Council leader defends ending Northampton Pride officer support over £10,000 taxpayer cost
The leader of West Northamptonshire Council says supporting Northampton Pride cost taxpayers nearly £10,000 as he further justified withdrawing officer support.
In a new statement issued by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), leader Councillor Mark Arnull set out the council’s “commitment to supporting all community-led events and activities in the same, fair and consistent way”.
The statement came after the Chronicle & Echo reported on the announcement in the council meeting on Monday July 13 where Councillor Arnull criticised
the event, which took place at the weekend, claiming it was politicised and “hateful things” were shown on garments of participants.
WNC says the decision brings Pride “in line with all other community-led events run self-sufficiently without extra support from WNC”.
A spokesperson said: “The council, which continues to face financial challenges, has provided officer time and resource to Northampton Pride on an annual basis, totalling around 64 working days, including administrative duties, programme planning and booking acts, traffic management and health and safety assessments, business and public liaison and media and marketing support. In financial terms, the officer time and resources are equivalent to £9,942 of public funding.”
Councillor Arnull added: “Our Council remains committed to supporting the wide range of community-led events and activities across West Northamptonshire and we need to be fair and consistent in how we give that support to groups and organisations.
“Most community-led events, such as Diwali and Daventry Pride, are run self-sufficiently by organisers through effective use of grants or sponsorship. However historically, Northampton Pride has continued to receive significant officer time and resource from the Council, equivalent to nearly £10,000 in taxpayers' money.
“In an extremely challenging financial climate, where delivering the same level of service to all our residents for less resource continues to be a real challenge, our decision to withdraw officer resource ensures we are acting fairly in the interest of all our residents.”
Councillor Charlie Hastie, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for housing and communities, added: “We invite all organisations to apply for funding through our grants programme, which assesses applications in a fair, open and transparent manner, and we would encourage Northampton Pride Committee to do the same.
“This year, we have worked closely with the organisers to help make the event more financially sustainable and less reliant on any single partner, including West Northamptonshire Council. As part of this support, we have helped connect them with potential sponsors and business contacts.
“We remain committed to supporting community-led events across West Northamptonshire and wish Northampton Pride every success with its future events.”
The spokesperson added: “WNC continues to give its backing to a busy and varied local community-led events calendar throughout the year, with local groups and organisations holding a range of activities and commemorations. The council also continues to show its support to key events in the military calendar including Armed Forces Week, Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday and Merchant Navy Day.”