Focus on Kingsley

Richard Church, the County Councillor for Kingsley, is planning to spend a proportion of funds allocated to him for local community projects on replacing roadside trees in Kinglsey. Richard has put forward a list of locations where trees have been lost and the Council are looking at each site in turn before suggesting which sites should be a priority. Roads where there is space for new trees include Kettering Rd, Park Avenue North, Kenmuir Avenue, The Drive, The Crescent and Kingsley Rd. ‘Trees in local streets make our environment much more pleasant, sadly, too many roadside trees have been lost and not replaced’, said Richard.

Richard will be consulting local residents on the proposed locations. Meanwhile, is you know of any other sites where a tree could be planted, let us know.

Looking for something for the Kids to do over the long summer holiday? There’s local courses in Badminton, Golf, Netball, Girls football, Athletics and Cricket at reasonable prices

In addition theres multi-sport activities on the Racecourse (meet at the changing rooms) and Kingsthorpe Rec (meet at the booking office) from 28th July to 22nd August for 5 to 12 year olds. 2 sessions per day 10am-12pm, 1.30pm-3.30pm. Sessions are £1 per child or 50p if they have a leisure card. For more information contact Northampton Borough Council’s Sports Development Team on 01604 837774, email sportsdevelopment@northampton.gov.uk or visit their website www.northampton.gov.uk/sports.

Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg has sent a message of congratulations to Liberal Democrats in Northampton celebrating a year of success in turning round Northampton Borough Council.

“It has been a fantastic year and I am very proud of the achievements of our councillors” writes Nick Clegg “The Council has made enormous progress in the last 12 months.”

A year since the Liberal Democrats took control of Northampton has been described as a year of solid achievement by Leader Cllr. Tony Woods “We inherited a council in a mess. A year ago Government inspectors had rated the council as one of the worst in the country, with weak political leadership and failure to deliver services people have a right to expect.”

“Three things stand out from our first year” said Tony Woods.

(1) The Council’s finances are under firmer control, with no cuts in this year’s budget.

(2) Day to day services such as planning, revenues and benefits, and housing management are at last showing real signs of improvement.

(3) We are setting in place firm foundations for the long term with progress on the Grosvenor centre and other key town centre projects.”

“We still have a long way to go” said Tony Woods. “We have more to do to persuade the people of Northampton that the council is improving. That will be our task in the year ahead.”

‘Putting the Pride back in Northampton -A year of Achievement’ A full briefing on the first year of Lib Dem run Northampton Borough Council can be downloaded from www.northamptonlibdems.org.uk

The Council have announced plans to resurface Kettering Rd from the White Elephant to Chaucer St. Work is due to start in July, depending on the weather and progress on other work. It is expected that the work will be done over three weekends, Fridays, Sundays and Mondays (not Saturdays). On mid-week days work will be done on resufacing the road in Milton St.

Traffic will be diverted at certain times while work is underway. Northbound traffic will be sent via Kingsley Rd, Fairway and Kenmuir Avenue, southbound via Park Avenue, Abington Avenue and Abington Grove. It is expected that the restrictions will be lifted outside working hours.

The masterplan prepared for the Friends of the Racecourse Healthy living Hub group has been launched. It will now go to Northampton Borough Council for further discussion. If fully implemented, over £5 million would be spent on the park. The plans include new footpaths, a cafe, better parking, better play facilities, and excersise circuit and more.

Full details of the plan can be seen at www.healthylivinghub.org.uk

Funding for the proposals will need to be found, and there will be an opportunity for more comments and changes.

The council has received an application for flats in Oliver St. Details follow. Plans can be seen opn the councils website and comments can be made to planning@northampton.gov.uk

APPLICATION NO: N/2008/523 Date Valid 02/05/2008

Proposal Residential development with 14No. One and two bedroom apartments.

Location 40 - 44 Oliver Street Northampton.

Applicant Oakway Storage Solutions 40 - 44 Oliver Street Northampton NN2 7JJ.

A planning application has been submitted for 6 more flats at Poets Court, Brookfield Rd. They will be behind the existing flats, in gardens at the rear of Junction Rd with extra parking. The plans can be viewed at www.northampton.gov.uk or at the council offices at Cliftonville House or the Guildhall. The reference is N/2008/0316. The case officer for the planning application is Geoff Wyatt. Let us know your views

A planning application has been submitted for a two bedroom bungalow on Randall Rd, at the rear of 4, 6 & 8 Brookfield Rd. To view the plans go to www.northampton.gov.uk or visit the council offices at The Guildhall or Cliftonville House. The reference for the application is N/2008/367.

The County Council are reconstructing the kerbs and footways in Milton St, in a similar way to the work done in Oliver St. last year.

Work is due to start in April and is likely to take eight weeks. The council have requested that drivers move their cars when requested to allow access, and there is bound to be some temporary inconvenience. Any queries before work begins, contact Stephen Goss on 01604 883449. One work has started contact Tony Gale on 01604 654644.

There are also plans to resurface the road after work on the footpaths are complete, but more information will follow.

Despite public opposition it has been confirmed that Queens Park Post Office will close.

Clearly by announcing these closures earlier than originally planned the Post Office has ignored the case put by local people to keep these offices open. The whole consultation process appears to have been a sham – less than a month has been taken to look at people’s responses and decide which looks suspiciously like a decision that had already been made.

It seems that the Post Office was simply running a ‘numbers game’ where people don’t matter. How hollow their current advertising slogan now sounds.

The Labour Government clearly wanted to close 2,500 across the Country and that means closing offices in Northampton despite the strong cases made to keep them open. Labour MP Sally Keeble has supported her Governments plans for the Post Office in Parliament yet campaigned against the closures in Northampton. Clearly she has misled people by making them think there was a chance to change her Government’s plans – when there was not. She needs to explain her position.

Local Lib Dem Councillors will continue to do all we can to fight these closure plans.