Friday brief: Former corn exchange buy up approved without discussion
Our usual Friday round up of some news from across Northants
By Sarah Ward
The former corn exchange in Northampton has been approved by the West unitary, although there was no discussion by the wider council of the controversial purchase.
The item had been placed at the end of last night’s full council meeting and after four and a half hours the authority ran out of time to discuss it, so it was approved by electronic vote. The Conservative councillors, who hold the council, voted in favour of the buyout, with 11 votes against and six abstentions.
NN Journal understands the purchase price is around £1.6m, although once again financials are not being made public.
The building sits on The Parade fronting the newly developed market square and dates back to the 1850s. In recent years it has been a nightclub and cafe.
The purchase by the authority is a necessary part of the scheme for the entire Greyfriars development, which the authority announced this week will form part of a private/public deal with a consortium including the English Cities Fund (ECF) of which Sir Michael Lyons is the chairman. He has recently been appointed by the new Labour government as the chair of the New Towns taskforce.
The report that should have been discussed by the authority last night said that a report will go before the cabinet next month about the entire Greyfriars scheme and how the partnership with ECF will work.
Former council leader Jonathan Nunn, who left the authority in disgrace earlier this year after allegations of domestic abuse against former partners, also attended the meeting for a brief period. NN Journal understands if he had not turned up he would have been removed from the council under the six month rule - applied if a councillor does not attend a meeting in a half year period.
His attendance means he will remain on the council and continue to collect his councillor allowance.
News in brief
A petition with 1,000 signatures has been handed into WNC about the plans to build on Eastern way in Daventry. The authority is planning to sell off the field to help pay for improvements to the town centre. Most in the town are against the sell off of the land, which is the home of the popular Parkrun.
Almost 2,000 noise complaints were made to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) over the last year over noisy neighbours, booming music, unwanted construction noise and more.
Figures obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) showed that between September 2023 and August 2024 a total of 1,845 noise complaints had been received by the local authority.
The Northampton area came in as the noisiest attracting 1,141 complaints alone. People in Daventry and the surrounding area made exactly 345 complaints while towns and villages across South Northamptonshire received 359 in total.
In Northampton, the leading cause of noise complaints was reported as music, making up just over a third of all complaints. Whereas, in Daventry barking dogs took the top spot and also accounted for 33 per cent of all reports.
WNC advised that it was unable to provide a breakdown of the noise complaints received in the former South Northants Council area.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Plans for a solar farm that could power up to 15,000 homes look set to be approved by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC).
The large green energy facility, which would be located along the A14 Huntingdon Road near Thrapston, has had mixed responses from members of the public with the council receiving 29 objections and 20 letters of support.
According to plans, the site- which spans three fields measuring about 59 hectares- would be used for a temporary period of 50 years. The applicant, Wood Lodge Solar Project Limited, said the development would save approximately 21,496 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Objections raised concerns over the harm to protected species and biodiversity, increased traffic and the view that solar panels should be sited elsewhere on brownfield land or on top of roofs.
Campaign groups STAUNCH (Save Titchmarsh, Thrapston And Upper nene Valley Countryside & Habitats) and CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) have also both submitted detailed objections throughout the planning process.
A number of comments in support generally impressing the need for green energy were also submitted, including from Thrapston Town Council.
NNC concluded:
“As outlined earlier in this report, the proposed development supports the Government’s policy for the UK’s transition to achieving a low carbon economy and assist in meeting the need for deployment of renewable energy generation in the UK.
“The impacts on both the landscape character and the associated visual impacts are considered to be adverse and generate a degree of harm. The benefits of renewable energy raise substantial benefits in favour of the proposal.”
Planning officers added that the case should “by no means be construed
as setting a precedent” for any future application in similar scale and nature before recommending it for approval.
The scheme will be decided by NNC’s planning committee on Wednesday.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
There were seven flood warnings still live in Northants last night as the rains continued to fall. An amber weather warning is also in place.
Emergency services say residents should avoid any unnecessary travel during periods of heavy rain, and consider the following:
Do not ignore road closure signs.
Never attempt to cross or drive through floodwater if you don’t know how deep the water is - just two feet of water will float a car.
Never try to swim through fast flowing water or floodwater – you may get swept away or be injured by an object in the water.
Don’t assume fords are safe to cross just because the road is not closed. Always look at the river level gauge and use your common sense.
Read our report from earlier this week
Will the government now find the cash to improve Northamptonshire’s flood defences?
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How can Jonathan Nunn be allowed to retain his allowance and continue to be a named representative of local government on the strength of turning up briefly to a meeting once in sixth months? The man is a domestic abuser and left in disgrace, or so I thought. Words fail me sometimes about the rottenness and incompetence at play.
I hope the solar farm is approved. Currently solar farms occupy less than 0.1% of the UK’s land. To meet the government’s net zero target, the Climate Change Committee estimates that we will need 90GW of solar by 2050 (70GW by 2035), which would mean solar farms would at most account for approximately 0.6% of UK land – less than the amount currently occupied by golf courses. The UK Government Food Security Report, published in December 2021, implies that solar farms do not in any way present a risk to the UK’s food security. The report says: “The biggest medium to long term risk to the UK’s domestic production comes from climate change and other environmental pressures like soil degradation, water quality and biodiversity.” Think of it this way: solar farms will only impact 0.6% of farm land, but climate breakdown will impact 100%.
https://solarenergyuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FactSheet-Solar-Farms-and-Agricultural-Land-2024.pdf