Here's how WNC and other authorities responded to 24 of the grottiest parts of Northampton town centre

Last week, the Chronicle and Echo took a walk around the town centre and documented some of the issues highlighted by veteran market trader Mick Andreoli.

Mick has been running a fruit and vegetable stall in the town for over 60 years and believes that instead of a £12 million refurbishment of Market Square and £5 million new paving in Abington Street and Fish Street, the town actually needs reduced parking charges, cleaner streets and less anti-social behaviour.

Mick said: “The town is filthy, no matter how many pavements you put down it doesn’t make any difference. You’ve got to encourage the people to come back into the town and the only way to do that is reduce the car parking charges and get rid of the riff raff; people are scared to come into town – this has been the issue for the last 30 years. Get rid of the druggies, the drunks, the beggars and we’ll have a town centre again.”

Conservative councillor Sam Rumens (Kingsthorpe south) posted on social media saying the Market Square works look ‘great’ but also highlighted areas of concerns in the town centre.

Councillor Rumens said: “I just had a little stroll around the perimeter of the Market Square and, I have to say, it is starting to take shape quite nicely.

"The trees, planting, benches, permanent stalls, cobbles, paving and everything else are quite pleasing. Add to that temporary stalls, live entertainment and other activity, it should be really good.

“However, I will counter that by saying the litter, general mess, detritus, some of the shop frontages and the state of some of the behaviour in town is massively concerning.

“There are great things happening, but as people rightly keep pointing out to me, we have to fix the ongoing issues in and around town if we want the regeneration to be a success. The centre has to become a place that people really want to visit again.”

Chronicle and Echo reported some of the fly-tipping issues to West Northants Council (WNC) via its app. Each report took around three to five minutes to complete due to the amount of questions asked in the app. Overall, it was not very user friendly, and when we returned to see if the rubbish had been cleared, only one of our four reports had been completed.

This newspaper is awaiting results of a Freedom of Information request to see how many reports have been made on the app in the past few years and the completion rate of incidents.

We asked WNC for its thoughts on the cleanliness of the town centre, whether there were any street cleaners working, and highlighted our experience with the app.

Councillor Rebecca Breese, cabinet member for environment, recycling and waste, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to people who take the time to report issues they see on our streets. The information we request helps us gauge what kind of response is needed to a notification and it sometimes also helps us enforce where someone is willing to act as a witness.

“Our contractors work tirelessly to keep on top of the task, though they can’t be everywhere at all times. Keeping West Northamptonshire clean and tidy is everyone’s responsibility and we continue to try and educate people that litter should go in bins, or home with them if they can’t find one, and that items they fly tip should go to our waste and recycling centres.

“There are a number of methods people can use to report issues, through the app or our website, or through their local councillor. As well as our contractors keeping a constant eye on things, we receive reports from the Northampton Town Centre BID hosts, our Community Development Officers and Neighbourhood Wardens, Park Rangers and so on.”

Also featured in our story were multiple smashed up shopfronts and abandoned shops. Responding to this issue, Northampton Town Centre BID said it can be difficult to contact some landlords to make sure their premises are well kept.

Mark Mullen, operations manager at Northampton BID, said: “We work with multiple partners to ensure everything possible is done to keep empty units as attractive as possible, including covering with branded graphics to make the area more appealing for visitors.

“We enjoy positive relationships with many landlords who take great pride in the appearance of their properties but it can be hard to contact the owners of certain premises, some of whom are based overseas or are in the hands of private equity funds.

“We would encourage all landlords to take pride in the appearance of their properties and play their part in ensuring our town centre is an attractive and enticing place to visit.”

This newspaper also highlighted the issue of street-drinking in the town centre, of which their were quite a few individuals and groups, based mainly at the top end of Abington Street.

Responding, a Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said: “We use a range of methods to tackle street drinking in Northampton town centre which include signposting people to alcohol support services all the way up to enforcement including the issuing of criminal protection warnings and community protection notices.

“If a person breaches their community protection notice repeatedly, we will arrest them and work with partner agencies in order to submit a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) application to the court.

“CBOs often prevent a person from entering a specific area and are a great tool to tackle street drinking, making the town centre a nicer place to live and work.”

This newspaper also highlighted the homelessness situation in the town centre after seeing at least 10 beggars or rough sleepers scattered around the town centre.

Providing an overview of the situation, Stan Robertson, who runs homeless charity Project 16:15, said: “What we are seeing is an increase of people in the morning, both in and outside of town. And those are individuals actually waking up either in doorways/parks etc.

“We have seen a recent rise in women and individuals released from prison and straight to the street.

“Being Northampton’s only fully voluntary street level rough sleeper charity, our resources are being stretched by the increase in demand.

“We are also receiving more calls from members of the public who have tried reporting concerns regarding rough sleepers from areas outside of town, to the more prominent and supported homeless charities, only to be told that its not their job to deal with it.

“There are more people out there across West Northants predominantly with various medical conditions and mental health trauma.”

A WNC spokeswoman directed this newspaper to its homelessness and rough sleeping strategy 2024-2027, which was approved by WNC’ cabinet in March 2024.

According to WNC’s website, the strategy focuses on four key themes: enhancing collaboration among partnerships, ensuring early and coordinated intervention and prevention, increasing access to suitable and sustainable housing, and making rough sleeping a rare and brief occurrence.

A WNC spokeswoman said: “This is a three-year strategy, with a dynamic 12-month delivery plan, to be monitored and reviewed annually, ensuring its actions are flexible and resilient.”

Another issue mentioned was the excessive amount of commercial waste bins dotted around busy parts of town, mainly in Dychurch Lane.

Responding, WNC says the town centre could soon have a “more pleasant environment” after a new policy that deals with unsightly bin storage was recently approved.

Councillor David Smith, cabinet member for community safety, engagement and regulatory services, said: “This new policy reflects our commitment to creating a cleaner and more welcoming environment for those living and working in, or visiting, Northampton town centre.

“There is a huge amount of work going on to improve the centre of town, with a new-look Market Square, new street scenes and lots of high quality residential properties.

“It’s incredibly important that we deal with some of the inappropriate bin storage that goes on in the area, thereby improving the environment for everyone.”

Councillor Sam Rumens made a call to action by asking the residents of Northampton to also play their part in keeping the streets clean.

He said: “I will finish with another plea: please DO NOT LITTER and PICK IT UP IF YOU SEE IT.”

Click here to report issues for WNC to look into.