St James Residents' Association

For The Residents And Workers Of St James

Thursday 28 July 2011

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Down Your Way for Mon 1st August

A reminder, now the school holidays have begun of the activities at St. James Library, events include; Rhymetime for young children every Tuesday morning from 10:30 -11:00am. Also this year’s Summer Reading Challenge events began on Saturday 23rd July and the theme this year is Circus Stars! Children between the ages of 4 and 12 will be able to collect a Circus Stars membership card from their  local library, and on their next visit they can also collect a Circus Stars Stage, showing the 3 parts of the Circus Skills Academy: Practice, Rehearsal and Show Time! For every two books children read, they will receive a set of stickers. Once they have read six books from the library they will be rewarded with a special medal and certificate. Complete the challenge and enter a prize draw with the chance to win a £10 book token. Is there a cost? Most activities are free but there is a small charge for some activities to cover costs.

Events included in the Circus Stars theme will be as follows; Big Top Biscuits (Free)  4-8s on Thursday 28/07/2011 at 3.00pm-3.45pm, Beast Quest (Free) 6-12s on Friday 05/08/2011 at 2.30pm-3.30pm, Circus Stars Rhymetime (Free) Under 5s on Tuesday 09/08/2011 at 10.00am-11.00am, Life Sized Clowns (Free) 4-8s on Thursday 11/08/2011 at 2.30pm 3.30pm, K'Nex Building Afternoon (Free) All ages on Friday 19/08/2011 at 2.30pm-4.30pm, Very Hungry Caterpillar (Free) 4-8s on Tuesday 23/08/2011 at 2.30pm-3.15pm, Lion Tamer and his Lion Craft (Free) 6-12s on Wednesday      24/08/2011 at 2.30pm-3.30pm, Magic Ballerina (Free) 6-12s on Tuesday 30/08/2011 at 2.30pm-3.30pm, Teddy Bear's Picnic (Free) Under 5s on Tuesday 30/08/2011 at 10.00am-11.00am.
 
Remember Dad’s and Grandparents can come along too! For more information telephone the Library on 01604 751037 or drop in to St. James Library during opening hours; Monday closed Tuesday to Friday 2.00-600pm, Saturday: 10.00am-2.00pm. Who says that nothing happens at our Library?!

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Greyfriars Bus Station escalators out of service

On Monday 1 August the escalators in the Greyfriars Bus Station will be out of service for three weeks due to scheduled repair work. The escalators require maintenance to improve the daily running of the machines to maintain a good service for people accessing the bus station.

In the meantime, people can access the station via the three stairwells and the lift. There will also be signage and additional staff to direct bus passengers between levels.


The work is due to be complete by Friday 19 August and we will keep you updated on the progress.


Friday 15 July 2011

More Fly tipping

Looks like the fly tippers are getting lazy; they are now using shopping trolleys to dump their rubbish.

This has already been reported on the NBC "My Council" website. with a Target resolution date of Tuesday, 19 July 2011 at 08:30 The call number is 533720.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Down Your Way


The old St. James School site which is the subject of a planning application N/2011/0504, has been in the media spotlight recently. Chair and Secretary of the SJRA both were heard live on Radio Northampton’s breakfast show recently outside the school. The argument was put against demolition of the building and instead to convert. The plan is to leave the one hall type building that fronts on to St. James Road for some sort of community use and demolish all the buildings behind and replace them with 14 houses with access from Greenwood Road. The houses will be in a traditional style that complements the existing area. The plans can be viewed online at www.northampton.gov.uk or at the Guildhall. The residents association are watching with interest and are looking to make some alterations to the plan and are keen to hear from concerns from residents. The residents association has objected to the application. They feel that the school site is a valuable building in terms of the history of St. James and is part of the fabric of the area, as such it needs to be preserved with perhaps conversion to residential use or small niche businesses. The building date from 1866, when the first building, on St. James road was constructed. This building predates the church by two years which was completed in 1868. The rest of the school was erected in 1874 (the buildings behind the church) and 1891 (the buildings on Greenwood Road). Too many historic buildings have been lost in the town and St. James already. The school is very important to the shoe making history of the town as it served the local residents who worked in the shoe factories which dominated the area. In addition the school was started before St. James became a parish proper in 1872. The developers claim that they can find no historic link between the Church and the school, despite the obvious facts that it was a church school, the land is still owned, by the Diocese and countless children walked across the playground directly into the church, myself included! The developer, although they do not own the site yet has agreed a sale with the Diocese for £2 million subject to planning permission. Apparently it is all quite legal for someone to apply for planning permission even though they do not own the site! The church has raised one objection of security and are insisting that, should the buildings behind the church be demolished then a 2 metre high brick wall should be constructed to protect the church from intruders.
Local councillor Terry Wire has apparently “called in” the application so as it can be heard by the planning committee instead of one planning officer.

Sunday 10 July 2011

What Northampton Borough Council Should Do?

Residents of St James and the rest of Northampton are waiting for the Borough Council to sort out the complete mess that our Wheelie Bin collections and street weeding is in. While the good people of St James wait to see if we will ever get the service we pay for, I believe that David Kennedy - Chief Executive of the Borough Council and Councillor Palethorpe – Leader of the Cabinet should publicly apologise to the residents of St James and to the rest of Northampton for the disgraceful way in which they have handled this whole situation.
I again publicly call out Kennedy and Palethorpe to publicly debate the mess that they have put our town in. I would like to have an open public meeting at the Guildhall where we can put questions to our so called leaders and demand answers,  or ask them to stand down from the positions they hold.

John Connolly - SJRA Chair

Thursday 7 July 2011

One word " FAIL"

A resident of St James sent this picture to me of his street. Clearly showing us how the Borough Council is failing in its duty to look after the streets in St James. I want residents of St James to send in your pictures so we can show everyone how bad things are getting and how the Borough Council are letting you down.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Why are we paying taxes for a service we just dont get.........

It is obvious that St James does not get the service that our tax payers pay for. NO WEEDING!  FLY TIPPING!  GRAFFITI!  Overgrown Trees, weeds pushing through our pavements, The St James area is fast becoming a fly tipping dumping ground for everyone and anyone. Now maybe someone could tell me why the new administration was voted in? Has there been an improvement in the area? How long do we have to keep making excuses for the new administration? When is the new administration going to take control of our service and give us what we pay for?

I openly challenge any member of the cabinet and a member of the Borough Council to come on here and defend or to try and rebuff the statement I have made. Or publicly meet me and try to defend their lack of action in St James.


Now for the evidence:

St James End before 1965

St James End before 1965

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