DCSIMG

August 11: Neighbours know how to build a town


Published on Monday 10 August 2009 11:39

Back in the 1970s the Government had expansion plans for Northampton and Peterborough, plus a completely new town at a small obscure Buckinghamshire village called Milton Keynes.

Being a new-build, the planning of Milton Keynes was relatively straightforward and was therefore assured of success, but grafting a new town onto an existing borough is much more difficult.

Peterborough got it right by building parkways to move traffic quickly round the city, avoiding traffic jams, while Northampton nimbys with their traffic management policy of "if it moves, stop it", prevented the Expressway being built, while none of the outer road network was ever fully completed.

Peterborough built a shopping precinct in keeping with the rest of the city centre, with an integrated bus terminus and nearby mainline railway, while the convoluted mish-mash that was cobbled up some distance from the Northampton branch railway was doomed to failure from the start.

Peterborough has been granted city and unitary council status, while the last vestiges of any pride in Northampton were lost when it was robbed of its county borough status, with the result that most of the staff expertise was lost and essential services collapsed due to the continuous ineptitude of the county council.

So may I respectfully suggest that before gobbling up any more green space, the powers that be take a trip up the road to Peebo and see how to do the job properly.

It's quite simple, you build the infrastructure first, then when you build the houses, you retain control instead of letting the developers walk all over you.

David Huffadine-Smith,

Duston Wildes, Northampton.

I don't want to see our new city

UNLESS I am destined to live to be 106, I won't see the "New City of Northampton" . . . although I really don't think I would want to.

It will just be lots of large shopping areas filled with restaurants, cafes, sandwich bars and 60 large stores and shops in each. Will they all be empty like the ones in town and the Grosvenor Centre now?

To add to the view, skyscraper extensions on top of hotels, offices and flats sound ugly.

They say the exciting new improvements have already started with the Market Square. How is that? A big empty space with a dozen stalls and a few red umbrellas! What a waste of money.

As for demolishing the Greyfriars Bus Station (the only useful, convenient building we have left), they say it's because it's ugly to look at and an unwelcome place to arrive in Northampton.

The monstrosity of flats alongside the bus station is what I'd call ugly, but the bus station itself is a friendly place to enter with the best cup of tea in town!

Has Councillor Church ever arrived at Greyfriars by bus?

Milton Keynes was built and set out on many acres of empty land. But to create a new Northampton town or city from this old one, you would have to bomb it to the ground, like Coventry in the war, and start from scratch.

Save the 300 million by cleaning up the derelict buildings and looking after the historical good-looking buildings we have, because Northampton’s new city will be in the same state again after a couple of years.

The soul has gone out of the real Northampton . . . and no-one cares.

Eva Gill (Mrs),

Fulford Drive, Northampton.

I’ll have to pay to get rid of big rat

I’ve got the biggest rat I’ve ever seen sitting in my garden and trying to get up my drain!

I phoned the council and, guess what, they don’t deal with rats any more, so I have to pay someone to catch it . . . as if we don’t pay out enough already.

Give us a bit more pension and we might not have to moan so much. Instead they give money to people rather than them having to go to work.

Brenda De-Marchis,

Dunster Street, Northampton.

Paddling pool poles mix-up

IF you were the lady who bought a paddling pool at Potterspury car boot on Sunday, August 9, and got home to find some poles were missing, we're really sorry . . . they were still in our garage.

Please ring or text 0790 525 5503 and if you're local, we’ll bring them round.

Name and address supplied but withheld by request.

Use the fountain cash on toilets

The council proposes spending 100,000 plus 17,000 per year to install and maintain a fountain in the town centre.

Wouldn’t the money be better spent (if they really want to spend that amount) on a set of toilets visible and accessible to visitors to the town and to residents?

Terry Phillips,

Northampton Lane North,

Moulton.

Hospital staff deserve help

HAVING recently been taken to A&E at Northampton General Hospital twice, the second time spending a month in Collingtree and Eleanor Wards, I would like to say a big thank-you to the paramedics, ambulance men, doctors, nurses, porters, physio and occupational therapists, X-ray folk, lads and lasses who brought around meals, cups of tea and clean water and cleaners, and especially Wendy on Eleanor, for all their care, kindness and treatment.

It was all very much appreciated.

They need and deserve more help. I could not fault any of them.

Also to the carers since I have been home, thank you one and all.

D Jackson,

Abington, Northampton.


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Wednesday 08 February 2012

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