Friday brief: West Northants Liberal Democrat leader says urgent decision on £3m purchase of historic bus station should be a ‘one-off’
Friday brief: West Northants Liberal Democrat leader says urgent decision on £3m purchase of historic bus station should be a ‘one-off’
It’s Friday again - here’s some news from the county
By Sarah Ward
The leader of the West Northants Liberal Democrat group Cllr Sally Beardsworth says she has told the authority’s leader Conservative Jonathan Nunn, that the way in which a purchase of a central Northampton site has been handled should be a ‘one off’.
West Northants Council has purchased the St James bus depot for £3.3m using urgency powers signed off last week, saying the owners wanted to sell the site with ‘immediate effect’ and ‘there wouldn't be adequate time to take the decision through the normal decision making processes’. It is understood there may have been another buyer interested who wanted to use the site for industrial use.
The proposed deal was first brought to public attention by NN Journal last month, after we heard from a source that the council was in discussions with owners Church’s about buying the site.
As exclusively reported by ourselves in 2021, the site had been been purchased by the now defunct Northampton Borough Council back in April 2014 and then sold on to Church’s on the same day for a £227,000 loss, with the reasoning that the shoe firm would regenerate the site as part of its business and take on new staff. This did not happen and now the private firm stands to make more than £1m after having sat on the land.
The purchase of the site has not been formally discussed by either the council’s cabinet or the wider council although the council’s leader did call a meeting with the leaders and their deputies of the opposition Labour and Lib Dems, after we reported the proposed buy up.
In that meeting all parties were asked to keep the proposed deal quiet for ‘commercial’ reasons.
Yesterday we asked leader of the Liberal Democrats Sally Beardsworth why they had agreed to the purchase going ahead without further scrutiny.
She said it was very difficult when being told the council’s intention is to build social housing to object.
She said:
“It was very difficult to say ‘hold on a minute, we really need to discuss this. There was no time, allegedly, to do that.”
She continued: “I have said to Jonathan Nunn this is a one off.”
We also asked Labour group leader Cllr Wendy Randall whether having behind closed doors meetings with the Conservative executive was how the authority should conduct its business.
She said the parties had been asked to ‘keep it in the room’ because they were told the council did not want the price to be pushed up. She said she told Cllr Nunn that by including them before the deal was signed, it was not cross party support.
In a later issued statement the group said: “West Northants Labour group have growing concerns about decisions being made at West Northants Council without consulting and informing elected members.”
Both Cllr Beardsworth and Cllr Randall said they will hold the Conservative administration to account on its promise to deliver social housing, but without any formal minutes taken and the private meeting not being on the record, the two political groups have left themselves with no real comeback.
Cllr Beardsworth said the talk of 99 homes in the private meeting with leader Nunn has already now turned into 76 homes in a report issued this week by the authority.
In the report it said housing developed on the site would be affordable rent, shared ownership and could include a small number of council owned temporary accommodation units.
The chair of the area’s resident’s association Graham Croucher said he had concerns after the council released its report and ‘it is not actually clear what will be developed on the site’. He claimed ‘none of the figures quite add up’ and urged the council to provide a robust consultation with locals.
We asked the authority’s media office on Wednesday, when the authority first became involved in discussions with Church’s - which is owned by Italian private firm Prada - and 36 hours later we have not received a response.
Westminster Watch
Following Peter Bone’s fall from grace and suspension as an MP, the Labour Party has acted quickly to get a parliamentary candidate selected.
Nominations closed yesterday and the party will choose its candidate on Saturday, November 11. So far West Northants unitary councillor Harry Barratt has announced his intention to be selected as well as Labour local activist Chris Ashton. NN Journal also understands there will be another possible two female runners and there may well be candidates from the wider region.
A recall petition will open for signatures on November 8 and if by December 19, ten percent of the Wellingborough and Rushden constituency sign it, then there will be a by-election.
Bone, who was found to have bullied a young male staffer and indecently exposed himself to him, has been MP since 2005. At the weekend the Sunday Mirror had a story on its front page about Corby MP Tom Pursglove, canvassing in the Wellingborough area with his disgraced colleague.
Read an earlier story from us about the close political relationship between the pair.
Unfortunately our coverage of the political donations trial means there will not be a Saturday culture post this week.
The trial is expected to last for another two to three weeks and we will have regular coverage, although we plan to have stories on school placement shortages next week.
We sent out a report to our paying members yesterday about what happened on day nine of the trial. This is now available for all to read.
https://www.nnjournal.co.uk/p/no-comment-former-mp-and-businessman