Friday brief: Suspended councillor quit cop job while under misconduct investigation
Plus Kettering's hospital faces another decade of pain and news from across the county
Suspended North Northamptonshire councillor Matt Binley quit his police officer job while under a misconduct investigation Northants Police has confirmed.
Cllr Binley was suspended by the Conservative group last week and lost his cabinet position, after historic allegations were brought to the attention of the council’s leader Jason Smithers.
In 2021, before he was elected as a councillor in Wellingborough, NN Journal reported his past convictions, which included going to prison in 2010 after conspiring with a relative to cover up a drink drive accident.
At the time his election agent, long standing Rushden Conservative Cllr David Jenney, who has since died, told NN Journal the party knew of Matt Binley’s history and ‘he had paid his dues’.
Binley, who represents Queensway in Wellingborough, was a police officer from 2007 to 2010 and these newly surfaced allegations refer to another historic undisclosed matter dating back to the late 2000s, which police say led to a misconduct investigation, which was dropped when he left the force. It is understood the details of the matter have never been publicly known.
A police spokesperson said:
“In 2009 Mr Binley, a serving Northamptonshire Police officer at the time, was investigated in respect of criminal allegations made against him. A file was sent to the CPS who deemed there was insufficient evidence to charge with any criminal offence. A police misconduct investigation was then launched into the same matters by our Professional Standards Department and Mr Binley was suspended.
“Mr Binley resigned from his role as a police officer while the misconduct investigation was ongoing. This was permitted in accordance with the law/policing regulations at that time.
The law has since changed and now/today if an officer retires or resigns during an investigation misconduct procedures will be still be followed to conclusion.”
Speaking to NN Journal this week, Cllr Binley, whose father was former Tory MP for Northampton South Brian Binley, said he had resigned from the force. He said he was hopeful he could rejoin the Conservative party. He has issued a statement saying the investigation relates to matters which are already a matter of public record.
The investigation is being carried out by the local Conservative association, whose internal processes are private.
This week, Cllr Binley was replaced in his cabinet role by Cllr Macaulay Nichol, who previously worked as a regional press officer for the Conservative party.
News in brief
Northamptonshire’s devolution options could be ‘limited’ if it is not accepted into the volatile South Midlands Authority (SMA) bid, the leader of West Northants council has admitted.
Cllr Adam Brown said however he is still holding out hope the county will be included in the South Midlands deal, despite the other four councils outsmarting Northants two unitary leaders earlier this month and leaving them out in their response to the government.
The councils are in a south Midlands joint committee with their neighbours in Beford, Luton and Milton Keynes and at a meeting held in Milton Keynes this week the Local Democracy Reporting Service caught up with Cllr Brown.
He said:
“I think it’s a shame where we are at the moment, but I’m still holding out hope that a last-minute agreement can be reached. I think, for me, it’s a really exciting geography and aligns with a lot of our residents’ perceptions of how they live their lives, slightly looking South rather than North.
“It was just too short a timescale to make what was really a significant decision and I think you saw that reflected in the fact that several local authorities didn’t actually go through democratic decision-making processes in the way that we did.”
When asked what would happen with the county if it was left out of the devolution deal, Cllr Brown said the options would likely be “fairly limited”, but that there would not be the same urgency to pursue a deal and get on the priority pathway.
He explained:
“We’ve got the time to wait for the decision from Government and then adapt to that decision thereafter.”
The government could force the six councils to form a devolution partnership but that is unlikely.
Leader of the opposition in North Northants, Cllr Matt Keane (Lab), warned against the risks of creating “devolution deserts” if the South Midlands Authority falls through.
He said:
“Northamptonshire politically has always been part of the East Midlands, our TV comes from East Anglia, our train line links to London- so it’s like we’ve got a foot in all the regions but we don’t actually belong anywhere.
“I don’t think there’s been enough dialogue between the authorities about moving forward, it just seems to be the leaders have had discussions and maybe if a lot more councillors and community were involved there might be that feeling of natural geography.”
He explained that a lot of the surrounding authorities are already in existing combined authorities or heading towards their own deals, so if Northants is excluded the only other likely option would be Leicestershire and Rutland, which has to go through local government reorganisation.
The Government is expected to reveal which authorities were successful in their bids for the fast-track devolution programme by January 30. Consultation with members of the public will be carried out by Government later this year if proposals are successful.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
The Labour government this week announced it will be another decade before a new hospital opens in Kettering.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said the previous Tory government had given the public false hope with the promise of new hospitals and set out a new timetable. Kettering’s hospital will not begin construction until at least 2032, and with the announcement of new standard designs, it throws into doubt whether the published plans will go ahead.
The hospital’s chief executive Laura Churchward has said the announcement presents ‘signifcant challenges’. The hospital was announced as unfit for purpose by local health bosses several years ago and currently the maternity department is in a state of disrepair due to a RAAC problem. It is rated by the Care Quality Commission as requiring improvement and the accident and emergency department is too small and overcrowded.
Developers have lodged an application to create a massive warehouse complex on farmland next to the A14, near Rothwell, despite the plans already receiving fierce backlash from residents.
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) will review the plans for the 65-hectare employment site, which applicant Harworth Estates Investments Ltd claims will create 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs and bring in £238m to the local economy per year. The site will be located on Nunnery Farm, an area of green fields immediately off Junction 3 of the A14 and separated from Rothwell by the A6 road.
The development’s illustrative masterplan currently shows five large warehouses and three smaller units on site, however the application will require a further reserved matters application to set out exact details of the scale and siting of the buildings. The units would be accessed via Harrington Road, an existing route branching off from the Junction 3 exit, which would have a new roundabout access built in.
Harworth Estates says the minor road will be upgraded to accommodate the HGVs travelling to the site and a lower speed limit has also been proposed.
The proposals have already inspired the creation of local campaign group Rothwell Against Warehousing (RAW), which has nearly 400 members on Facebook banding together against the development. Developers held a pop-up and online consultation with the local community at the end of last year, prior to submitting their application.
The last day to submit public comments to the application will be on February 14. NNC will aim to make a final decision on the plans in April this year.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
Two men have been found guilty of killing 30-year-old Tommy Boom in a Northampton park last summer.
Following a two-week trial at Northampton Crown Court, the jury of nine women and three men yesterday (January 23) found Daniel Larman and Kieran Okocha-Sleight guilty of murder.
The court heard that the 21-year-old dealers had agreed to meet a woman at Miller’s Meadow – also known as Semilong Park – shortly after midnight on July 18, 2024, to sell her drugs.
When they arrived at the park, Boom appeared with another man and asked what they were doing there.
Larman pulled out a large hunting knife from his waistband and stabbed Boom twice, killing him with a wound to the chest. He died at the scene.
The court heard that following the killing, Larman and Okocha-Sleight filmed the murder weapon with Tommy’s blood on it with a banner which read “just had to juice a guy up” and sent it to an associate along with a second video of a blood-stained trainer with three laughing emojis.
Hours after the murder, Larman filmed himself walking past the crime scene before fleeing Northampton by train to the Birmingham area, where he told the court that he disposed of blood-stained clothing and the weapon in a West Midlands canal.
Speaking after the verdict, detective chief inspector Johnny Campbell, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU), said:
“During this trial both defendants tried in vain to taint the reputation of Tommy, painting a picture that he had been the aggressor and was armed with a knife. This was just not the case.
“We will never truly know what happened on that night, but what we can be certain of is that Tommy was unarmed and was murdered in cold blood by Daniel Larman, who admitted in court to habitually carrying a knife.
“Regardless of the life Tommy led or the circles he moved in, he did not deserve to be killed in such a brutal way and I am pleased the jury saw through Larman and Okocha-Sleight, who showed no remorse as they pleaded self-defence.”
“Although today’s guilty verdict may bring some comfort to Tommy’s family and friends, I am sure this will not feel like a win and instead of celebrating the verdict, they would rather have their much-loved son and brother still alive.”
Larman, previously of Kingstanding, in Birmingham, and Ockoha-Sleight, previously of Paget House, Woodside Way, in Northampton, will be sentenced at a later date.
Are there any local conservative politicians that are not being protected by their party.
What is it about Northants that attracts such shysters who have no shame or conscience?