Friday brief: Noise concerns block town centre development, for now
Plus our news round up from across Northants
Plans to partly demolish a vacant town centre sports bar and build 13 flats in its place have been temporarily blocked due to concerns raised about the noise impact from neighbouring bars and clubs.
The Northampton Sports Bar on Gold Street has been disused since it was forced to close down more than four years ago. Applicant Spearhead Holdings applied to West Northants Council (WNC) to retain the ground floor of the property for commercial use, while converting the first floor and adding a second and third level to house the apartments.
The three floors of flats would include 10 one-bed and three two-bed apartments. Tenants would access the flats from Adelaide Place, while the commercial unit entrance would be on Gold Street.
A previous application to convert the same building into 14 apartments was refused partly because the noise impact was not properly dealt with. WNC’s environmental health team stated the noise mitigation in the new scheme would be “acceptable”.
Discussing the plans at a meeting yesterday (Feb 6), members heard from local businesses who shared their fears that the proximity of the residential flats to their nightclubs could open them up to noise complaints from future residents and jeopardize their premises.
Simon Thomson, the owner of Elysium nightclub, on Horseshoe Street, said:
“We’ve been running 24 years in the town. There’s only three nightclubs left in the town centre built, all three of those are built around this block of flats, there’s myself, Escape and on the other side there’s 43.
“If this application goes through our venue will be closed down- there’s no way you can mitigate against sub-bass.”
Dan Kitunohe, the owner of the Escape nightclub also objected to the housing plans, sharing concerns that their business could receive noise complaints if the mitigation in the scheme failed or was not good enough.
Cllr Sue Sharps (Labour) shared concerns that the clubs in the vicinity of the plans could be put ‘at risk’.
She commented:
“I do not want to see a local business not in this area. It is about looking after businesses, looking after residents, looking after what is there now and what could be there in the future and making sure that we build better.
“Fundamentally, even though mitigations are being made once the building is occupied, complaints to the business, ie the clubs, can result in a noise abatement notice. Fundamentally, this will then threaten the businesses in the area.”
Officers said that they could not “rule out that possibility” of a noise abatement notice, which is a legal document that instructs someone to stop or reduce a noise that is considered a nuisance, but said that the conditions in the planning agreements “dramatically” reduce the possibility of one being served.
Cllr Harry Barratt (Labour) proposed the group defer the application until the applicants provide more information on the proposed noise insulation and ventilation system, and for the papers to come back to committee with an expert present. Councillors unanimously voted in support of the deferral.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
News in brief
A left behind area in Northampton needs more assistance from the local authority, says one of its councillors.
Kings Heath has long been neglected and Labour’s Rufia Ashraf has said this week:
“There’s nothing for the young people, nothing for the elderly. The reason why we have anti-social behaviour and all of those ongoing issues is because it’s been run down and deteriorated.
“We need a hub where the community can come together. I feel they’ve been neglected and abandoned because they’re ‘not important enough’. How dare the council not acknowledge them and feel they’re worth the investment.
“We want to see proper infrastructure, we want to have lots of services and bring it back to the community as it was before. Not closed with shutters, uninviting, and lots of issues.”
Cllr Ashraf, is one of three Labour councillors representing the ward, but the other two, husband and wife team Gareth and Terri Eales seem to be missing in action. The pair, who used to be active in the ward, appear less so and regularly miss local authority meetings.
Heather Brakes, a long-term volunteer at The County Toy Library on Park Square, said that permanent changes are needed to breathe life back into the neighbourhood. As one of the few shops still left open on the precinct, she said the toy library had watched others around it close one by one, with some units remaining vacant for almost a decade.
Heather explained:
“They don’t want to know this area – they’ve written it off. People come and chat to us because there’s nowhere else to go.
“What they’d really like is a drop-in centre that has a community café, a warm space for the elderly, a parent and toddler centre, more activities for the young kids and somewhere to sit down and chat to people. That’s all they want – they don’t want the earth.”
After Cllr Ashraf’s condemnation, the West Northants unitary has said improvements will be on the way including restoring Park Square as a “thriving community space”, with action plans being refreshed this year.
The council has said it is making ‘significant’ investments into Kings Heath with a local partnership group, which includes schools, charities, sports organisations, and the police. Improvements include the delivery of a major project to revitalise the Sure Start Children’s Centre, which closed down ago, and restore it as a vital community space.
The authority states that over the past year, there has been £140,000 of investment into a range of interventions, including work to bring the children’s centre back into use, community cohesion events and grants for charities providing programmes in Kings Heath. Other efforts to rejuvenate the area involve reviewing the lease for the local boxing club, efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour and providing funding for a new tennis table and coaching activities, in partnership with NSport.
Report by Nadia Lincoln and Sarah Ward
NN Journal ran a year-long project looking at the left behind areas across Northants. Read past articles at the end of this post
Northamptonshire has missed out on being part of the Government’s fast-track devolution programme, after disagreements between local councils on where the combined authority boundaries should be.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told the House of Commons today (February 5) the six regions that had made it on the priority programme, which will likely see Mayoral elections come into effect in May 2026.
A bid for a new South Midlands Authority, which could have included West Northamptonshire, North Northamptonshire, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Bedford and Milton Keynes, was placed but did not feature in the Minister’s speech.
Both West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) and North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) have now announced that they will continue to work with partners in the region to explore a devolution bid.
Leader of WNC, Cllr Adam Brown said:
“Our position is very clear now, we’ll be going back to the other authorities within the South Midlands and asking them to come together as a six, which is what we initially asked to do.
“In our discussions with ministers there still seems to be a strong preference from government to get together as a South Midlands area. We respect that the leaders in Milton Keynes and Luton especially wanted to pursue an alternative, but I think now is the time to be pragmatic and move forward on a South Midlands geography which is really well established.”
He said that the reasons for the fast-track programme refusal were “anticipated”, including the non-unanimous proposals and the potential to leave Northamptonshire as a ‘devolution island’ if it was not included.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
A senior coroner has raised concerns over the death of a Northamptonshire dad, whose referral to an urgent care team was refused just weeks before he took his own life.
Shaun Hall, 36, took his own life in December 2023 after struggling with his mental health. A Prevention of Future Deaths report, published on Friday, has been sent to the Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) over concerns that similar deaths may occur in the future unless action is taken.
The Trust, which is led by Angela Hillary, has said it is preparing a formal response to the coroner and would like to extend its “deepest condolences to the family in this tragic case”.
Senior Coroner for Northamptonshire, Anne Pember, heard that Mr Hall suffered with mixed anxiety, depressive disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder. He attended A&E at Northampton General Hospital in early November 2023 having taken an intentional overdose.
On the advice of his GP, Mr Hall self-referred to NHS Northamptonshire Talking Therapies later that month. A telephone assessment took place on November 20, 2023.
The assessment identified ‘escalating factors’ around Mr Hall not being allowed to see his children. He reportedly stated that if he was not allowed to see his children he would take his own life.
The report noted:
“The Mental Health Support Practitioner was so concerned at Shaun’s presentation that she made a referral to the Urgent Care and Assessment Team the following day. The referral was declined.
“Mr Hall was subsequently found deceased in the grounds of Whittlebury Hall on 14th December 2023.”
Ms Pember wrote: “During the course of the investigation my inquiries revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken.”
She also expressed “grave concern” that the identity of the person at the Urgent Care and Assessment Team who declined the referral is not known and no notes were made of the referral.
Ms Pember warned that action should be taken to prevent future deaths and that the Healthcare Trust “have the power” to do so.
A spokesperson for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said:
“As a Trust, patient safety is our highest priority and it is really important to us that we learn lessons from incidents as part of our commitment to continuous improvement and as a learning organisation.
“We are preparing a formal response for the Coroner setting out actions taken in relation to the issues raised. In the meantime, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family in this tragic case.”
The Trust has until March 27 to respond to the report, containing details of action taken or proposed to be taken as a result of the death.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
West Northamptonshire Council’s cabinet could approve spending just over £1m on the demolition of five buildings when it meets on Tuesday (February 11).
The former Evelyn Wright Elderly Persons Home in Badby Road, Daventry; former Ridgway Elderly Persons Home in Swinneyford Road, Towcester; ex Trading Standards building in Wootton Hall Park, Northampton; the CEDOS building, Westbridge, Northampton and the Former Waste Management Centre, Westbridge, Northampton could all be bulldozed as they are no longer in use.
The cabinet is also asked to approve a further £2m for any future demolitions.
