stop the delays from increasing further.
Martin Henry, the executive director of finance for the West, said that the council is in dialogue with the North to try and get the NCC balance sheets resolved as “quickly as possible”. The authorities are not currently in legal arbitration, which is when a formal body steps in to settle the dispute, despite indicating they were set to enter the process at the end of last year.
Mr Henry said the authority was “taking it very seriously”, but that resolving the dispute internally between the two councils without escalation would be the “best outcome for everybody”. When asked by a committee member about how long the process would take, he couldn’t put a definitive time frame on when they would reach a conclusion.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
Police have said they are no longer considering Ewa Kotulska’s death as murder. Ewa, 50, was found dead at a flat in Occupation Road, Corby, on January 10 and police immediately launched a murder investigation, arresting a 63 year old man, who was released on bail.
The man has now been released from bail with no further action.
Detective Adam Pendlebury said:
“As with any sudden death, our job is to carry out a thorough assessment to ensure there are no suspicious circumstances which could indicate foul play.
“We will always act with an abundance of caution to ensure any potential evidence of criminality is captured, to secure charges where this is found, and to get the answers those left behind need and want.
“In Ewa’s case I can confirm the evidence we have examined did not support her death as a homicide, which has now been further confirmed by the results of the forensic post-mortem and toxicology reports.
“Our findings have been explained to Ewa’s family and our thoughts remain firmly with her loved ones and all who knew her as they mourn her loss.”
Over the past few weeks NN Journal has asked a series of question of police, since Ewa’s death, such as when Ewa was last seen and for the results of the toxicology report, however police replies did not provide answers, citing the ongoing investigation.
Ewa’s inquest has already been opened and the full inquest is due to take place in September.
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Well done Sara, what a fantastic 1st quarter for NN Journal. Your reporting of the important, but often hidden, events in the county has been first class.
For the first time I can remember, we subscribers are reading of events that matter to us all, but would never have learned of anywhere else.
I hope that NN Journal continues to thrive and subscriptions increase throughout the year.
Could I make 1 suggestion, I would love to drink my morning coffee in an NN Journal mug, perhaps other subscribers would purchase one also, it could become an extra income stream to help with your business.
Well done Sarah for shining the light on security matters whichn seems to be driven by some Council employees. Although, there are Councillors who makes disparaging remarks and wonder why the public will respond with abuse. If you attempt to shut yourself off from the public you do not serve your community.