Friday brief: ‘These are not potholes - they are craters’
Plus lots of other news from across the county
The state of the county’s pothole-ridden roads were in part laid at the door of the overspend in children’s services at an eventful West Northants council meeting last night.
The cabinet member responsible for the roads in the west of the county, Cllr Phil Larratt pointed to the overspending of the children’s trust as the reason why more money is not available to sort the county’s pothole ridden roads.
He said:
“If our children’s trust wasn’t overspending to the amount they are, we would be able to do a hell of a lot. That is a fact.
He continued:
“I agree. The state of the roads is appalling.”
He said £162m from the scrapped HS2 scheme had been allocated to the area from 2025 to 2032.
He was taken to task for his comments about the children’s trust by Labour’s Cllr Emma Roberts who said his comments were ‘the most divisive she had ever heard in this chamber’. She told him ‘do not blame the children’. Fellow Labour councillors Harry Barratt, Danielle Stone and Rufia Ashraf also called out his comments as unacceptable.
The children’s trust is run by an independent body, but funded by the two unitary councils. It was set up on government orders and this current financial year will overspend on its budget by at least £20m. However the bulk of the overspend is down to private care packages, which are dictated by the care companies, as the authority has long outsourced the care of looked after children.
Labour had put forward a motion concerning road maintenance, calling on the authority to share its plans of how highways funding will be spent to improve the road quality.
But instead the administration heavily amended the motion to say the data had shown the council is making improvements on the highway network. It said during the current financial year 10,440 potholes had been reported and there were 12,216 repairs.
Labour leader Cllr Wendy Randall said the quality of the road repairs was ‘absolutely shocking’ citing examples of seeing motorists drive at slow speeds to avoid damage to their cars. She also spoke of the ‘Daventry Banksy’ who has recently been putting signs around the town decrying the state of the area’s roads.
Cllr Stone accused the Conservatives of ‘attempting to whitewash a very serious problem’ saying the roads had now become ‘exceedingly dangerous’.
She said:
“These are not potholes, they are craters.”
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sally Beardsworth echoed her comments, saying she had thought a motorist in front of her was drunk, but then realised they were swerving in the road to avoid potholes.
Liberal Democrat* Cllr Dennis Meredith told Cllr Larratt that while he respected him as a councillor, he was not doing a good job.
It was a packed meeting at Northampton’s Guildhall, with lots of drama and once again there were a number of protests outside the chamber before the meeting.
1000 Voices Campaigners* staged a protest and then staged a fake death inside the chamber.
West Northants SEND Action Group also held a protest, writing the names of children they say have been failed by the council on boards.
Group founder Lauren Bunting spoke at the meeting and called on the councillors present to hold the senior officers and the cabinet to account to make improvements in the service, which she said was failing families.
And Northampton Town Council staged a protest about plans to remove it from the historic guildhall.
The Lib Dem police, fire and crime commissioner candidate Ana Savage Gunn also spoke at the meeting, requesting the council follow the lead of Northants Police which is currently holding seminars to tackle misogyny, by ‘shining a light on dark corners’ and bringing in DBS checks for councillors.
Independent Cllr Paul Clark was prevented from speaking as he tried to make a statement about an email the former wife of council leader Jonathan Nunn Maria Botterill had sent to her local councillor, which he had also received. He was told by the chairman that the matter was outside the reference of the council, to which Cllr Clark disagreed, saying the matter was a concern for the council as it was about ‘someone who runs the council’.
He asked the leader if he was going to resign and the leader made a short statement about his own approach to the police about allegations being made against him. The audio on the live YouTube feed was cut during the five minute episode.
*In the original version we incorrectly said Dennis Meredith is an independent councillor. Apologies.
**1000 Voices campaigned staged the fake death, not Clean Air Northampton as originally stated. Apologies.
News in brief
Plans for a huge 70-hectare solar farm near Gayton have been denied planning permission by the secretary of state.
The proposed development would have created almost 50 MW of energy- the equivalent to powering more than 13,000 homes- but had previously been refused by West Northamptonshire Council in October 2022. The applicant, renewable energy firm Anesco Ltd, lodged an appeal against the refusal in the hope that the decision would be overturned and given permission by the government’s planning inspectorate.
The planning inspector assigned to the case recommended that the appeal be allowed and planning permission granted, however the decision was overturned by the minister of state for local government Simon Hoare, on behalf of the secretary of state.
Many consultees raised objections to the application in its initial proposal, including Gayton, Blisworth, and Rothersthorpe Parish Councils, the Canal and River Trust, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Northamptonshire and the Local Highways Authority. MP for the area, Chris Heaton-Harris also wrote to the council to support his constituents’ objections to the solar farm.
The secretary of state dismissed the plans on the grounds that the introduction of panels and other infrastructure, including transformers, inverters and fencing will “inevitably introduce a fundamental change to agricultural land” and the major visual harm that would come with the project.
It also found that the scheme in and around the Grand Union Canal (GUC) Conservation Area (CA) and the Grade II listed Turnover Bridge would “alter the relationship to the canal” as much of its significance lies in its historic and architectural nature.
The applicants have six weeks from March 13 to make an appeal.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Today marks one year since Kings Heath schoolboy Rohan ‘Fred’ Shand’s murder.
Fred, 16 was stabbed on Harborough Road in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, while walking home from school. His killing was plotted on snapchat and a 15 year old was sentenced to 13 years in a young offenders institute last year.
At West Northamptonshire Council’s full council meeting last night, knife crime campaigner Quinton Green read out a poem he had written together with Fred’s father Rohan. He received a standing ovation.
The future of how Kettering Leisure Village (KLV) will operate is still up in the air.
A report detailing the options available to landlord North Northamptonshire Council will be discussed by the place and environment scrutiny committee on Monday.
The report sets out that if the current operators stepped away from running the largest leisure venue in the North of the county, it would not be viable for the authority to take over the operations in the current financial climate.
The report says:
“In response to the original council motion, following assessment of options it is not viable for the council to take on operational control of KLV at this time due to the nature of the legal ownership of the site. Furthermore, if that were to change and the council was in control of the site the assessment of options also confirms that it would not be financially viable as there is significant cost detriment to the council.”
A costing exercise by an external company has said the amount to run it each year would be as much as £484,000 on top of the current £357,000 subsidy it provides.
The venue ran into trouble last year after the operator Compass Contracts Services Ltd said it was pulling out of the venue. A covenant says the site, which was built in the 1990s, must be used for leisure.
After a number of public protests the authority agreed it would like into the options to keep the venue running.
Since then the venue has been operated by Phoenix Leisure Management, but the conference facilities are no longer open.
Marianne Kimani has been selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Daventry.
Marianne who works in mental health and has been a special constable, said:
“It is a great honour for me to be entrusted with the responsibility of serving as the Labour candidate for Daventry.
“I know what it means to juggle the cost-of-living crisis, affordable housing crisis, difficulties in getting dental and GP’s appointments and I am committed to tackling the injustices and inequalities hardworking people suffer.
“I firmly believe that it is time for change. The Tories’ persistent scandals, cuts to our NHS and their damage to our economy must end now.”
Plans for 120 homes on the outskirts of Northampton have been approved despite concerns raised about flooding.
The homes will be built in between Duston, on the Western edge of Northampton, and the nearby village of Harpole, as part of the wider Norwood Farm Strategic Urban Extension. The scheme will also incorporate open amenity space, a local equipped play area and a neighbourhood park for the area.
The development has already received outline planning permission for 1,900 homes in total, subject to further reserved matters applications before the building of individual parcels can begin. Housing developers Vistry Homes Ltd will be in charge of the latest addition to the project.
Panel members voiced their worries over the low levels of affordable homes being placed together in a “cluster” and possible issues with water drainage in the surrounding area.
Cllr Ann Addison (Cons, Bugbrooke) said:
“Flooding is a very big issue in part of my ward. The more concrete you build on that very steep slope that it’s being built on it’s flooding Kislingbury in particular.
“We have had three major floods recently - it just has to drop a bit of rain and the village is flooded. Frankly, I don’t like the concrete and I don’t like one of my villages flooding.”
The Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) advised that insufficient information had been submitted to demonstrate that the water drainage scheme for the development would manage flood risks. As the LLFA maintains its objection the applicant will have to seek approval for their drainage scheme and strategy conditions before any building can start.
West Northamptonshire Council approved the new phase of developments in a meeting on Tuesday.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery’s PUNK: Rage & Revolution exhibition has been shortlisted in the Museum + Heritage Awards 2024 their category Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year – Budget Under £80k.
The museum, which opened in 2021, and which NN Journal revealed is set to make a number of redundancies among its specialist curating staff, says the exhibition telling the story of Northampton’s own punk scene, is its most visited exhibition.
Read our review of the exhibition here.
Westminster Watch
South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom made a gaffe during an interview on Sky News by claiming the cost of living crisis had ended.
The MP, who has been in Westminster since 2021 was talking about the news that inflation had dropped to its lowest level since 2021 and now sits at 3.4 per cent.
The issue of those with their hands on the levers of power being DBS checked is a VERY interesting proposal. I applaud Ana Savage Gunn for voicing this. In theory of all the Councillors being DBS checked and those responsible for vulnerable people, none should fail.
Whoever is elected as PFCC on May the 2nd, I implore them to put knife crime at the very top of their agenda. It is exactly a year since a young lad was murdered simply walking from his school to his home in broad daylight. I cannot imagine the pain and grief his family and friends have had to endure this last 12 months, and my heart goes out to them.
We have reached a stage where every Mother and Father are anxious every time their child leaves the house. I am lucky enough to have 2 wonderful grandchildren, I really don’t want to spend the rest of my days worrying that a complete stranger might cause them harm whilst they are innocently going about their business as I used to be able to do at their age.
None of us, I’m sure, want to live in this kind of society. I hope the new commissioner will gather Police, youth agencies, in fact any group that has expertise in this and formulate a plan to reduce and then eradicate this curse of our times. It will need substantial funding, but it deserves it. We must return to preventing crime, the fact that killer of the poor boy a year ago was convicted and sentenced will be of small comfort to his loved ones, they just wanted him to grow up and enjoy life and I’m sure he would have made them proud.