Parish council planning to turn car park tree stump into memorial features in Northampton neighbourhood

A parish council in Northampton is planning to turn a car park tree stump into a wooden memorial feature.

Upton Parish Council is hoping to use wood from a tree stump in a car park on Kent Road as the main material for two memorial features for the area.

The tree was removed around a year ago, after the parish acquired the land, as the roots were at risk of damaging a nearby building.

Now the stump is due to be removed and the council is keen to create two memorials from the wood; one for the north of the parish area and one for the south.

Ideally, the memorial will centre around remembrance as there is no remembrance site in the parish, however the council wants local residents to suggest concept ideas, which will then be taken into consideration and shortlisted before residents are given the opportunity to vote on their favourites.

Councillor Andrew Holt, who is leading the project, said: “We don’t want to be taking trees down for the sake of it, but this had to come down so I had a lightbulb moment to use the wood so the tree is still there in essence.

“We originally thought about carving benches out of it, but then we thought about something for remembrance as we don’t have anything like that in the parish.

“We also wanted to get the local community involved in using the tree and doing something with it.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be just about war remembrance as we want it to represent other people too.

“Once we have ideas and have decided on a place, we hope it can be somewhere people can sit and remember.

“We also have to take into account the costs and do something that won’t cost silly amounts of money. We may also look into whether we can get a grant to help the limited budget.”

The council hopes community groups and individuals will take part in the project and come up with some ideas.

Submissions of ideas must be made by July 30 and can be emailed to [email protected].

The group or person who comes up with the idea that is taken forward will be invited to be involved in the process of choosing a site and watching the piece be made.

The council hopes the feature will be in place before the Queen's platinum jubilee in 2022.

As a long term plan, Cllr Holt says the parish council is also looking to improve the car park in Kent Road, including better lighting, in a bid to encourage parents to park there to take their children to school at St Luke’s and Duston.

Find out more about the briefing on the Upton Parish Council website.