Focus on Kingsley

The masterplan prepared for the Friends of the Racecourse Healthy living Hub group has been launched. It will now go to Northampton Borough Council for further discussion. If fully implemented, over £5 million would be spent on the park. The plans include new footpaths, a cafe, better parking, better play facilities, and excersise circuit and more.

Full details of the plan can be seen at www.healthylivinghub.org.uk

Funding for the proposals will need to be found, and there will be an opportunity for more comments and changes.

The council has received an application for flats in Oliver St. Details follow. Plans can be seen opn the councils website and comments can be made to planning@northampton.gov.uk

APPLICATION NO: N/2008/523 Date Valid 02/05/2008

Proposal Residential development with 14No. One and two bedroom apartments.

Location 40 - 44 Oliver Street Northampton.

Applicant Oakway Storage Solutions 40 - 44 Oliver Street Northampton NN2 7JJ.

A planning application has been submitted for 6 more flats at Poets Court, Brookfield Rd. They will be behind the existing flats, in gardens at the rear of Junction Rd with extra parking. The plans can be viewed at www.northampton.gov.uk or at the council offices at Cliftonville House or the Guildhall. The reference is N/2008/0316. The case officer for the planning application is Geoff Wyatt. Let us know your views

A planning application has been submitted for a two bedroom bungalow on Randall Rd, at the rear of 4, 6 & 8 Brookfield Rd. To view the plans go to www.northampton.gov.uk or visit the council offices at The Guildhall or Cliftonville House. The reference for the application is N/2008/367.

The County Council are reconstructing the kerbs and footways in Milton St, in a similar way to the work done in Oliver St. last year.

Work is due to start in April and is likely to take eight weeks. The council have requested that drivers move their cars when requested to allow access, and there is bound to be some temporary inconvenience. Any queries before work begins, contact Stephen Goss on 01604 883449. One work has started contact Tony Gale on 01604 654644.

There are also plans to resurface the road after work on the footpaths are complete, but more information will follow.

Despite public opposition it has been confirmed that Queens Park Post Office will close.

Clearly by announcing these closures earlier than originally planned the Post Office has ignored the case put by local people to keep these offices open. The whole consultation process appears to have been a sham – less than a month has been taken to look at people’s responses and decide which looks suspiciously like a decision that had already been made.

It seems that the Post Office was simply running a ‘numbers game’ where people don’t matter. How hollow their current advertising slogan now sounds.

The Labour Government clearly wanted to close 2,500 across the Country and that means closing offices in Northampton despite the strong cases made to keep them open. Labour MP Sally Keeble has supported her Governments plans for the Post Office in Parliament yet campaigned against the closures in Northampton. Clearly she has misled people by making them think there was a chance to change her Government’s plans – when there was not. She needs to explain her position.

Local Lib Dem Councillors will continue to do all we can to fight these closure plans.

At the request of local residents the Council are looking to put a recycling facility in Arthur St for people who live in the flats. This is good news, and I hope it will be used by people who live in the Webbs factory too. When the site has been agreed, the council will inform residents by leaflet.

Queens Park Post Office on Kingsley Rd is one of 8 Post Offices in Northampton set to close. Queens Park is used by many residents in Kingsthorpe, and is a result of Government policy to close thousands of post offices nationally. Lib Dem councillors will be campaigning strongly against these closures. Andrew is organising an online petition at www.andrew-simpson.org.uk

The pavement in Kingsley Rd is to be resurfaced on the odd numbered side from No. 33 to No. 125 (from Murray Avenue to the end). Work will start in the new year and is expected to take six weeks, depending on the weather. Cotact Stephen Cross at Atkins (the contractors) for any information before the work starts on 01604 883449 and Tony Gale on 01604 654644 for detailed information regarding progress on site or access when work has started.

It’s good news that at last some work is being done on the Kingsley Rd pavements, but there is much more to be done, and what a shame elderly people will no longer need it to get to the Queens Park post office once it has closed.

The County Council has decided to market the site of Raeburn Special School after the school has moved to its new site at Tiffield. Local residents are campaigning to keep the site for community use. There are no childrens play areas or community facilities in the area. The Focus team are supporting the campaign and Richard Church has spoken up at a recent County Council meeting in support of a petition presented by local community activist Karen Lennon.