Friday brief: Reform UK accused of ‘misleading maths’ over market ice rink ‘success’
Read our end of the week news round up
The Reform UK administration at the West Northants unitary has been accused of “misleading maths” by claiming its Northampton market square ice rink ‘broke even’.
Opposition councillors have also raised concerns over the cost of the festive attraction to the public purse, as the total spend on the event has been revealed.
According to a freedom of information (FOI) request sent by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the total cost of the ice rink which was set up in the centre of Northampton in December was £335,514.27. However, a breakdown of the income West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) received shows that the event brought in around £123,500 from ticket and bar sales, with the rest made up from taxpayer money and sponsorships.
This included £20,000 from Northampton Town Council (NTC), £6,500 secured from the Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) and £9,000 from sponsorships.
The remainder of the funding to balance the costs comes from £69,252 from the UKSPF, which is government funding given to the council for kickstarting economic growth and levelling up, and £106,699.11 from WNC’s own culture and events budget.
Leader of the opposition on WNC, Cllr Daniel Lister (Conservative), has accused the Reform UK leadership of “misleading maths” and criticised them for “propping up” the event with public funds.
In a post on Facebook, he wrote:
“Think about what nearly £200,000 could have done. Christmas events across West Northamptonshire. Events supporting our other market towns all year round. A whole year’s worth of community activities reaching far more residents.
“There’s a legitimate debate about event strategy and economic impact. If Reform want to argue the benefits justified concentrating this investment in one Northampton location, they should make that case openly.
“Calling it ‘break even’ is misleading accounting that obscures the real choices being made.”
Further data obtained on the council’s recorded footfall numbers for the market square shows there were 49,911 visitors in December 2025, compared to 51,618 the previous year. WNC has said that its measuring system doesn’t pick up numbers of under-18s and that, given the ice rink attracted a younger demographic, it “doesn’t provide the true picture”.
It added that footfall for the Grosvenor shopping centre was up 19.3 per cent on the previous year.
Looking at ticket sales, the council said it sold 10,485 tickets, which is around 40 per cent of the total tickets that were available for the ice rink over the month long period. This means over the five weeks the rink was open, an average of 361 tickets were sold per day.
WNC said its busiest day was on Sunday, December 14, when 737 tickets were sold.
Responding to the FOI data, Lib Dem group leader, Cllr Jonathan Harris, said that the administration had “rewritten” the definition of ‘break-even’ in its previous coverage on the event.
He continued:
“Break-even is the point at which revenue and total costs are the same, meaning there is neither a profit nor a loss. In the case of the ice rink, this is patently untrue.
“Reform said that they would be open and transparent. They haven’t been.
“We have also been advised that there is no dedicated event budget for the market square, either this financial year or next, so where exactly has the funding come from?
“The final budget proposals will be published shortly – it makes one wonder what hidden gems will be lurking within it, given this type of logic and maths!”
Cllr Sally Keeble, leader of the Labour group on WNC, added:
“I’m glad people had a good time, but the cost to the public purse was too high.
“The visitor numbers are disappointing and show how much work there is to do to repair the damage caused by the Tories’ run of botched regeneration schemes in Northampton Town Centre.
“If the ice rink is to be repeated, the budget should not put so much strain on the public purse.”
West Northamptonshire Council was asked for comment and has not responded at the time of publication.
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Other news from around the county
The Liberal Democrats have seen off Reform UK in the Burton Latimer by-election. The count took place this morning and Lib Dem Jay Mitchell- Bunce won the contest with 453 votes ahead of Reform UK’s Tony Webster on 363 votes. Conservatives were second with 275 and Labour came in last with 60 votes. The Green Party did not field a candidate.
Lib Dem campaign manager Chris Stanbra said:
“We were hopeful as we were the only party to field a candidate who lived in Burton Latimer.”
The new councillor will join fellow Lib Dem Jenny Davis on the town council.
There will be a review of blood test services in the county following appointment issues.
Over the past year people in the county have faced long waits for blood test services and now a senior health boss says the service will be looked at.
Speaking at North Northamptonshire Council’s health scrutiny meeting last night chief the Integrated Care Board’s chief delivery officer Eileen Doyle said:
“Hopefully in the coming year, we’ll be looking at blood taking services, phlebotomy, across the whole of the county. It has been problematic because, of course, once upon a time, you’d sit in your general practice and somebody would just take blood out your arm, and that’d be that.
“And that still happens. But with the amount of blood taking that now goes on - I think it’s about 800,000 appointments a year - even with our 65 general practices, just wouldn’t be able to cope with that.
“So then, of course, you’ve got centres like Corby, and they have helped enormously.
“We are going to be looking at all of that, not least because some of our blood taking services are provided by Northamptonshire hospitals, and they’re undergoing some changes themselves, which will mean that we will have to look at how that’s improved in terms of local access.”
Currently blood test appointments are managed and booked through the county’s two general hospitals in Kettering and Northampton.
Eileen Doyle said she was being ‘slightly cryptic’ about how the service could be changed ‘because it’s a really contentious issue with our general practitioners’.
Plans to scrap some free parking in Northampton are facing opposition.
Under the draft budget proposed by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), a number of changes to car parking charges have been proposed, which would see the two hours of free parking at weekends scrapped for an all-day fee of £3, and other increases to hourly rates.
The plans went out for consultation with members of the public before Christmas and closed earlier this week. Around 40 town centre businesses have signed a joint letter to WNC, expressing strong opposition to the parking charges set out in the draft budget and urging them to rethink the proposals.
The list includes many stalwart businesses that signed and submitted the petition with the support of Mike Reader, Northampton South MP.
Patrick Leonard, personal tailoring manager at Montague Jeffrey on St Giles Street, who signed the letter said:
“It’s a discouragement for people coming into Northampton.
“When it comes to car parking charges, we need to be massively competitive. Our current car park charges are, in certain areas, greater than Milton Keynes and we’ve certainly got a great deal of competition from Rushden Lakes.
“They do need to reconsider the charges and I personally think they’re too steep.”
The letter, addressed to WNC leader Mark Arnull, refers to “years of disruption” to businesses caused by town centre regeneration works. It raises concerns that the increase in charges, alongside the removal of the free weekend parking period, risks undoing much of the progress that this regeneration was supposed to deliver.
It continues:
“For small and independent businesses, even a modest drop in visitors can be the difference between survival and closure. These proposals feel like an easy target, but the long-term cost to the town centre economy could far outweigh any short-term financial gain.”
Mike Reader, MP for Northampton South, who supported businesses in submitting the joint letter, said:
“Northampton’s businesses are the backbone of our town, and they have already shown remarkable resilience through years of disruption from Covid and regeneration works.
“That’s why so many traders are struggling to understand proposals that would increase parking charges and remove free weekend parking at this moment in time, and why so many businesses reached out to me for help.
“If we make it harder or more expensive for people to visit Northampton, we undermine jobs and the very recovery regeneration was meant to support. I strongly support local businesses in calling for these proposals to be scrapped and for genuine engagement with traders to take place before any final decisions are taken.”
Under the proposals all day parking in some car parks could rise by £2.40 to £11.20 and the two hours free at weekends could be scrapped.
Mark Mullen, operations manager at Northampton Town Centre BID, said the business group understood the current financial climate but said the council needed to look at the economic health of the town.
West Northamptonshire Council has previously said that updating parking charges would help to manage limited spaces and maintain car parks to a high standard.
The final budget proposals will be subject to a decision by the full council later this month.
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Plans for a 900-place free school in Northampton have been dropped by the government, as the council has warned it is facing “polarised pressures” with a lack of school places in urban towns and too many in rural areas.
The scrapped project for Dallington Park School would have created 180 extra secondary school places in 2027, eventually increasing to 900, in the Kings Heath area. West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) said it was notified by the DfE that the project had been cancelled in December.
Members of a West Northants Schools Forum committee, held on Tuesday (February 3), heard that the project would have cost £30m and that no additional or replacement funding has been provided by the government to offset the loss of the free school project.
The cancellation formed part of a wider £3bn investment over the next four years in creating new SEND places, moving funding away from several planned mainstream schools.
Speaking to the LDRS, Dallington Spencer councillor and Labour group leader Sally Keeble said that the authorities “urgently need to make sure that there’s enough school provision” to cover the new residential estate.
“The buildings are going up at pace and everybody is very concerned about making sure that infrastructure is there, health services are there, and there is a pressing need to make sure there’s a school there,” she added.
Dallington Grange is a major residential development with outline approval for around 3,000 homes. The new school would have been part of the Northampton Free School Trust, which also operates Wootton Park School. It entered the ‘pre-opening phase’ in 2021 and was already accepting registers of interest for the 2027 academic year.
A WNC spokesperson said:
“The Department for Education (DfE) informed West Northamptonshire Council on 11 December 2025 that it will not go ahead with the planned free secondary school for the Kings Heath (Dallington) area. This followed a national review and was based on data showing there is not enough long‑term need for a new 900‑place school in this location.
“Although this particular school will not go ahead, we are expecting more housing in West Northamptonshire in the coming years, which will increase demand for school places.
“However, it is important to note that no additional or replacement funding has been provided to offset the loss of the free school project. West Northamptonshire will therefore be expected to accommodate future growth within the standard national Basic Need allocation, which does not increase simply because local demand rises.
“This means the council must manage higher pressure on school places without receiving any extra Government funding specifically linked to this cancelled scheme.
“Despite these challenges, West Northamptonshire Council remains committed to ensuring there are enough good‑quality school places for local children now and in the future.”
By Nadia Lincoln
A former Desborough care home could be sold by the council for up to £900,000.
1980s built Beech Close, was closed down by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) several years ago, partly due to structural issues with the building.
Posting an update on Facebook on Sunday (February 1), Cllr David Howes (Conservative, Desborough) shared an email stating that a report with a recommendation to sell the asset will be going to the executive panel later this month.
An extract from an NNC asset report attached to the social media post reads:
“The home has several structural and building issues that affect both compliance and legal requirements needed within a care home, which led to its closure.
“Redevelopment of the property to support current service needs has been explored with the various services including housing, education and the Children’s Trust.
“The site will generate interest from private and care and health service providers as well as residential developers. We expect the site will generate a capital receipt in excess of £900,000.”
The report says that proposals for a council housing scheme on the site are also being assessed for feasibility, but that if it is not viable, it will be offered to the open market.
The LDRS contacted NNC to ask the authority to confirm its plans for the Beech Close site.
A spokesperson said:
“North Northamptonshire Council’s executive are due to receive a report on the disposal of surplus assets across its portfolio – we can confirm this list currently includes Beech Close.
“The report with more detail will be published on the council’s website a week before the executive meeting.”
According to a freedom of information request submitted to NNC, the authority currently owns 16 buildings and parcels of land which are not in use.
By Nadia Lincoln
Reform putting out misleading information should surprise no one. Think council tax promises pre-election and the DOGE farce. The new force in politics is the same as the old and in many respects worse.
However, the words of the Conservatives' Dan Lister ring hollow when you consider that it was he who as a Tory Cabinet member in the previous WNC administration was responsible for the Market Square regeneration, a project which was budgeted at £8.4 million and eventually cost £13.5 million of public money That this ice rink exercise in creative "break even" finances is a case of the Tory pot calling the Reform kettle black would be a classic understatement. But this is Northampton where history keeps repeating itself. The Sixfields missing millions and other matters of disappearing tax payers' money come to mind.
What I would like to know is who at WNC ever thought of the ice rink project and who in the council has the expertise to know if the expenditure would be value for money. Was there an open tender process to at least obtain quotes or was this another matter privately promoted and negotiated behind closed doors? Questions need to be asked .
Wonder how many people are even surprised that Reform can't tell the truth...