‘Dismay’ from residents over ‘railroaded’ agreement for new Kingsthorpe Parish Council

Controversial plans to form a new parish council for Kingsthorpe were voted through by Conservative councillors last night.
Kingsthorpe residents turned up at The Guildhall to say they hadn't been properly consulted about the new parish councilKingsthorpe residents turned up at The Guildhall to say they hadn't been properly consulted about the new parish council
Kingsthorpe residents turned up at The Guildhall to say they hadn't been properly consulted about the new parish council

The new Kingsthorpe Parish Council is set to be launched in May following a vote on the issue at Northampton Borough Council last night (February 24).

The parish council would cover the wards of Sunnyside, Spring Park, Obelisk, Kingsthorpe ward and St David’s.

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But members of the public and opposition councillors argued that Kingsthorpe ward and St David’s should not have been included in the proposals, and should have been reduced from five wards to three wards.

Residents also slammed the consultation, saying many in the area had not received letters.

Richard Dimbleby, a Kingsthorpe resident, urged councillors to defer the issue. He said: “We are here again to stress the strength of feeling. The consultation was inadequate. Less than five per cent responded, that’s hardly a mandate for change.”

Deputy leader Councillor Phil Larratt defended the consultation, saying: “All issues that came to us were rectified. I have every faith in the consultation. We appear to be creating Northampton’s own Brexit. Some people didn’t like the result and are trying to change it.”

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Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Sally Beardsworth, who represents the Kingsthorpe ward, responded: “You are forcing them to go down the road they don’t want to go down. The council seems hellbent on trying to push this through. Just wait for a while.”

A statement from the Whitehills and Spring Park Residents’ Association, the group behind the original proposals, was passed onto all councillors. It stated: “We are dismayed that at this late stage that councillors have failed to help this exciting opportunity to flourish in a positive manner.

“We have made it clear that our preference would be for a smaller parish council consisting of three wards (Spring Park, Obelisk, Sunnyside). This would be with the hope that later the two remaining wards, having witnessed what we believe would be a great success, would indicate that they would wish to join to make a five ward council.”

Labour councillor Jane Birch added: “We should not be voting to set them up to fail. Nobody wants this and it should not be imposed on residents when there’s so much fundamentally wrong with it.”

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The new Kingsthorpe Parish Council will feature 15 councillors and cover a population area of 17,000. Opposition councillors argued it was too big and was ‘doomed to fail’.

A vote on agreeing the legal mechanism to form the new council was included alongside votes to set up a new Northampton Town Council and a new Far Cotton & Delapre Community Council. Proposals for those two councils had not proved controversial.

Councillor Birch tabled an amendment calling for the votes on the new councils to be voted on separately rather than in one block, arguing they wanted to vote through the other two. She also called for the new Kingsthorpe parish council to start with three wards and a review held in 18 months time to see if Kingsthorpe ward and St David’s wanted to join the new parish council.

That amendment was voted down, meaning councillors would have to vote on whether to approve, abstain or reject on the proposals for all three councillors.

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Labour councillor Gareth Eales said: “The whole point of the unitary authority was trying to simplify the structure. We’re going from a two-tier to a four-tier with town, borough, parish and shadow councillors this year. It’s an absolute farce. I’m struggling to understand it and I’m in this bubble.”

Councillor Eales tabled a verbal amendment to defer the elections for the three new councils until 2021, as he felt they were being ‘rushed through’.

The borough council’s solicitor Francis Fernandes said that the structural change order for the new unitaries stated that no ordinary elections could be held in 2021, and that deferring the elections may not be legal.

In the end the legal concerns didn’t matter, as the amendment was also voted down. Council leader Jonathan Nunn said: “If you want to create a good council you give people time. The shadow councillors will help shape the unitary.”

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The proposals to form all three councils were eventually passed by Conservative councillors during the meeting, which also set the 2020/21 budget – the borough’s last ever one before being abolished next year to be replaced by a new unitary authority called West Northamptonshire Council. The new unitary will also provide services for Daventry and the south of the county.

The new Northampton Town Council is set to use the Guildhall chamber for its meetings, offering a use for the historic building beyond the soon-to-be obsolete borough council.