07 February 2023

The new name for the service will be West Northants SEND IAS Service.

This change is happening following the Local Authority split into two Unitary Councils in April 2021. Therefore, the West Northants SEND IAS Service will cover Northampton, Daventry and South Northants.

The change will happen on 1 April 2023.

It is a duty of each Local Authority to provide an arm’s length service to children, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families, and this will continue.

You can still expect a supportive, child focused service from us and we will continue to work at arm’s length of the Council. West Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to provide free, confidential, impartial advice, guidance and support. Staff will continue to be independently trained and have an understanding of the local offer, schools and local resources.

Our branding will be changing after consultation with the Northamptonshire Parent Forum Group (NPFG) and with the IASS Young People’s Advisory Council. The change in branding will support you to know you are contacting the correct team for your locality.

West Northants SEND IAS Service will continue to work in co-production with children and their families.

West Northants SEND IAS Service will still provide advice and support – you can continue to contact them on 01604 364772 until we update you further.

You can still reach us online on at IASS Northants or email us on [email protected] or [email protected]

If you have any suggestions about how we can improve WNIAS further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

07 February 2023

Seven people have been ordered by Magistrates to pay a combined total of £7,252 in the latest round of fly-tipping prosecutions by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

At Wellingborough Magistrates court on Tuesday, 3 January:

• 28-year-old Liam Brown-Donnovan of Harding Terrace, Semilong, Northampton was fined £200, and order to pay the Council’s £1,000 cost and a £80 victim surcharge after his refuse sacks were found out on the street by WNC Neighbourhood Wardens two days before the collection for that area. Brown-Donnovan ignored the offer to settle the issue via £150 fixed penalty notice (FPN) and was found guilty by magistrates in his absence.
• 28-year-old Amy Leigh Knibbs of Scott Court, Glebe Farm, Milton Keynes was fined £100, order to pay £1,000 cost and a £40 Victim Surcharge. In her absence Magistrates found her guilty of fly-tipping waste found by WNC’s Neighbourhood Wardens on a grassed area in Grange Road, Northampton. She too ignored the offer of a £150 FPN.
• 33-year-old Viktorija Kogele of St Michaels Road, Northampton was fined £350, and ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £140 victim surcharge. In his absence Magistrates found him guilty of dumping a quantity of refuse sacks, cardboard and other miscellaneous items found by Wardens on a grass bank at the exit of St Michaels Road Carpark.

At Wellingborough Magistrates Court on Friday, 13 January:

• 51-year-old Paul Steele of Melbourne Walk, Northampton was fined £480 and ordered to pay £500 costs. The prosecution came after witnesses provided Neighbourhood Wardens with video footage of Steele dumping a barbecue and other items on a grass bank near his home. After ignoring a £400 FPN his case was presented to court on Tuesday, 3 January but he failed to appear. A warrant was issued, and he was subsequently arrested and remanded in custody until he plead guilty to fly-tipping on 13 January. His fine was revoked due to the time he had spent in custody but was ordered to pay the council’s costs.

At Wellingborough Magistrates court on Tuesday 17 January:

• 26-year-old Amy Ann Ablett, of Alexander Court, Lumbertubs, Northampton was fined £90 and ordered to pay £100 costs and a £36 victim surcharge. Neighbourhood Wardens issued her with a £400 FPN after they found two black refuse sacks which belonged to her dumped in Penistone Road, Lumbertubs. After requesting to pay the FPN via instalments, she made no further contact with the council. She did not appear at Magistrates on 17 January but admitted her guilt via a letter to the court.
• 42-year-old Marian Catilin Patilea of Potters Green Road, Coventry was fined £220, and ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £88 victim surcharge. He was sent a £150 FPN which he ignored after Wardens found two refuse sacks on a grass verge in Lower Farm Road, Moulton Park, Northampton. Magistrates also found him guilty in his absence.
• 43-year-old Mihaela Marin of Salisbury Street, Semilong, Northampton was fined £220 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £88 victim surcharge. He too ignored a £150 FPN and was found guilty by Magistrates in his absence.

“It gives us no joy when prosecuting people for fly-tipping, we’d much rather spend resources elsewhere, but we must do our part as a lead member of this community.

"All we want is everyone to do their part, and on behalf of the vast majority who want safe and clean streets, we won’t hesitate when taking action against that small minority who ignore their responsibilities."

Cllr David Smith, WNC’s Cabinet Member for community safety and engagement and regulatory services.

Last year WNC launched its Fly-tipping Charter setting out how the council will work to tackle environmental crime.

It outlines the Council’s commitment to working with local communities to reduce fly-tipping, backed by a robust enforcement policy to discourage and prosecute offenders.

The Charter includes a detailed plan of action including targeted patrols, the use of CCTV, and working with residents, businesses, and town and parish councils to avoid fly-tipping and gather intelligence to prosecute.

It also sets out how the Council will communicate with businesses, landlords and householders to ensure they are clear on their responsibilities towards managing their waste responsibly.

The new Fly-Tipping Charter complements the existing Litter Charter, which was launched last summer to ensure the Council takes a coordinated approach to tackling litter across West Northants.

07 February 2023

Two devastating earthquakes struck south-eastern Turkey near the border with Syria on Monday 6 February 2023.

Thousands of people are dead and many are injured. Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors in cities and towns across the area.

We are deeply concerned for all those affected in Turkey and Syria and for all those in our communities with loved ones in the region.

We recognise many will want to help and several Disaster Emergency Committee charities have launched appeals and are supporting the local response.

If you would like to help, we encourage you to donate to one of the DEC charities’ appeals below:

03 February 2023

Our Council has today set out budget proposals for 2023/24 that will address a significant funding gap whilst still protecting essential services.

In common with local authorities across the country, the Council is facing severe financial pressures due to a range of factors including the current economic recession, high inflation rates driving up running costs and an unprecedented rise in demand for services, particularly around supporting children in care and vulnerable adults.

Despite these pressures, the authority has worked hard to balance the books and is proposing to deliver a balanced revenue budget for 2023/24 of £382.4m (excluding grant funded schools spending of £443.7m).

The budget is to be presented to Cabinet at its meeting on February 13 and follows a six-week public consultation which gave residents, businesses, partners and other stakeholders the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the proposals. It has also been subject to continuous review and scrutiny, including consideration by the cross party group of members of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Changes following this feedback continue to be shaped and costed further and these proposals will be presented to Cabinet.

The Council has also removed millions of pounds from its operating costs, through rigorous spending restrictions and efficiency savings including those resulting from merging the four former councils together.

The proposals seek to raise the average Council Tax by 4.99%, significantly below current inflation rates and in line with the Government’s allowance, crucially generating extra funding of around £12m towards bridging the £60m shortfall – with 2% of the increase going towards funding adult social care. This represents an average increase on a Band D property of £80.50 a year, the equivalent of £1.55 a week.

This year’s proposals will also see households in the former Daventry, Northampton and South Northants areas paying the same Council Tax charges for the first time for the Council’s services, following a three-year plan to harmonise them from the predecessor councils.

The budget follows a strong commitment to making services as efficient as possible and reviewing income streams in order to maintain and protect services, with £32.3m of savings proposals put forward.

These will be found primarily through productivity gains and making savings in operating costs. This includes restructuring departments and introducing new, better ways of working to make back office savings without impacting on how services are delivered to residents.

There are also plans to increase discretionary fees and charges in areas where residents can choose if they wish to use the service, including aligning fees with national averages and in some cases raising charges which have not been reviewed for several years, to ensure they fairly reflect today’s operating costs.

In the face of severe financial pressures, rising costs and the continuing increase in demand for services, such as those supporting vulnerable adults and children, putting this budget together has been extremely challenging and we’ve faced some really tough choices.

We’ve looked at every single penny we spend and every single penny the council receives and we know our residents are facing challenging times. But it’s vital we balance the books to ensure we can continue to provide critical frontline services. We’ve therefore focused hard on how we can save more money and raise extra income to address inflationary pressures and cover the increasing costs of high service demand.

With Council Tax being a significant source of income and having seen inflation at around 10%, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to propose a 4.99% increase for next year. Households will see an average rise in their bill equivalent to £1.55 a week, but in doing so we will manage to protect and deliver our many services.

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council

Our Cabinet will consider the 2023/24 budget proposals at their meeting on Monday, 13 February.

View the agenda and reports for the meeting here

03 February 2023

Next year’s budget will see our Council invest an additional £30m in capital funding on a range of projects, some of which will help reduce costs and generate income to support services in future years.

Other schemes set to move forward in the year ahead will help tackle speeding in rural areas, create new cycleways and footpaths for healthier travel, and improve local roads.

Our Council is setting aside a total of £101m in the capital programme for 2023/24 – an increase of £30m compared to previous plans for the year. The additional expenditure is earmarked to improve local infrastructure and assets such as land, buildings, and equipment. It is separate to the revenue budget the Council spends on the day-to-day running of services, which includes funding from Council Tax.

We’re always looking for innovative and efficient ways to support and deliver services and using capital budgets to not only improve our local communities but help us make ongoing savings or generate new income is something we’re particularly focusing on.

For example, In 2023 we’re planning to invest an additional £1m towards our LED street lighting initiative which will really help to reduce our energy bills year on year whilst keeping streets safely lit. We’ve also committed to building new commercial units for lease on Daventry’s Heartlands Industrial Estate which will enable local business to grow, create jobs and provide new regular income to the public purse.

Some of what we’re planning to spend through the capital budget is aimed at improving people’s lives further, such as working with parish councils on traffic calming schemes in some of our villages. And we’re planning to make improvements to foster carers’ homes to ensure they can continue supporting us, thereby avoiding more costly care through private providers.

Creating a more sustainable West Northants is a key priority for us and we will continue to use our capital programme to pursue opportunities for reducing our carbon emissions. For example, alongside our plans to invest in LED lighting we will also be progressing with plans to decarbonise our leisure centres. As big energy users, this will reduce both their energy costs and emissions enormously.

Cllr Jonathan Nunn, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council

New capital investment projects set to progress in the coming year include:

• Increased spend on highways maintenance and improvement
• Active travel enhancements like cycleways and footpaths
• Switch to LED street lighting
• The development of a new commercial property at Heartlands, Daventry
• Leisure centre decarbonisation scheme
• Rural vehicle speed reduction
• Replacement of play equipment and safety surfaces in parks.

Work will also continue on delivering plans to drive economic growth in West Northants with further progress expected on delivering multi-million-pound plans to revitalise the centre of Northampton through the Government’s Towns Fund, starting with the Market Square transformation.

In addition to the capital programme, during the next financial year the Council will also be earmarking government public health funding to progress a range of schemes aimed at improving residents’ wellbeing, reducing health inequalities and continuing to support communities through the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Our Cabinet will consider the full range of General Fund Capital proposals at their meeting on Monday, 13 February.