Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the Northampton Chron & Echo site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Sign In
Register

Northampton 'must overcome bitter rivalry with Milton Keynes'



Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 11 October 2008
A stark state-of-the-nation report on the condition of Northampton admits the town centre has slumped over the past 20 years and warns there are areas nobody wants to live.
But Northampton Borough Council's report, titled Fresh Thinking, insists there is optimism for the future and claims the town can benefit from the Government's massive expansion plans for the area.

The leader of the authority, Councillor Tony Woods (Lib Dem, St Davids) said: "It's pretty obvious the town centre has not kept pace with other areas.

"In part, it's been that Northampton has been badly served by the Government. If Milton Keynes had not been put where it was, for example, Northampton would have been the regional centre for the area.

"So we've suffered from that, but also from a chronic level of investment in Northampton over a period of time."

The report claims Northampton town centre is down at heel and has not kept pace with other towns "for the past 20 years or more".

It also says there are too many areas in the town where people do not want to live, but are "forced to by lack of choice".

Councillor Woods said he believed the town could improve, but warned it had to move on from trying to compete with Milton Keynes.

He said: "We need to get away from the Milton Keynes thing and get on with what we do well, while letting them do what they do well.

"It won't be a quick process, but I am confident things can change.

"If you look at some European cities which weren't doing too well in the past, a lot of them have had money spent on them and are now much more attractive places than they were."

The Fresh Thinking report also raises concerns about standards of education and employment in Northampton, highlighting the town's need to get away from an over concentration on low-skilled jobs.

The report will be discussed by members of Northampton Borough Council's cabinet on October 15.

The full article contains 346 words and appears in Northampton Chron & Echo newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 11 October 2008 9:02 AM
  • Source: Northampton Chron & Echo
  • Location: Northampton
 
Prev
1
Next
1

Michael S.,

11/10/2008 09:25:28
"We need to get away from the Milton Keynes thing and get on with what we do well, while letting them do what they do well.
If the town has gone down and not maintained itself with other cities in the last 20 years and crime as high everday and people not wanting to live where they do but are forced to....uhhhh....what do you do well?.
2

St Lytham,

The Beach 11/10/2008 12:01:18
Councillor Woods offers a glimmer of hope to Northamptonians in that he has identified the issues and admitted them.
*Poor state education standards especially second level
*Low paid jobs with high figures for crime and poor housing
*Poor retail offering in town centre (maybe connected to both above).
It's too easy to blame MK as the Councillors here could have and should have responded and even now they hesitate locally.
If Mr Woods,having identified the issues, takes action --sort a deal out with Legal & General to regenerate the town centre, the rest should follow including a new emphasis for the Market Square.
could we have a real leader emerging in Northampton? I hope so.
The fear is the insecure and less able members of the council will ,yet again, block progress in the futile cause of living in the past.
3

desktop,

11/10/2008 12:21:12
I remember back in the early seventies when I worked in MK twice a week. Then,no-one had a good word to sy about MK.
We need tio identify wht they have and we don't then we can see what we neeed to do.
To start with, a vg shopping cente and a fast train service to London
4

ray douglas,

11/10/2008 20:49:07
What Milton-Keynes has got,is a can do attitude.IKEA,can do.Decent football stadium,can do.We,on the other hand,have a can't do attitude!.IKEA,NO!Football stadium,NO!Better airport facilities at Sywell,NO!We must change our narrow thinking here,or Milton-Keynes will pass us by.Already their football side seems set on climbing away from us into the Championship!
5

mojo,

northampton 12/10/2008 16:29:52
I'd still rather live in Northampton than Milton Keynes any day it seems so soul less somehow.
6

cottoner09,

Northampton 12/10/2008 17:14:04
Years ago Abington Street was our main shopping area and we are in need of some really good shops along there & not more budget stores. We need someone in charge who is determined to work on the town's poorest points. MK has a Sunday market so why not try it out here? We don't need this so called "rivalry" to go on forever but Northampton does need to sell itself more & the Tourist Information office needs to be moved from its' nonentity spot at the rear of the theatre to a more noticeable & permanent one in the town centre - just one example.
I travel to MK for its' shops & theatre & because I really like it - but truthfully there are one or two areas there where I just couldn't bear to live!
7

Mr Powell,

Northampton 12/10/2008 20:07:01
It would seem that Councillor Woods has conceded defeat already to Milton Keynes if he thinks that they are a "regional centre ".
As far as letting them get on with what they do well while we do our thing,there should not be anything that Northampton cannot do as well as our neighbours and "rivals".
It is more a matter of finding suitable , able and willing people to represent Northampton, who will not keep saying "No !" to everything, and who having made a proper study of what a modern town or city our size needs, make every effort to work towards that goal.

This study is a step in the right direction, and we should give the present incumbents a chance to prove themselves, but we do not have forever.

Apart from a nice clean shopping centre, I cannot think of any other reason for a Northampton resident to want to visit Milton Keynes anyway, but there are a huge number of improvements that could be made to Northampton.The time to start is now !
8

Chris-H,

Northampton 12/10/2008 20:07:56
The fact that Northampton is only a town which is larger than places like York which are cities doesn't help, and I believe we only get a towns budget. Northampton is slowly going down hill, it needs some attention and some big money pumped into, just like Manchester, was a state, a lot of investment and it is now a lovely place in most parts!

I like the sound of what Councillor Woods is saying and that he is admit Northampton has a lot of bad areas, I just hope he can help improve and change them!
Prev
1
Next

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.