October 27: Market lights would be energy-efficient
I am writing about the October 23 Aufona column in which you used a photograph of Councillor Trini Crake proudly showing off Northampton Borough Council's Green Office Guide, which is full of environmentally positive hints and tips for businesses and individuals.
I'm delighted the picture caught your attention and I hope it will also capture the imagination of people in Northampton and that they will download the guide from our website and make some simple changes to reduce their carbon emissions.
But one thing I would like to correct, however, is your concern that the proposals for new lighting in the Market Square do not tie in with the borough council's commitment to reducing its carbon emissions and I would like to respond.
The Market Square is currently lit by a few industrial style lights attached to the historic buildings. Each has an enormous output of four kilowatts, which is equivalent to approximately 70 regular energy saving light bulbs that people have in their homes.
If we installed state-of-the art LED lighting to every single building on the square, it would still use less power than the 10 existing lamps. Digital systems would mean they would only be illuminated when it's dark.
Julie Seddon,
Director of Environment and Culture, Northampton Borough Council.
Expansion: What is Labour view?
IT was interesting to see the Conservatives (Viewpoint, October 6) and Liberal Democrats (October 12) competing to claim they are both against the mass expansion of Northampton and its impact on surrounding villages.
This is encouraging for those who are opposed to the excessive nature of the proposals.
However, it is best not to get too carried away.
The forked tongue nature of party politics leads one to believe that actions will not match words once they have convinced people to vote for them.
This is part of the national malaise of lack of trust in politicians.
The Liberal Democrats, for instance, claim to have been against the proposals all along and used the argument to gain control of the borough council.
Having achieved their objective, we then had their leader claiming in the Chronicle & Echo that there was no alternative to expansion.
There are always alternatives and it smacks of hypocrisy to claim there is not. People in authority ought to stick to their word.
We now only need to find out the position of the Labour group.
My experience of attending local government conferences in the mid to late 1990s indicates they were the promoters of the mass expansion and development of the South Midlands concept.
Their leader of the time was forceful in promoting the ideas to the then deputy leader of the Labour Party at a time when he was looking for ideas to create large expansion.
Now that time and personnel have moved on, perhaps the Labour group has had a change of thought and realised that their expansion ideas went a long way to seeing them booted out of office. It would be nice to know where they currently stand on the issue of Northampton's expansion.
I am sure Viewpoint would be pleased to publish their views in the interests of fair play now that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have made known their views.
John Curtis,
Independent Councillor for Bugbrooke, South Northants Council.
The immigration secret is out
IN a major article by Alasdair Palmer in The Sunday Times last May, as to why immigration to the UK is so high, he came to the conclusion that New Labour under Blair, Brown and Blunkett and the rest of the cabinet cynically decided that allowing uncontrolled immigration would ensure an election advantage over the Conservatives, who had in Government tighter immigration controls, which Labour repealed in 1997 on coming to power.
This policy of allowing mass immigration for political gain has now been confirmed by Andrew Neather, who was an advisor and speech writer for Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Blunkett.
The outcome of elections in marginals is now often dictated by the votes of relatively recent immigrants, particular of Asian origin, who hated the Conservative “Primary Purpose Rule” that prevented arranged marriage as the primary reason to gain admission to the UK.
So the next time some shabby local or national politician tells you we need to build all over our once green and pleasant land with new social housing, it is down to New Labour’s desire to keep power at any costs and allow uncontrolled immigration, rather than our local needs.
If any Government wants to prevent our population reaching 70 million by 2020, it will need to cut all migrants legal and illegal by at least 75 per cent. I am not aware of any such plan by the main parties, only the BNP.
Jack Straw and Allen Johnson have both said recently they are comfortable with a population of 70 million.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch, said: “Now at the least the truth is out and it’s dynamite.” I wonder if our police will prosecute the guilty for gerrymandering on the grand scale.
John Wright,
Port Road, Duston, Northampton.
PR voting not a cure for our ills
THE prospective Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Northampton North, Andrew Simpson, displays an astonishing level of political naivity by advocating proportional representation as the cure for the corruption that seems to pervade British politics at all levels (C&E, October 24).
Proportional voting allocates seats to political parties according to the number of votes cast for each of them, and this method effectively sidelines the minor political parties, action groups and independents, while destroying any vestiges of local accountability.
If this method of counting had been applied to the 2007 Northampton Borough Council results, then we might well have had at least one BNP councillor, possibly two independents, up to two representing minority groups, and it is unlikely that there would have been an overall majority for any of the three main parties.
The first past the post system does have its failings, not least of which is that unless support for any one party is overwhelming, then governance will nearly always remain in the hands of a minority who have been selected secretly behind the closed doors of political party committee rooms, which is hardly democratic.
No wonder the electorate are apathetic and largely don’t bother to vote nowadays.
However, by retaining the existing ward and constituency structure, but using the single transferable vote system, then the successful candidates will always be those who are acceptable to the majority of voters, even though they may not have been their first choice.
Bearing in mind that most people who do bother to vote often do so on a political party basis, perhaps it is not too much to expect that those who have recently jumped the rapidly sinking Lib Dem ship and taken up another flag of convenience should now have the moral integrity to resign and offer themselves for re-election under their new colours.
David Huffadine-Smith,
Duston Wildes, Northampton.
Claptrap from the fence-sitters
Andrew Simpson’s letter in the Chron of October 24 is typical Lib Dem claptrap.
Locally they have succeeded in the ruination of our town centre, wasting money the town can ill afford. Nationally they have very little credibility because they are the “sit on the fence” party.
They have as much chance of forming Government as I have of flying to the moon.
To refer to Eamonn Fitzpatrick as a “rogue stallholder” is insulting and unnecessary. Fitzy says it as it is and represents the views of a large number of people, as will be apparent at the next local elections when we get the opportunity to get rid of the current hierarchy and replace them with a responsible alternative, hopefully all Independent!
E Barnes,
Leicester Street, Northampton.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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