Former leader speaks about the legacy of Northamptonshire County Council

The former leader of the now dissolved Northamptonshire County Council says he hopes the authority’s legacy will be seen as “a good job”.

The creation of the new unitary authorities formed today is, unavoidably, the result of the former county council collapsing into bankruptcy in 2018.

Today, the councillor who was tasked with leading it after the insolvency scandal Matt Golby said he was now only thinking of the future.

He said: “I hope that people will recognise that in the last three years we worked really hard to deliver a positive legacy.

“We ended up balancing out budgets and contributed a significant amount of resources to the new unitaries, and that was down to an awful lot of hard work by a lot of people. I do believe we delivered on that commitment.”

The county council ended its term in February 2021 with a £16.6m underspend, after having a £35m deficit three years ago.

Today, West Northamptonshire’s electorate voted to entrust the Conservatives with handling the new unitary as well.

One of the last results that pushed the Conservatives over the line to secure control of the West Northamptonshire Unitary Council was that of Duston West & St Crispins, one of which was claimed by Councillor Golby.

He said: “Of course we’ve learned some lessons along the way and there’s a lot of valuable experience in there. I think the future is good and positive.

“My head for a long time now has been immersed in the future.”