Issue - meetings

Councillor Stone to make a statement on: “What you have done right and what you need to do better in 2018”.

Councillor Stone stated that there were many outstanding issues that had not been sufficiently dealt with by the administration and urged them to address the cases she believed to be a priority. She reported that there were unrelenting caseloads, increased fly-tipping, a rise in domestic violence along with greater instances of human trafficking in the Town. She reported that the retail industry was currently in decline and that this was evidenced by the number of empty shops in the Town Centre. She commented that the increased number of people, including families, using food banks was upsetting as were recent reports about the number of young people affected by and living in child poverty. Councillor Stone reported that she supported some of the work that had been completed by the administration which included the Errol Flynn second cinema screen, the Night shelter, events held in the Guildhall and the work carried out with St Crispin’s Community Centre along with the ongoing work of Northampton Partnership Homes and SEMPLEP. She encouraged the administration to prioritise vacancies, specifically in the regeneration department and requested that the Eastern District be prioritised for regeneration and insisted that there was a need for an anti-poverty strategy to be adopted by the Council.

The Leader responded by noting the many positive outcomes of numerous projects, which included the clean-up of the Town Centre, which he commented would be further improved once the new contract was fully in place. He noted that the old contract had been quite restrictive but noted that even with the restrictions, they Council had won gold in the ‘Bloom’ competition. The Leader further reported that issues with regeneration were being dealt with more robustly than ever before and explained that there were many areas of the Town that were being regenerated and cleaned up in the background that she may not be aware of.

Councillor Stone responded by nothing that there were increased numbers of residents who were becoming more disadvantaged and poorer who had made no choice but were victims of their circumstances and urged the Council to consider the needs of those most disadvantaged.  She noted the importance of the Council staff and explained that people and places were importance and there should be a collective drive to improve and drive the Town forward.