Police act to stop rise in cycle theft.

There has been a rise in the number of cycle thefts in Northampton in recent weeks, with 47 bikes reported stolen in April alone. Police are investigating the thefts and would appeal for anyone with information to make contact.

Northamptonshire Police on 03000 111 222 - alternatively, information can be given anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Councillor Maria-Trinidad Crake Refuses to reply to emails!

Dear Councillor Maria-Trinidad Crake,

I am still waiting for a reply to my email which I sent to you recently (09^th April), but alas it seems that once again you are too busy to reply. I understand that street cleaning in St James is not a priority to you, but it is to the residents of St James. Failure to reply to my email this time will leave me with no choice but to highlight this disrespectful way in which you are treating the residents of St James and I will not hesitate to name and shame you on our Web site and Blog telling the residents that you just refuse to give an explanation or offer a reason or even a solution to why your machines are not cleaning our streets properly and also blocking the drains. I will also contact the press over your refusal to reply to emails from a constituted organizations working for the residents. Over the last 12 months we have constantly been told by Lib Dem Councillors that residents need to make more effort to keep their area clean, but when we ask the Lib Dem Borough Council to do the same we are met with a cold silence of indecision. I will wait till the 25^th of this month for your reply, but if I do not receive one then you will be able to read my comments on the SJRA Web Site and Blog.

John Connolly

Chair - St James Residents' Association

Dear Councillor Crake,

 I have included some pictures with this email to ask you if you think that the residents of St James are getting their roads cleaned properly. As you will see in the first picture the road is being cleaned, I was glad to see the street cleaner out doing his job, but as you will see from the pictures  it quite clearly shows that the machine just fails to clean. As you will see in the pictures the machine simply pushes the dirt about but fails to pick it up. Now if that was not bad enough you will see in picture 5 that in fact the machine just simply pushed the dirt over and into the drain quite clearly showing that it was beginning to block the drain. I wonder how the County Council feel about your machines blocking their drains? Also do I need to remind you that St James residents worry about drains blocking because we have already experienced what it’s like to get flooded out. I look forward to your comments on this matter and how you intend to resolve this issue as I am sure you will feel disappointed with the level of cleaning that the Residents of St James are receiving and with the quality of the service you are providing.

 

John Connolly

Chair - St James Residents' Association

Borough Council Litter Bins In St James

It seems that even though the Borough Council like to tell residents to keep their area clean and use Litter bins, when residents do as their told they are left scratching their heads when the Borough Council then fail to come and empty them. Maybe Councillor and Portfolio Holder for the Environment Trini Crake would like to comment on this?

How Bad Is your Neighbourhood

Is the NN5 area good for employment or bad for health?

All 32,482 neighbourhoods in England have been ranked on a range of topics, together with a 'Total Deprivation' ranking. The most deprived neighbourhood in England has a rank of 1. The further to the right a marker is for a particular topic, the more deprived your area.

All information taken from:

County Council Prepare To Turn Off Street Lights

THOUSANDS of street lights across Northamptonshire will soon be plastered with posters explaining to residents they have been switched off. Over the next two months, officials from Northamptonshire County Council will travel around the country attaching the notices to 33,000 of the county’s 66,000 street lights.

The SJRA will keep a close eye on crime statistics to see if there is an increase in crime related to the Street Lights going out.

New Northampton and Daventry waste partnership agreed

A multi-million pound seven-year project to provide waste collection services in Northampton and Daventry has been agreed. Northampton Borough Council, Daventry District Council and Enterprise Managed Services Ltd have joined together to provide the service. The councils hope that by pooling their back office and management staff they can help save money. The new agreement comes as councils face having to make major savings.

C&E - 23 April 2011

When is a Bandstand a Swing?

The SJRA is very disappointed with the outcome over the floodlights, and is even more disappointed with Brian Hoare and the excuses as to why we failed to get the floodlights. In one part of his letter to us he states "We have also attempted to provide facilities in areas that have no play equipment at all and to support community or Friends Groups. If we are to believe this statement then why has £15,200 been allocated to Abington Park bandstand, and another £35,000 for Delapre Park to have a water garden. So what I would like to know is when did a water feature and a bandstand become known as play equipment. The SJRA has never been happy with the way in which the Borough Council handled this project and has never given any explanation to us about what criteria would be used to accept a project. We also asked Councillor Pam Varnsverry to set up a meeting where we could ask some of these questions but alas I feel we would have more chance of winning the lottery then getting that meeting, and with the election only weeks away I doubt we ever will.

Chair - SJRA

Borough Council "No to Floodlights In Victoria Park" Says Brian Hoare

I know that you have written to Peter Staffell the Area Coordinator for the South West Area and spoken to Cllr Pam Varnsverry regarding the “I Love My Park” capital investment authorised by cabinet on the 13th October 2010. I thought that I should reply to your letter as I do not believe that it is appropriate for an officer of the Borough Council to reply to your questions in order for you “to keep our faith in this administration”.

Tories would off-load Town’s Council Homes

THE Conservatives have said they would consider relinquishing control of Northampton’s 12,000 council houses if they won the Northampton Borough Council election in May.

The party were due to announce the plan this morning, saying they would look to hand over the management of the properties to a housing association because the council had a track record of ‘failing to do the job properly’ itself.

Parties To Go Head To Head In Chron Debate

POLITICIANS fighting to take control of the Guildhall during the local elections will take each other on during what is expected to be a tense public debate in Northampton town centre later this month.Following the success of last year’s General Election debates, the Chron will be staging a local election debate at the Guildhall on Wednesday, April 27. The debate, which is open to everyone from across the town, will see members of all nine parties standing in the election, as well as all the independent candidates, take each other on head-to-head in a debate to convince the public they should be given the chance to run Northampton Borough Council. Issues which are expected to be tackled during the night include the redevelopment of both Sixfields and Franklin’s Gardens, the regeneration of the town centre and the future of council housing.

Entry to the debate will be on a first-come first-served basis on the night.It will run from 7pm until 9pm on Wednesday, April 27 in the Great Hall of the Guildhall in the centre of Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON COMMUNITY SAFETY PARTNERSHIP NEWS RELEASE: Extra closures of Bridge Street for coming bank holidays

There will be extra night-time closures of Bridge Street over the coming bank holiday weekends, when the town centre is expected to be busier than usual.

Over the Easter, Royal Wedding and May Day bank holidays, there will be four additional overnight closures of the street:

Between:

• 10pm Thursday 21 April and 4am on Good Friday, 22 April

• 10pm Sunday 24 April and 4am on Easter Monday, 25 April

• 10pm Thursday 28 April and 4am on Friday 29 April

• 10pm Sunday 1 May and 4am on Monday 2 May

Your Current Locally Identified Priorities For St James are:

1:Address the increase in night time violence at Sixfields
(current lead - Sgt Jen Helm)

2:Contribute to measures to alleviate parking problems associated with sporting venues (current lead - Partnership Co-ordinator)

3:Tackling theft from vehicles across the ward (current lead - Sgt Jen Helm)

Do you know where to vote?

On Thursday 5 May people across Northampton will get to decide who represents them at the Guildhall for the next four years, and will get to vote in the national Referendum. But many people will need to cast their vote in a different location from previous elections.Earlier this year Parliament agreed to a plans that have completely redrawn Northampton's electoral map. Thirty-three new Borough Wards have been created to replace the previous 23 Wards. This means everyone will be casting their vote in a new ward, even if it has the same name as their old ward. For many people their polling station will have moved too.

When your poll card arrives, you should check the location of your polling station and make sure you know where it is. It will be at most a short distance from your home. All of the details are now available on Northampton Borough Council's website. There are now pages to help people find the ward they live in, their polling station and who the candidates are standing in their area.