Councillors call for action on 'unusable' Northampton football pitch

Northampton Labour group are calling for an all-weather pitch off Nene Way, Kings Heath to be restored and reopened after they branded it "unusable", having watched it fall into disrepair over the course of several years.

At the Northampton Borough Council budget meeting on March 11, Labour suggested that the council should invest in the pitch, in order that it can generate income that can be redistributed, as opposed to measures such as increasing town centre car parking charges.

Meetings have now been set up to discuss their proposal in the coming weeks, so the facility can benefit of the whole town.

Cllr Terrie Eales (Lab, NBC Kings Heath) said: “We've had many previous meetings with the council and private companies to try and get something moving, retaining free community access, but none of this came to anything.

"Hopefully we may now be about to make a breakthrough. I know there are many people from within the local community on Kings Heath that are so keen on this, they would be willing to volunteer to make it happen.”

Cllr Gareth Eales (Lab, NCC Dallington Spencer) said he believed money given to the borough council by developers as a condition of building new homes should be directed towards the pitch.

Councillor Eales said: “At the back end of last year, I made the point that with the proposed Dallington Grange development, money from that should have been invested into adjacent areas, on things like this pitch.

"Residents who live in estates like Kings Heath, will bear the brunt of the impact of these new 3,000 homes and yet there is not one penny being offered to these areas, to give some benefit.

"That is simply unacceptable and unfair and I have asked for that to be reviewed.

"Who knows, maybe NBC will squeeze some money from a developer to fund what would be both an income generator and a well-used community space.”