St James Residents' Association

For The Residents And Workers Of St James

Monday 28 November 2011

The St James Library Presents

The St James Library Presents


Down Your Way

The planning committee last week voted unanimously to approve the planning application to demolish the old St. James Church School and replace it with 14 houses. That’s 145 years of Jimmy’s End History that will now be swept away! It seems the council can only use fine words when it comes to saving our heritage but has little in the way of tools to save anything, unless it is in the town centre! It’s a developers world, where everything is stacked in their favour and the councilors seem unwilling to challenge it. So much for listening to communities!. In return for destroying our heritage the developer is only going to contribute some money towards provision of “local schooling” which could go to either Lyncrest, the new St. James school or Spring Lane, my money is on Spring Lane, everything goes there! That is of course if it is not swallowed up by next years round of budget cuts!  So, from consulting with the community, putting money towards Victoria Park, converting the front building to community use, the developer got away with not doing any of it because they say it would make the scheme unviable, so what? Then bring in a developer who can make it viable. The real worry is now that in this current economic climate that there will be no interest in these properties and we will have a situation similar to the “The Maltings” on Westbridge; a fine building will be demolished and the site will lay derelict, there is a very real possibility of that happening. One thing the councilllors did agree on was that the some of the school building materials should be incorporated, somehow, into the new development and a plaque erected to inform people of what used to stand there and the new road into the development be named to reflect that, the only crumb of comfort from a lack lustre planning committee, with the exception of some notable contributions, who in the main just waited to see how everyone else is voting. It is ok to vote no! A sad day for St. James.

Friday 11 November 2011

Crimestoppers


A new link to the crimestoppers web site has been added to the list of useful links.

Hoax warning – PDS postal scam

Messages are circulating on the internet and via e-mail regarding an alleged scam. It involves a card being posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service)which suggests they were unable to deliver a parcel and you should contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number).

It is a hoax and the information contained in it is not true. If you receive this information please ignore it.

For more information please click on the following Crimestoppers website link: http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/fraud/types-of-fraud/common-scams/postal-scam-email-from-parcel-delivery-service-65455465 

Thursday 3 November 2011

Housing department accused of maladministration


The council’s housing department has been accused of maladministration and asked to pay £5,000 after it was deemed to have wrongly refused a grant to adapt the home of a disabled man. Dr Jane Martin, the local government ombudsman, made a finding of maladministration against Northampton Council after it refused a disabilities facilities grant application for an extension so a disabled man could access bathing facilities. In her report, Dr Martin said that even though the grant for an extension appeared to meet all relevant criteria, the council’s housing department refused it as the applicants lived in a privately-rented home without a secure tenancy.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

New Housing Officer

The SJRA would like to welcome our new Housing Officer.

Nick Rose
Housing Officer For St James
Tel: 01604 838468
Email: nrose@northampton.gov.uk

St James End before 1965

St James End before 1965

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