In fact, quite the reverse is true.

Council officers have been managing incredibly complex negotiations with both West Northamptonshire Development Corporation and Northampton Borough Council aimed at improving the street scene for both shoppers and businesses in the town.

That work has resulted in a funding agreement being in place and, as recently as June 5, final agreement between the three organisations on the issue of the letter to traders signalling the agreement of the three partners that the scheme should go ahead without amendment.

The letter to traders now clears the way for the county council to issue the required traffic regulation orders, details of which were due to be published in this newspaper this week.

Traders will have the opportunity to comment on the traffic regulation order proposals and the council is committed to listening to the traders' views before reporting the findings to the council cabinet on August 12.

The traffic arrangements during the work are both of paramount importance to safety and to minimise what we know will be disruption and are a statutory requirement.

It would be morally and legally wrong not to carry this out prior to work starting.

No commitments can be made on the start date until the traffic regulation orders have been approved and that will depend on the comments and objections received.

Traders should be reassured however that there will be no disruption to shoppers during the festive period.

If work has already started it will be suspended and if work is due to start then it will be postponed until after this vital trading period.

Council members and officers remain committed to providing a quality street scene with the minimum risk to both the public and traders' purse.
Councillor Jim Harker,
Leader, Northamptonshire County Council.

Dirty streets are not council's fault
I felt compelled to write after the unjust criticism of the Northampton street cleansing department in the Chronicle & Echo.

I live in Henry Street, off Kettering Road, a dirty street which is not the fault of the council, as I know that Kettering Road is cleaned every morning.

We also have a regular street cleaner who must feel like King Canute at times.

Do people realise that several layers of rubbish make a dirty street?

We have the munchies . . . people who walk along from the town eating and drinking and just drop the plastic boxes.

Men enter our street at night and sit in their vehicles, drinking, smoking and chewing drugs.

When they leave, they throw all their rubbish into the gutter.

Then we have the dumpers . . . in the last six months, we have had beds, mattresses, computers, televisions, a cooker, broken furniture and garden items dumped at the end of the road.

Permanent residents put out their black sacks and re-cycling bins every week. These are always collected efficiently.

Even the efforts of our community officer cannot stop the endless sacks that appear day after day outside prestigious factory apartments in the street.

What responsibility do the letting agents have? Their boards appear outside, they act for the absent landlords.

Why don't they get fined? It is an offence after all.
The council will always respond and take away items but, at the end of the day, the taxpayer is paying for the thoughtless, dirty people, who think they can drop their litter anywhere.
S Justice,
Henry Street, Northampton

We need more spartan prisons
We are told that our prisons are full with a prison population of around 80,000. This represents about 0.1 per cent of the national population. This is quite small.

Sentencing of the guilty in our courts is now dependant on prison space available. No space means no prison sentence! This surely cannot be acceptable.

May I suggest two possible options.

Build more prison accommodation. This should be simple, clean and spartan. It should also be managed in a very firm but compassionate way.

Outsource our prison service for repeat offenders to our east European cousins in the EU. This move would leave more UK prison spaces for first time offenders and at the same time save shed loads of money on the repeat offenders.

We already outsource, manufacturing, surgery and call centres.
Joe Castello,
Earl Street, Northampton.

Library plan will hit reading group
You recently told us about the role that the county's libraries are playing in the National Year of Reading.

How ironic, then, that the library service is planning a series of changes to its highly successful reading groups.

I have been attending a reading group at a local library for about 10 years.

I particularly enjoy the way this has introduced me to many novels and authors I would not otherwise have read and always look forward to a lively and stimulating discussion.

This service is free . . . but not for much longer.

The library service is planning a series of charges to group members, including a fee of £1 for each book borrowed and a charge to all groups holding their meetings in libraries out of normal opening hours.

Although these charges may sound modest, they will inevitably hit the poorest and most needy members of our community the hardest.

Sadly, the numbers attending library-run reading groups are likely to decline, with some people gravitating towards privately-run groups, others leaving altogether. It is little more than privatisation by stealth.

When Tricia Adams claims that the library service is planning to "celebrate reading", I am reminded of George Orwell's most famous novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, in which he coins the phrase New Speak, uncannily predicting the distortion of the language, or spin.

I urge the county council to reverse these proposed cuts before it is too late.
Andrew Nelson,
Ferrestone Road, Wellingborough.

Park errors
Alan Johns's criticisms of the Liberal Democrat administration at Northampton Borough Council regarding the proposed River Nene Country Park at Upton (Park will be an overgrown mess, Viewpoint, June 2) are entirely without foundation.

The land is in fact owned by English Partnerships and will in all probability be managed by the Land Restoration Trust (an arm of English Partnerships), working in conjunction with the local Wildlife Trust.

Mr Johns's prediction is therefore as premature as it is inaccurate.
Councillor Paul Varnsverry,
Liberal Democrat,
West Hunsbury Ward,
Northampton Borough Council.

UK's problems are obvious
Colin Bricher (14-point plan needs research, Viewpoint, May 21) has got it all wrong in his reply to my letter (My blueprint to rescue country, May 15).

My factual points are based on common sense, at the here and now, not the long-distant historic past, or from a "do-gooders" opinion.

Anyone with a 10th of the brain of Einstein can understand from a mile off this country's enormous, New Labour-created problems, which protrude like a sore thumb to myself, who cares passionately about Great Britain and my grandchidren's future.

It is obvious to me the majority of his views are guesswork and he has no alterative to my plan either.

His xenophobic accusation is way off the mark too.

I have just returned again from holiday in an Eastern European country, where I have cultivated lots of friends.

I don't claim, if necessary, on their funds, I have to be insured.

Many there admit that the majority of people coming to the UK to work or stay is for their benefit, not ours, and see the UK as an easy touch with our generous, lax state benefit system (where else could you claim £500 at the birth of a child, without paying into the fund).

I have first-hand experience of dealing with the public at Northampton Borough Council. I can tell him that many people don't want to work and would rather claim benefits.

Who would do a full week's work either when tax credits are available to make up the difference to part-timers?

Which other EU country has an average wage of £500 a week, but gives pensioners £87, the lowest in Europe?

His argument re illegal immigration and traffickers is contradictory and ambiguous. ID cards would identify undesirables for deportation.

If I was a younger man, I would would emigrate to Australia (not Burma, a military state, as Mr Kay suggests (May 19)).

They benefited from our Commonwealth takeover many moons ago, unlike ourselves who are going down the pan fast.

Final example: A new sewerage system in Poland is being paid for by our contributions of £millions daily.

They are laughing all the way to the bank since 2004, whereas we will be bankrupt, care of New Labour and Messrs Brown and Blair!
Keith Jackson,
Tavistock Close,
Northampton.