Friday brief: Council leader reports ex Tory cop to police for alleged crime admission
An exclusive in this week's Friday brief
If you are new to NN Journal sign up for our free, regular news here
A former police officer and senior Northants councillor has been reported to Northants Police by a council leader after an alleged criminal admission at a group meeting.
Matt Binley reportedly admitted to a criminal offence in a room of political colleagues in Kettering last week. The meeting of the North Northamptonshire Conservative councillor group had been held after he had previously made the same criminal admission in a private meeting with the leader, Cllr Jason Smithers in January. After hearing his admission, the group voted to expel him.
The leader has reported both incidents to Northants Police’s chief constable Ivan Balhatchet and in a statement to NN Journal he said:
“The North Northamptonshire Conservative Group has acted decisively in the matter concerning Cllr Binley. As previously announced publicly, he has been expelled from the local party following an internal process and will serve on the Council as an Independent Councillor.
“With respect to member investigations, our established procedure requires that any admission of a criminal offence be reported to the appropriate police force for investigation. I can confirm that in this instance, I had made contact with the Chief Constable on January 21st and again on February 6th to report what was admitted by Cllr Binley in the group meeting.”
The leader has now been asked for a transcript of the meeting by the force’s deputy chief constable Ash Tuckley, but the force has said the matter is not currently under an active investigation.
The response given by the force’s media department said:
“An officer from Northamptonshire Police has made contact with Councillor Smithers after he made initial contact with the Force, Cllr Smithers has since provided the force with information of which he was in receipt.”
Cllr Matt Binley, who is now an independent councillor on the authority, said:
“I will not engage in speculation concerning inaccurate information, nor entertain hearsay or gossip.
“As I previously stated, the North Northamptonshire Conservative Group had voted to expel me. The matter relates to historic allegations from 16 years ago. These allegations were fully investigated by the appropriate authorities at the time. Following a comprehensive investigation, the matter was concluded with no further action taken. There is no ongoing investigation. Therefore, I will not be commenting further on these historic closed allegations.”
If new evidence in a previously reported crime comes to light, police should reopen an investigation.
NN Journal has spoken to a number of councillors who were in attendance at the meeting who have confirmed his criminal admission, as has leader of the authority, Cllr Jason Smithers.
One said:
“He has brought us all into his nightmare. It was a horrendous meeting.”
Binley, who was convicted in 2010 for lying about a drink drive offence and sent to prison, quit Northants Police the year before in 2009 after criminal allegations had been made against him when he was a serving police constable. The Crown Prosecution Service deemed there was insufficient evidence to charge him with any offence.
Because he quit in the midst of a misconduct investigation it was dropped as was standard practice.
Northants Police says the law has now changed and an investigation continues after an officer has quit the force.
Binley is the son of former Northants MP Brian Binley, who died in 2020. Matt Binley was elected to the North unitary in 2021 and represents the Queensway ward in Wellingborough.
Report by Sarah Ward
News in brief:
The St James bus depot redevelopment scheme will move ahead after the West unitary cabinet agreed on Tuesday to approve a principal contractor for remedial works. The authority, which purchased the land and buildings for around £3.2m from the Prada group last year, received a £1.37m government grant for the land clean up. Details of which contractors have been considered are being kept under wraps.
Cabinet member for culture and leisure Cllr Dan Lister, said:
“This approval marks a significant step forward in transforming the St James Depot site into a vibrant gateway for Northampton Town Centre. By revitalising this area, we are not only preserving the historical significance of the Transport Office but also addressing the urgent need for quality housing and boosting the local economy.
“We will seek to work with developers to maintain and enhance the external façade of the buildings, to elevate this area where possible. With the Cabinet's approval, we are now ready to tackle the challenges ahead, site remediation including asbestos removal and structural preservation. We are committed to delivering a project that benefits our residents and the wider community."
Kettering General Hospital’s RAAC affected maternity hospital may have a £33m extension.
The two-storey extension will be built behind the existing maternity unit to help the hospital’s maternity team to improve the care it delivers each year to about 3,000 families and their babies.
Kettering General Hospital (KGH) found reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the roof of the Rockingham Wing in late 2023. This forced some maternity services to relocate from the building to a temporary ward on the site’s main car park.
At a University Hospitals of Northamptonshire board meeting last Friday (February 7), chief executive Laura Churchward confirmed that there is still RAAC in the ward which makes part of the floor space unusable. The estimated cost of the extension works was revealed to be around £33m at the Trust Board meeting, subject to NHS England approval.
Plans for the unit expansion, which is expected to be built over the next two years, will re-accommodate some key services and improve the hospital’s maternity facilities. They include a new location for the Neonatal Unit, a new Bereavement Suite on the ground floor, and a new 32-bed maternity unit to accommodate mothers before and after they have given birth on the first floor.
The delivery suite will remain in its current location in the ground floor of Rockingham Wing.
The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire’s (UHN) Director of Midwifery, Ilene Machiva, said:
“This new extension will enable a major improvement to our maternity services for local people and a much-improved working environment for our maternity team.
“It will come after the significant disruption caused by the discovery of RAAC in the roof of our maternity unit which meant we had to relocate some of our services out of the Wing and delay our plans for improving other areas.”
KGH’s maternity department opened in 1977. The concrete used in the roof was widely used in the construction of public buildings from the 1950s to 1990s, and experts say many buildings using the material have exceeded their lifespan.
UNH Director of Strategy, Polly Grimmett, said:
“We have been working closely with NHS England to look at the best solutions for addressing the issues in our maternity unit which is now almost 50 years old.
“The RAAC issue has meant we have had to think about how to address the direct care and capacity problems it has created and what is the best thing to do in the medium term.
“The extension is a good solution as it enables us to get services back into good and appropriate adjacent locations in a way which will improve the care we offer to local people.”
Part of the upper floor of Rockingham Wing is being propped up to make it completely safe and some hospital services may continue to use it. The work should be completed in March.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Northamptonshire Police has more than doubled the number of strip searches carried out on children over a four-year period, new figures have revealed. Between 2020 and September 2024, the force reported strip-searching 69 children between the ages of 10 and 17.
According to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the number of children searched has also increased year on year, starting at eight in 2020 and jumping to 23 under-18s strip-searched over 2023.
Northamptonshire Police said that the decision to search a young person in this way is never taken ‘lightly’. It added that carrying out a strip search on a child is a ‘last resort’ and that numbers in this area have reduced in the past couple of months.
The force reported that between August 2023 and July 2024, strip searches were carried out on boys aged between 13 and 17 years old. The reason recorded for all 12 strip searches over this period was the Misuse of Drugs act. Of the cases, two-thirds resulted in no further action.
Assistant chief constable Adam Ward, said:
“At Northamptonshire Police, we never take the decision to search a young person in this way lightly, however on the very rare occasion in which we need to, all of the necessary safeguards are put in place, including informing parents/guardians and ensuring the presence of an appropriate adult, to guarantee accountability and lawfulness.
“Although the number of cases that result in no further action is in line with other forces across the country, we recognise that a young person being searched and nothing being found causes distrust and anger, and this is something we continue to work on to improve both our outcome rates and the levels of disproportionately around searching.
“We scrutinise our performance in this area very closely and data is regularly compiled and analysed to ensure our use of this policing power is proportionate. In relation to the strip searching of children specifically, our numbers in this area have reduced in the past couple of months.
“Our focus when dealing with under 18s is to address harm, and we also always inform Children’s Social Care when a child is strip searched. Every single incidence of a child being strip searched is reviewed so that any learnings or failings can be addressed.”
The increasing trend of child strip searches in Northamptonshire from 2020 to 2023 differs from the national picture, which has been in decline in recent years. According to data from the Children’s Commissioner, 854 strip searches were conducted in 2020 compared to 243 for the first half of 2023.
Data from the same report suggested that between July 2022 and June 2023, Northamptonshire placed in the top three forces with the highest search rate as a proportion of all local children aged 10 to 17.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
West Northamptonshire Council is launching a new Blue Plaque scheme to honour the people and events that have shaped the area’s rich culture and history.
As part of the Histories of Northamptonshire project, led by Northampton Museums & Art Gallery and supported by Arts Council England, the scheme aims to commemorate remarkable individuals and groups who have left a lasting legacy.
Following on from the 2019 Northampton Blue Plaque scheme, this new initiative will expand across West Northamptonshire introducing eight new plaques, celebrating local heritage and inspiring communities to engage with their shared history.
People can submit nominations until 31 March this year. Nominees must have: died at least 20 years ago; made a significant contribution to the area; not have already been recognised with a Blue Plaque and have a strong connection to a surviving location in West Northamptonshire. Nominations can be submitted by completing an online form or by emailing hon@westnorthants.gov.uk to request a nomination form.
A panel of historical and cultural experts, alongside community representatives, will review applications to select the eight honourees whose plaques will be installed from September 2025, to coincide with the Histories of Northamptonshire in 100 Objects exhibition.
Can we hope that some of the St James development will be social housing?