Friday brief: Concern as Northampton’s Guildhall statues set to move
Plus another proposed sale of a council building to a Northampton shoe firm
Concerns have been raised about plans to move a collection of statues from the Guildhall courtyard to other parts of the town.
The courtyard is home to a number of statues commemorating important people from the county, from poet John Clare, to the first female MP for Northampton Margaret Bondfield and Walter Tull, the first man of African-Caribbean descent to become a British army officer.
But the town council has discovered the statutes may be on the move, after finding out the west unitary authority has approached organisations in the town to take on the statues, which were commissioned by the former borough council less than a decade ago.
The town council itself is being evicted from the historic Guildhall and has instead been offered a home at the nearby county hall, which is falling into disrepair. The mayor can remain at the Guildhall but the staff who look after the administrative functions will move.
Cllr Jane Birch said:
“Decisions are being made by people who don’t know the history of the buildings. The Guildhall courtyard is where we have our ceremonial events and remembrances. We want to have some say in the decisions that are being made.”
Father Oliver Coss, the vicar at All Saints Church said he had been approached by the council to locate the statue of peasant poet John Clare into his church, but understood the decision had to go before the council’s cabinet.
Cllr Birch said the university of Northampton, which has a halls of residence named after Margaret Blonfeld, had been offered her statue. NN Journal has contacted the council to ask where the other statues may go and the reason for the removal, but has not yet had a response.*
The situation, along with the removal of the town council from the Guildhall, has prompted Mayor Paul Joyce to call a heritage meeting on Friday, October 18* in the Guildhall council chamber at 6pm so Northampton’s historic meeting places and how to preserve them can be discussed.
It will be chaired by himself and Father Coss.
The town centre is undergoing significant regeneration, with the new £12m market square recently opened and other parts of the town being upgraded.
There are also plans for a major revamp of the Greyfriars area, with the council deciding to purchase the town’s former corn market last week.
The authority has entered into a partnership with a private company ECF to take the development forward, although how it will be paid for and what liability the council may face has not as yet been discussed in public.
After publication at 2pm we received the following statement from the council:
Cllr Malcolm Longley, West Northamptonshire Council Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “The newer section of the Guildhall, which includes the courtyard, is now surplus to the Council’s requirements following the move to new unitary governance arrangements.
“We are therefore in the process of seeking new uses for this building that not only adds value to the town centre but will also help to save significant amounts of money in the future.
“As well as looking for options for the building, it seems obvious that we also seek to ensure that all of the statues currently situated in the courtyard remain accessible to the public - they represent much of what is good about the town and its long history of innovation and cultural diversity. However it is also an option that the statues, depending on the end use of the building, could remain.
“We have begun exploring options and currently have no firm plans. It has always been the plan to consult on any proposals or options from our partners and we can assure the town council that they will be included in future consultations that will also involve stakeholders and residents.
“If the statues are moved, we would ensure that they could continue to be seen by the public and in appropriate spaces.”
News in brief
North Northamptonshire Council, which has responsibility for thousands of social housing, still does not have a housing strategy.
The authority was heavily criticised by its tenants in a recent survey, with leader Jason Smithers, saying that the situation was not good enough and that he would be setting up an improvement board.
However at the council’s recent audit, the authority’s director of housing David Watts admitted the authority will not have a plan until next April - four years after the council was set up.
Audit chair Cllr Andrew Weatherill interrupted the presentation of assistant director of housing Evonne Coleman-Thomas to label the situation unacceptable.
He said:
“We’re at month 42 of the council and you’re suggesting we’re going to have a strategy at month 48, so I don’t find that acceptable. We had this raised last year and I felt it was a key matter. If we don’t know what the strategy is, we can't know what the risks are.”
He said the officer had attended the audit committee last April to talk about the strategy and that the authority’s external auditors had made getting a strategy in place a key recommendation.
The officer said:
“I think there needs to be an acknowledgement that I only started a year ago. I do believe I have moved alot of these items forward, within that initial 12 month period. The important thing about the strategy is getting it right.”
The chair responded and said she had been in post for 18 months rather than 12.
David Watts said when the authority started it did not have the right structure in place, which he took the blame for and said the assistant director of housing role had been created to address the lack of capacity in the housing service. He said staff also had to be ‘diverted’ to assist with the Ukraine and Afghan refugee housing schemes.
Cllr Val Anslow was complimentary of the work that had been done by the department. Cllr Jim Hakewill said the way Cllr Weatherill had spoken to the officers was unacceptable and he should apologise.
A vacant Northampton town centre building is to be sold to a local shoe manufacturer after proposals to use it as a headquarters for council housing services fell through.
The now-defunct Northampton Borough Council purchased Horizon House, which sits just off the St Peter’s Way roundabout next to the Carlsberg factory, in 2017. it was proposed to provide a new HQ for Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH).
The site is now owned by the new unitary West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) and has remained vacant for the entire seven years.
Talks with local luxury shoe and boot manufacturer John Lobb are currently underway according to a report being sent to the WNC cabinet next week. The company is seeking to expand into a new site for factory operations and Horizon House has been identified as a ‘desirable’ relocation according to the council.
The listed building was constructed in the 19th century and was previously used as offices by the former Northampton Gas Company. Due to the many years it has been out of use, the building has fallen into disrepair.
Its boarded-up windows and graffiti can be seen from its prominent location going into the town centre.
WNC has praised the property as an “important industrial heritage landmark” within Northampton and says the benefits of selling the property will include the refurbishment of the listed building as well as the creation of 120 plus jobs.
The Council was previously investigating bringing the site back itself as a creative and cultural workshop-led scheme, providing flexible space for businesses in these sectors. This would have required capital contributions to be used.
The cabinet will have to decide whether to give the appropriate directors and cabinet members the powers to sell the site. Papers will go to them at a meeting next Tuesday, October 8.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
A council watchdog has ordered North Northants Council (NNC) to apologise and pay £1,000 compensation to a man who had to sofa surf for more than a year.
The man, called ‘Mr B’ in documents published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), made a homelessness application to the council at the start of 2023 after a family member had given him six weeks’ notice to leave.
He said he had clinical depression and provided medical evidence to NNC’s homelessness team.
It wasn’t until March 2024 that he was told by the authority it did not owe him main housing duty as it did not consider him to be in priority need.
The Ombudsman wrote:
“The homelessness team took no action when it was informed Mr B was evicted and had no fixed abode. It did not consider whether it should offer him interim accommodation and failed to provide any advice or support on alternative housing options.
“It also failed to properly consider how his medical condition affected his housing needs.”
It also called the council’s complaint handling “woefully inadequate”, causing the man additional distress.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
North Northamptonshire Council will have a new councillor next Thursday. Four candidates are standing in the Burton and Broughton ward by election, which was made vacant after Chris Smith Haynes stood down due to ill health.
Those standing are Adrian Watts (Green Party), Nigel Padget (Labour), Jenny Davies (Liberal Democrat) and Alex Evelyn (Conservative).
🍻 The Potbelly Brewery is holding a winter gin and cider festival this weekend in Sydney Street, Kettering. More details here.
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This is such an odd decision. The statutes are one of the few things put into place by the local authority that have worked, creating a single area where the history of the town can be celebrated. Why split that up?
If they do feel the need to have statues dotted throughout the town, perhaps as part of a heritage trail, why not create new ones with the Guildhall statues as a focal/starting point?
By the way, anyone know what’s happened to the giant shoes that were removed from the town centre and have next returned? Perhaps they could be used around the town instead - maybe take advantage of the resources and successes already in place!
This is outrageous. They form a thematic whole putting important aspects and significant historical people of Northamptonshire's history at the centre of the county town. That where they should remain.