Friday brief: Votes are in
Our report from the election count plus other news from across the county including the political re-emergence of Peter Bone.
The new police, fire and crime commissioner will be appointed today.
The final votes were cast at 10pm last night and the counting of will begin at 1pm today.
Labour’s Danielle Stone, Liberal Democrat Ana Savage Gunn and Martyn Emberson were the three choices - with Emberson a late replacement after current PFCC Stephen Mold stood down following NN Journal’s exclusive story about how he had called new fire chief Nikki Watson a ‘bitch’ in a private meeting with firefighters.
Ballots were taken to the Benham Sports Centre in Northampton and the Kettering Conference Centre, with the verification of votes starting in Northampton last night. Kettering will start its verification at 9am today.
We were at the Northampton verification where the candidates and their supporters had gathered to watch the ballots come in.
Both the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates had many supporters with them, but Martyn Emberson appeared to be alone, with not a prominent Conservative councillor or MP in sight.
Speaking to Danielle Stone, she said:
“There are a lot of unknowns. I have been campaigning for ten months and tried to get round to as many places as I can, because I want people to know me. So I was not just a name on the ballot paper.
“But I still don’t have a feeling for how people have responded to me in the rural areas.”
Ana Savage Gunn, who put £5,000 of her own cash to help fund her campaign, said: “At the end of the day I know we could not have done anymore.”
Martyn Emberson is running in his first election and responded with ‘we’ll see’ when asked how he thought he’d done.
The counts start tomorrow at 1pm with a result possibly around 4pm. We will have a live blog and send out a post when the winner is known.
The new commissioner will start in post on May 9.
News in brief:
He may have been ousted as an MP but Peter Bone is still playing an active role in the Wellingborough and Rushden Conservative Association. He was appointed this week as ‘task force campaigning manager’ with long standing Conservative Paul Bell appointed as chair.
Bone’s partner Helen Harrison, who suffered a heavy defeat by Labour’s Gen Kitchen in the February byelection, has been elected as deputy chair.
Bone was removed from office after constituents voted him out in a recall petition following his suspension for bullying and sexual harassment of a young male staffer. He has always denied the findings of the parliamentary committee.
The leader of North Northamptonshire Council has suggested some parents could be ‘taking the easy option’ and placing their children in care.
At a meeting about the children’s trust at which the high cost of placements was being discussed, Cllr Jason Smithers said:
“I’m just trying to get my head around some of these figures. I just wonder, are we just taking responsibility for some of these children when parents are taking an easy option and just handing children over to us?
“Now I know we have a risk based approach to this through MASH, but the cost of this is staggering. We need to get a grip on what is costing us and how we can manage that.”
The Trust, which was set up on government orders after the county council failed to look after children properly, is predicted to spend an extra £32m over its £150m budget for 2023/24, with most of the excess costs attributed to expensive placements and high demand.
In a report presented at the meeting, it was revealed that the average cost of a residential placement in 2023/24 was £281,000, or £5,400 per week. It was also noted that some individual plans cost the councils more than £1m, however no information was given on how many packages fell into this category.
WNC’s director for children’s services Rebecca Wilshire said there was a “robust” process and that all children entering care needed to be there.
She said:
“I think the challenge is the market. We certainly have some profiteering within that market and we know that is a national issue that needs to be explored and addressed.
“The more we can do within our local areas around developing our own homes, 16 plus accommodation, the better we start to challenge that.”
Both councils took the decision last year to ‘step in’ to the Trust to assess their financial management and provide advice and support amid the spiralling costs of children’s care.
Cllr Smithers said, though it was great that efficiencies were being delivered, he was “frustrated” that the Trust needed the help of the council’s financial officers and external contractors to identify savings that “one would assume that they’ve got the competency levels to do themselves”.
He continued:
“My ambition is that all the children in North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire get the very best outcomes in their lives – they’re put in our system and it’s of no fault of their own so we owe it to them to give them the very best.
“The work that is being done is fantastic, but I just want to see a little bit more coming from the Trust. It just feels sometimes like they’re waiting for us to jump in and help and I really want to see them be able to push themselves a little bit.
“I’m looking forward to when we get the children of North Northamptonshire back under our control here because then we can really begin to work hard to deliver even better services.”
Report by Nadia Lincoln, Local Democracy Reporter
Following the resignation of the leader of the West Northamptonshire Council after new domestic abuse allegations, there have been fall outs within the party.
At West Northamptonshire Conservative Group’s annual general meeting on Monday, at which Cllr Adam Brown was voted in as the new leader, Cllr Sam Rumens, who was the treasurer, has resigned after an altercation with fellow councillor Nigel Hinch.
Cllr Rumens, who represents Kingsthorpe South, was one of only a handful of the group who spoke out against Cllr Nunn. Many senior conservatives, including Cllr Phil Larratt, former leader of Northampton Borough Council and cabinet member for Highways, still support Cllr Nunn. When doorstepped by told the BBC on Monday he said ‘what’s done is done’ and would not answer questions about Cllr Nunn.
On Wednesday backbencher Cllr Michael Brown wrote a letter to the new leader to say Nunn should be suspended due to the serious allegations.
In response, Cllr Adam Brown wrote back to say:
“In light of this email I feel I must clarify that a Conservative group leader has no powers to unilaterally suspend a group member pending a police investigation. Should a member be charged with a crime they would be expelled automatically.”
And Nigel Hinch also responded to say:
“As Chair of the Northampton South Conservative Association, I confirm it is also not within our powers to suspend or expel a member pending a police investigation. If and when further information is available, we will deal with it accordingly within our governance rules.”
But former Conservative Ian McCord, who was suspended back in 2021 after allegations of bullying were made against him, says the local party does have the powers and is choosing not to do so.
So far the national Conservative party has let Nunn, who was leader from 2021 to last month, keep the Conservative whip.
Late yesterday evening South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom emailed all West Northants conservatives to canvas whether they still supported Nunn remaining a Conservative. Her email said that in Westminster MPs facing allegations were suspended while the investigation took place and said she did not think it was acceptable that Nunn remain in post when facing such serious allegations.
A Northampton school is seeking permission to temporarily move students to a new sixth-form centre during repair works to remove Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).
Northampton International Academy (NIA) has proposed its 240 sixth-form students change campus to a makeshift site in Elgin House, a vacant three-storey office block near the centre of town. According to NIA, the building will be completely refurbished ahead of the new school year to provide “modern and spacious facilities” for the post-16 students.
It was confirmed last September that the Academy’s roof contains RAAC, a lightweight concrete that is more susceptible to structural failure. The school subsequently released a statement confirming that the top floor of the building, which housed 18 classrooms and the sixth form area, would not be in use as a precautionary measure.
However, the rest of the school has remained open. The new centre will be funded by the Department for Education (DfE) as part of their commitment to remove all RAAC in schools and colleges across England.
LocatED Property Limited, an education settings expert used by the government, has now submitted an application to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) to use Elgin House, on Billing Road, as a temporary teaching site.
The Academy will occupy the former office space whilst repair works are undertaken on the existing school building, on Barrack Road. The new centre will include 12 classrooms and a sixth-form common room, with on-site catering facilities,
An initial five-year lease has been agreed for the provision.
Blueprints suggest the building will encompass a small car park for the 25 members of staff who will be transferred across, however zero student parking spaces are proposed. Parents, carers and guardians will be discouraged from dropping off and picking up pupils by private car.
Instead, students will be encouraged to use public transport, such as bus or cycle networks, as the site is in an “accessible area”. A minibus transfer from the Barrack Road building to Elgin House will also be available for pupils.
Northampton International Academy headteacher Martin Serrão said:
“We are excited that we will be able to provide sixth-form students with a new, inspiring learning environment for them to continue their studies and work towards achieving their aspirations.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming students to the new sixth form centre in
September.”
Plans are still under consultation and WNC has allotted a target decision date of June 12. The applicant has asked for the plans to be determined “as soon as possible” to ensure the school is open by the start of the next academic year.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
It’s a bit rich for the leader of NNC coming out with this clap-trap
“I’m looking forward to when we get the children of North Northamptonshire back under our control here because then we can really begin to work hard to deliver even better services.”
We know how NCC badly failed our children before the Children’s’ Trust took over and many of the councillors responsible for that are now sitting on the successor councils.
Doing the parents job for them, that is majorly naive but the usual knee jerk budget reaction to budgets. The poor agency staff who are working with the families.
Remember your Cabinet cut home start, family centres, youth services, where exactly did you think that would end up?
The decisions that are made are incredibly difficult, the courts that have to hear the evidence, the foster carers that are on stand by.
Does he think there is a queue outside Angel glass house, of parents handing over their children? Go and spend a week on the frontline before such outrageous statements are made.