TIME NBC CAME CLEAN ON L&G DEAL

Call me old fashioned but to me when a developer wants to develop your land then they must first bear the cost of purchase AND then the costs of developing the same.

 

However it seems that Northampton Borough Council in pursuit of the ever elusive Grovesnor Centre Extension scheme has rewritten all the usual rules of commerce!

 

A contract we know was signed between the Council and the owners of the existing Grovesnor Centre, Legal and General in 2004, I was on the council at the time and was party to the detail of that contract.

 

Of the four political groups Lib Dem, Tory, Labour and Independent my own group the Independents were the only group not willing to support the deal, we felt that the land in question was being sold by NBC to Legal and General far too cheaply, and we thought the conditions resting on the shoulders of the Council Tax Payer to uphold its end of the contract to be far too high, that was our prerogative and our duty as elected members, the rest of council disagreed and the contract was signed.

 

Commercial sensitivity to this day excludes me revealing either the price paid to NBC  from L&G or the extent of the land purchased or even the fine detail of the contract. But the Councils actions and Legal and Generals inaction since speak with much far more authority than any whistleblower could ever achieve.

 

First of all The Council had to buy Stagecoach out of its lease on the Greyfriars bus station, this was done to the tune of £5m of Council Tax payers money being handed over to the Bus Company, an irony in itself considering that when Stagecoach first arrived at Greyfriars they were squatters having sold their own bus station facility on the Bedford Road for Housing and thus becoming homeless overnight!

 

But the £5m was pledged with £2m paid up front. Next to made public was the contractual obligation on the Council to vacate the Old Bus Station and thus build an inadequate replacement on the Old Fish Market site, another tenant (the Northampton Arts Collective) were paid off and another £8m committed to building what will be little more than a glorified oversized glass bus shelter in the middle of a predicted traffic hell. Meanwhile we heard that the Mayorhold Car Park was to have a £2m refit, supposedly as part of the deal (but we can't tell you why!) and in the last few days the Council have now announced they will spend another £4m demolishing the Old Bus station to allow for any  future development.

 

Those with good mental arithmetic skills will now be up to speed on the total figure of £19m of council tax payers money that has already been spent or committed on oiling the cogs of the Grovesnor Centre Extension contract.

 

And in all that time just what have Legal and General Done? and what have they spent? We have all seen the pretty pictures of proposed schemes press released to the local papers, we have even heard of their extended plans to build houses, hotels and Offices on the still to be disclosed site, and we shook our heads in dismay when they suggested they may have to "scale back" their plans on the size of the extension, but where are the planning applications? where is the financial commitment? Multi Million pound deals like this are not done without careful consideration of timed and phased clauses being imposed on both parties, each party is well aware of what should have been done by whom by when. So why does it seem to many of us that the spend and action is all one way.

 

I am fortunate in one sense because I have read the contract, I didn't like it, I was out voted by the Lib Dem, Tory and Labour Leaders who respectively went off to their group members and fellow Cllrs at the time and told them how wonderful the Emperors new clothes would be. I invited my two fellow Independents to view the document for themselves and lo and behold they both agreed with me that the Emperor was indeed naked and had even sold off all the Councils Silver and mortgaged our futures in order to afford the tailors bill!

 

This week The Lib Dem opposition on the Council questioned the spend of the £4m on demolishing the Bus Station, this late arrival at the table of doubt is far too little, far too late, they as a political group in power together with officers of the council negotiated the very same deal and then signed it. The Tory's now in the hot seat at the Guildhall will not want any of the fine details disclosed, they simply want to bathe in any glory they can furnish from ANY future build. and the Labour Party who were equally complicit in agreeing the deal it seems are just incapable of any opposition whatsoever!

 

So this week in my blog I throw down a challenge to the whole Council, in the absence of any submitted Planning Application or seen progress on behalf of Legal and General and in light of the heavy public expenditure on the development scheme to date from the public purse, then call the whole deal into Public Scrutiny using the Councils powers to give the public of our town the right to judge their actions. If part of the hearing has to be in private with proper explanation and authority then so be it, but it is high time that we all knew the truth, high time the people paying the bills can pass comment on the value they are getting for their money and high time we all were witness to the price Legal and general have paid the Council for the privilege of using this land in the future once the tax payer has dealt with all of the development obstacles.

 

A measured response would show at least a willingness for them to defend their actions, continued silence will only condemn them all further.

SUMMER SIZZLERS

The act of doing, stops you doing all the other things you want to be doing instead of the things you need to be doing, so I end up carrying around all these blog ideas in my head and have no time to put them to paper. So excuse me if I unload them all here in shorthand:


INDIAN PICKLE

So Local Borough Council Leader Cllr David Mackintosh has been freeloading it in India courtesy of the Council Tax payer accompanying Local Gov Minister Eric Pickles on a Trade delegation where apparently he also carried the torch for SEMLEP or NEP?

He's behind you! stand up straight David and try not to look swivel eyed

Well I will resist the temptation of rubbishing all such trips as if well planned and focused then they can reap rewards. I remember visiting China with the SESAME network whilst in Parliament to secure a £1m+ telecommunications trade deal for Northamptonshire in the late 1990's albeit I still paid my own air fares and expenses.

But the timing of the trip during what are ever more challenging economic circumstances does warrant some questioning after all who was it who made the following insightful pronouncement back in 2003

"At a time when pensioners are scrimping and saving to pay their council tax it is outrageous that councillors are going on foreign freebies. They should show some solidarity with taxpayers and pay towards these trips."


So did the Mack pay his way? or was it an Indian Pickle take away? answers on a poppadom please....



BLOOD ON HIS HANDS

Foreign Secretary William Hague was quick to deflect any blame for the recent murderous atrocity which took place on the streets of Woolwich away from Britain's Foreign Policy and of course there will always be some truth to the suggestion that evil men are evil men whatever their self acclaimed cause.

But Britain's continued military involvement in Iraq, and in Aghanistan and our complete denial of Israeli crimes in Palestine do support the Al Quida recruiters and make it far easier for those who want to preach hate to do so.

Hague in my mind has always been a fool, ever since his schoolboy address to Tory Party Conference during Thatcher's early years, but even I was shocked by this mans recent ridiculous decision with David Camerons blessing to support the arming of Jihadists and Al Quida elements within the Syrian rebel forces.

The photograph of  Michael Adebelajo standing in a London Street holding a machete with blood stained hands was sickening to look at, equally though photographs published on the internet of a jihadi rebel in Syria chopping up and indeed eating a Syrian army soldier it seemed were not gruesome enough to dissuade Hague from pushing ahead with his policy to send arms to such warped individuals 

And why we are so intent in shepherding in to Syria a regime ruled by Islamic extremists and Al Quida factions it is beyond me? and it seems has also bought condemnation from even from many of his own Tory MP's! 

The UK government has attempted in recent days to differentiate between “extremist” rebels in Syria linked to the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al Nusra and the so-called “moderate” Free Syrian Army militants. The kind of “moderate” freedom fighters who as pointed out above like to cut out the hearts of their slain enemy and devour them live on camera whilst proclaiming verbally to do so in Allahs name!  

Hagues baffoon like actions and Britain's continued meddling in the affairs of the Middle East with little thought to the fallout will continue to make things substantially worse both at home and abroad

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER

Regular readers of my blog will have laughed along with me at the ever more Labour Friendly optimistic comments from a regular reader who hides under the pseudonym "Castle Ward Mafia"

One of my favourite comments from him/her from recent posts was the quote:

"From the people I know in the party locally things are going well"

This of course was just before Cllr Ifty Choudary crossed the floor to the Tory's and Cllr Beverley Mennell left to join UKIP

Even I am surprised at how long Labours woes have continued to pile up since I left the Party 6 years ago and so I thought I would make it clear for all, that the latest troubles have nothing to do with me!

I in fact now get fed up of people saying "since you left" or  proclaim "you should come back"

The reason I left 6 years ago was that the party was corrupt right to it's regional Core, a local party full of fixers and an unhealthy majority of wannabees who will do and say anything to get either themselves elected into office and power or bitch and complain to the regional Office about other Party members who they see as their rivals.

Meanwhile Ed Milliband statement yesterday on Benefit caps and any Labour Government sticking to current Government spending rules effectively pronounced a new three party coalition at Westminster, why wait for an election? why not now all merge into one big capitalist friendly party of national government in the interests of the uber rich?

Political Compass: based on 2010 manifesto's

I said recently how happy I am now in the Green Party, its still true, I have comrades again, I go to meetings where we discuss how we can all work collectively to achieve the ambitions we jointly hold. We laugh, we debate issues in a respectful and educational manner, and we are a party where even those at the very top have not forgotten the importance of those in local party groups.

I don't know where the Local Labour Party is going next, (probably not very far until Sally Keeble leaves the scene) but I just want to make it clear that frankly my dears I don't give a damn.

Last week the Green Party's Leader Natalie Bennett phoned me at home and we had a helpful discussion over local party matters, the elections, what support the national party can give us in here in Northampton and we discussed other matters of a personal nature more of which I will announce to you as soon as I am able. But for now for me and my new found green friends:

"Things can only get better"

DEMOCRACY RECYCLED

Northampton Borough Council's fall from grace, its place in Local Governance as a friend to Northampton has been on the wain for some time, and democracy within the organisation has been eroded year on year since the turn of the century.

But even I was surprised this week to see how low its value in local democracy has fallen.

I attended Spring Boroughs Residents Association last Tuesday to say goodbye, I am no longer their elected County Cllr and wanted to leave the stage clear for my successor, no moans, no regrets, the electorate (or at least 19% of them) had spoken. At Borough and County level the area now has Labour Cllrs to speak up for them. Or at least they would do if the Cllrs continued to have a role to play!

Joe Joyce the excellent Residents Association Chair updated us on the story of the two  "Vanishing
Recycling Nodes" on the estate which seemed to disappear overnight leaving local residents with nowhere to drop off their recycled materials.

Over 80% of local residents do not have cars and the recycling nodes were very popular, so popular that when I was the Borough Cllr I had to lobby the Council to secure a twice weekly collection as the nodes were constantly overflowing.

PEOPLE WERE RECYCLING THEIR WASTE!

THE NUMBER OF REFUSE SACKS COLLECTED PLUMMETED.

THE COST OF LANDFILL TAX TO COUNCIL WAS REDUCED.

So who took them away? and why? Well Joe got no answers from his three Labour Borough Cllrs on the estate, they knew even less, Cllr Winston Strachan it seemed at least asked the question but got no answer! only a vague promise that someone from Enterprise rather than the Council would phone him and they didn't

NBC recycling your vote for you

But Joe persevered, and come up trumps, by mistake it was leaked to him in an email that the decision to remove and not replace them had been taken by the "Spring Boroughs Multi Agency Group"

Now excuse me for being a tad Anglo Saxon with my language, but who the f*ck are the 'Spring Borough's Multi Agency Group" when they are at home?

It seems that this group of self selected unelected officers from a number of Authorities including the Borough Council, the County Council and the Police are now taking all decisions on local services themselves, without troubling the elected, nor consulting with the electorate.

So why bother with elections at all now? Democracy is dead, OFFICIAL rubber stamped by the Local Multi Agency Group, no doubt coming to a street near you too soon if not already in situ.

You may wish to write to your local Councillor, but then again why bother? they have no power? they take no decisions? They are not even told what is going on on their patch, and when they ask questions they are ignored!

Likewise in Ethel Street we have a children's play area which has now been locked for over 6 months, where the Councillors it seems have no say or input as to why it was closed and when it will reopen?
Perhaps I should contact my local Multi Agency Group for some answers? If only I knew who they were

Meanwhile all Cllrs Borough and County can now officially stand down from duty 80% of your electorate couldn't be bothered to vote, less than 10% voted for you and the Council you were elected to doesn't need you any more, other than as window dressing and as a scapegoat and defensive wall between the public and those who are really making the decisions!

OLD IT..... FLASH, BANG, WALLOP WHAT A PICTURE

The Mack, as in Local Tory Council leader Cllr David Mackintosh has been looking a bit too pasty of late, he needs some sun on his cheeks and he should remember the old adage of too much work too little play making mack a sad lad  etc etc,

But undeterred by his inability to remove himself from his plush Guildhall Office and the pressures of office it seems that the local Chronicle and Echo has come up with a cunning plan and a whole new props department to ensure that their readers on line and in print can still get their fair quota of Tory friendly Mack based photoshoots.

TIE OFF, WEMBLEY TICKETS ON THE DESK - SMILE

At a time when without our printed nightly paper, local politicians are struggling to get their mugshots printed anywhere some have had to go to some extraordinary lengths to encourage the paper to send out a snapper. I personally haven't had my picture in the paper since the great Johnston Press Share price crash of 2009 and people still think I am a relatively young man!

                     

                                         BLACK TIE ONLY, WHITE LILLY'S, FRAMED IRON LADY,  DON"T SMILE!

TIE OFF AGAIN, FINGER ON THE BUTTON, SIR HUMPHREY LOOKING ON

But no such photo shortage problem for the Mack, in true Mr Benn (do you remember the children's series) style he, and it seems his whole office are suitable dressed and redressed for every occasion, tie on (business like)  tie off (man of the people) suitable desk based prop everyones a winner.

TIE ON AGAIN, LOOK PENSIVE, MUST CLEAN THOSE BLINDS

So tied up in Council business is the Mack that whole Holiday seasons just come and go and if the decor didn't change in the office no one would know any different!

“If I could work my will, said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

A quick step over to the fireplace and no one will guess its the same office

But then it seemed as if the cat might finally be out of the bag and Daves fear of open spaces, meeting the public and sunshine called for even more props to fool an ever gullible public

TIE OFF, AND WHATEVER YOU DO DON"T MAKE YOURSELF LOOK STUPID BY WRITING ON THAT IPAD

Believe it or not there are many more mackpics out there, never before in the history of Council Leaders have so many photos of one leader been taken in one office with so many different props.

Which is all such a shame as the Mack looked far happier in long gone days when he wasn't such a prisoner of the Guildhall and had the local paper lusting over him for ever more snapshots of pine veneer and vertical blinds and his cheeky grin

SO ESCAPE DAVID ESCAPE, ITS NOT TOO LATE, A WHOLE NEW CHAPTER CAN BEGIN

The day lays bright, with cloud laden sky, I sit and think, as time passes by. Where art though now, dark desk of destiny, no ties to tie me down and tell me why to laugh or grin or muse and cry

BEDROOM TAX: THE FIGHTBACK BEGINS

Last Saturdays Bedroom Tax  protest outside Northampton Town Hall was very welcome as a way of beginning to coordinate a joint campaign to force this wicked government to scrap its latest attack on Social Tenants (waged or unwaged) who will now see their Housing Benefit cut by 14% or 25% for simply being deemed as under occupying their homes.

There will of course  be many ways and means identified in coming weeks as to how to challenge this discriminatory CUT to what is in the vast majority of cases earned benefit, but I couldn't help but think that too many people went away from the protest or where not there but sitting at home still in real fear of building up spiralling arrears that they could not pay and also living under the shadow of possible eviction from their home.

So for their sakes we all need to act NOW not just by protesting but by buying time, and to clog up the system and to begin the fightback.

People who know me appreciate that I am a dedicated advocate of direct action when the circumstances warrant it and this is such a circumstance. I will have no qualms in joining others to prevent evictions forced on tenants through arrears built up by bedroom tax where needed, but we also need to fight over zealous bureaucracy with our own version of political red tape.

To be clear:

The Conservatives on Northampton Borough Council have made it very clear that they will implement this iniquitous tax on behalf of the Government.

The Labour Party on Northampton Borough Council have to date failed to use the Council chamber to force a motion condemning the tax and on non eviction for Council House tenants affected.

The Liberal Party on Northampton Borough Council whilst guilty by association with their Tory masters at Westminster for its introduction are now simply sitting on the fence waiting to see which way the wind blows and trying to work out if any action by them will win votes.

But like my Green Party colleagues in Brighton who became the first Council to declare a policy of non eviction for bedroom tax arrears, I believe it is NOW time for direct action.

I would therefore ask all of you who care enough about keeping people in their homes and have fight in your belly to take on this Council and the Government by forwarding the content of this blog on to those affected and those who can help them. Cut and paste or copy the following model letter to every tenant of Northampton Borough Council and or any Housing Associations who they know to be affected by the bedroom tax for them all  to fill out and then send into the council without delay.

ITS TIME FOR DIRECT ACTION:

ITS TIME TO SHOW THEM THAT ALL OF THEIR ACTIONS HAVE POTENTIAL REACTIONS:

ITS TIME WE STARTED FIGHTING BACK:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I received your decision letter dated (INSERT DATE) and reference (INSERT REFERENCE NUMBER) that imposed an under occupation charge or bedroom tax of 14% 24% (DELETE AS APPROPRIATE) on my existing award of Housing Benefit

I am considering challenging this with a view to considering a formal appeal. However to enable me to understand fully the Councils position I require further information as listed below to be sent to me within 7 days of this letter to ensure that I have enough time to formulate any appeal, and that I am in full knowledge of the facts of my case within the time allowed.

Or in the alternative I request that the deadline for any such formal appeal be moved to 21 days after I receive the requested information below:

1.     A written copy of the Council's policy and decision making procedures in relation to referring a socially housed claimant decision to the Rent Officer Service.

2.     A full explanation of how the council decided that (INSERT ADDRESS) was determined to be a (INSERT BEDROOM NUMBERS) bed property for the under occupation charge and this to include what involvement if any of my landlord (INSERT LANDLORD NAME) in the process.

3.    A copy of the decision calculation undertaken by the Council as to my individual circumstances and the basis on which this was calculated  (please include a written evidenced declaration of what you believe my personal circumstances to be in order for you to determine that my property is under occupied)

Please state by way of covering letter with the requested information any changed deadline from above with regard to any formal appeal.

Yours Sincerely

(INSERT SIGNATURE)

(INSERT NAME AND ADDRESS)

 LETS GET TO IT:

VOTE NO TO PARISH COUNCIL IN ST JAMES

Whilst low turnout at the Police Commissioner Elections threatens to disappoint even the most optimistic commentators, the people of St James also have there Parish Poll to attend.

Of the two I have no doubt that the importance of the Parish Poll in which the Tories are attempting to offload responsibility and  service costs down to the local populace as an additional tax is the more important.

For some strange electoral jobsworth  reason, NBC are refusing to allow the polls for the PCC and the Parish Poll in St James to be held in the same building! even though different rooms could be made available.

It makes you wonder if they actually want any one to vote!

Anyhow my advice to the people of St James is outlined in the leaflet below which was delivered over the weekend.

If you know anyone is Jimmies End I would appreciate it if you shared this post via the net or even printed off a copy and gave it to them before Thursday.

Many Thanks


Tony

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW FOR A FULL SIZE PRINTABLE VERSION

OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE WHEN FIRST WE PRACTICE TO DECEIVE

Andrew Mitchell's "Pleb" recent outburst at Police Officers outside Downing Street has been "very damaging" to the Tory Party. So says Defence secretary Philip Hammond today in a further attempt to "draw a line" under the whole affair.

But it wasn't just Mitchell's  "F*cking Pleb" outburst which caused the damage, it was the fact that he lied and lied again over what was actually said and to what extent leading to the point where police officers had to to publish their own witness statements in a national newspaper.

His absence from the Tory Party conference in Birmingham (where his constituency is)  this week on the grounds that being there would be a distraction, is an admission if ever needed that his current position is untenable and his authority as the Government Chief Whip shot to pieces.


Meanwhile Tory  Party chairman and previous Housing Minister Grant Shapps will also be causing a distraction this week after it was revealed that he used a "Nom De Plume" Mr Michael Green to help sell a get rich quick scheme for a company he ran and then passed onto his wife. A probe into Mr Shapps is now focusing on his claims to be a self-help guru called Michael Green on a website called howtocorp.com. Mr Shapps continued to use the name Michael Green for his business interests throughout the 2005 election campaign and his early years as an opposition MP. ‘Mr Green’ charged clients £183 an hour for advice on how to make money from the web as well as offering tips on how to beat the recession blues, including splashing out on a jet-ski or learning to play the guitar.

A complaint to the ASA alleges that the website misled the public by presenting Michael Green as a genuine businessman with a personal fortune of £17 million, who would share the secrets of his success for a fee.

So what it is with politicians and their "pen'chance" for what Churchill described as 
"terminological inexactitudes" which most of us refer to as "Porkie Pies" and how do our local Cllrs compare with their national counterparts in comparison?

Well in my promised second expos'e of the quality of current Cllrs at NBC I ask you to consider the following tale of business dealings and then decide if this is the calibre of representative we really need at the Guildhall.

A few years ago a businessman based both in Northampton and also the North took a court action out against a large Northern Council supposedly for non payment of asylum seeker rents on properties he managed.

The claim for a large sum of public money was disputed by the Council, not surprisingly at the time as the Council doubted whether or not whether some of the properties had indeed been used for this purpose and also whether or not the asylum seekers said to have stayed there actually existed in the first place.

As part of the hearing a company in Northampton was made aware of their involvement in the action and also informed that their company name had been used as part of the claim and some of their properties involved in the invoices which had been submitted in their name and on their headed note paper. This was news to them, most notably because they had no business or properties in the North.

So they attended the court, to give evidence that they had no involvement whatsoever in the action and didn't now how their name had been used in such a way, and were very surprised to see a well known Northampton businessman in court putting forward the case, at this point the businessmen apparently got quite upset, and asked for an adjournment, immediately afterwards he and his lawyers immediately withdrew the action against the Council and dropped the case.

The businessman then concentrated on bringing an action on the Northampton Company to try to prove that he was as he had expressed to the court a partner of the said Northampton firm and had been working with them all along on the letting of properties in the North.

This case was heard by Leicester Crown Court. The Northampton company had to spend a considerable amount of money proving that papers submitted to the court by the businessman were in fact forgeries, they were in many cases false documents constructed from their headed notepaper a copy of which the businessman was in possession of. The judge during the hearing become increasingly frustrated at the inability of the businessman to offer any concrete evidence of the partnership other than continuous here-say and photocopied documents. A handwriting analyst had also submitted condemning evidence to the court informing them that in their view the signatures on the documents submitted by the businessman had been forged. 

In a last minute attempt to quash the overwhelming evidence against him and change the direction of the case the businessman finally came up with an original document to back up a photocopied already submitted. This he presented to the court. Comically, but with serious consequence the dates on the original submitted and the photocopy produced from it were then seen to not be a match.

The court understandably found in favour of the Northampton Company and the Judge it is said expressed a that view a fraud had been committed and suggested that the Police investigate the matter.

No police investigation took place as the businessman immediately afterwards had incredibly appealed against the courts findings prolonging the case, with little hope of success The appeal was as expected subsequently dismissed. 

In addition to his dealings in court and despite being a businessman of supposedly considerable income and wealth an application for Housing Benefit was also submitted to Northampton Borough Council during this period. But having been elected to the Council the Housing Benefit Application at the businessman's family home seems to have been "withdrawn" or "not processed"

Does the above sound like a fit and proper person to hold office as an elected Labour councillor?

I have not named the individual and as always offer to them the opportunity to contact me to correct anything above that they feel is not accurate, but my concern here and also above at what is happening at national level in the Tory Party is that I believe we should expect a higher level of integrity and business practise from those who then go on to stand for election? 

And shouldn't those elected to office also consider what effect their past dodgy business practises (when revealed) will have on the overall standing of politicians and other party colleagues that may be affected by the "all tarred with the same brush" mentality.

We deserve far better from our national and local politicians, and it was George Orwell who told us that "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" So long live the revolution


 

COUNCIL COMES SECOND IN ONE HORSE RACE

Eminating from the party political school of what was probably the worst of New Labours spinning years, you would expect me to be suspiciously cynical of too many "Good News" Council stories appearing in the local press, and so when the Chronicle Echo headlined on its website earlier this week not once, but twice with

"NORTHAMPTON NAMED WINNER OF EAST MIDLAND IN BLOOM AWARDS" and "JUDGES PRAISE FOR OUR BLOOMING TOWN" and  Herald and Post joined in the praise with "TOWN IS BLOOMING MARVELLOUS" I was suspicious.

Northampton in Bloom St James

And so it was, in what I am told is typical Tony Clarke fashion, that I adopted the mantra that a cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. You see for some time now  I have questioned just exactly what Britain in Bloom was really all about and wondering who it was who was judging who? Was it simply a vanity prize? or a true reflection of effort and input to celebrate all things floral in the world of Local Government.

My findings are not meant to embarrass anyone, nor to belittle the efforts of so many wonderful volunteers like George Howard of the Castle Environment Group, in fact Georges role becomes particularly important to the story.

But as far as the Council are concerned the real headlines are far from rosy and are very different from those above and could be chosen from the following options:

 "COUNCIL COMES SECOND IN ONE HORSE RACE"

or how about "NO CUT BACKS ON FLOWERS AS OFFICERS PARTY ON"

or  "EVERYONE'S A WINNER IN AWARDS FOR ALL FIASCO"

Any of the above will suffice, you see dig down under the rose beds, shine some sun light upon the shadier corners of the Local Government garden, and weed out the manure from the bullsh*t and you will find the whole horticultural beauty pageant is really nothing more than organic table dressing.

Northampton in Bloom Thorplands

Britain in Bloom dishes out thousands of awards each year across the regions in fact even within the East Midlands Region alone they extend themselves to presenting around 150 awards a year, and this is not hard for them to do as:

A) Every paid entrant is guaranteed an award and

B) So innovative are they with the categories that you can have a whole one all for yourself if you wish!

There is Small Village, Village and Large Village, Small Town, Town and Large Town, Small City, City and Large City, Coastal Resort (watch out for global warming) Urban Community, the "It's your Neighbourhood" category, and the "Most Improved Entrant" award heads up a further 10 such "discretionary" awards to be shared out amongst all entrants. Northampton this year for some reason was placed in the "City" category (cities with populations of between 100,000 and 200,00) Northampton's population is of course 210,000 which would have pitted us against much stiffer competition from Derby, Leicester, Nottingham etc.

Last year we were up against, and came second to the giants of Loughborough who it seemed competed elsewhere this year leaving us in 2012 as the lone entrant in the City category and thus bringing  us a Silver (Gilt) Medal.

Silver! you ask. why not Gold after all we were the only runner! Well it seems that BIB in a kindly  attempt to make sure everyone's a winner only really judges you against a scoreboard ranging from 0 (for doing absolutely nothing at all) up to 200

These 200 points are then spread across three areas A, Horticultural achievement B Horticultural Practice and C Green Spaces And this is where it gets complicated 0-99 points gets you a Certificate of Achievement Award, 100-119 points a Bronze Medal, 120 - 169 points a Silver or Silver Gilt medal and 170- 200 points the Big bold Gold.

Back then to George down at Spring Boroughs, it seems that any Community involvement scores highly on the score board meaning that NBC's scores for the last two years have been favourably weighted due to the sterling efforts of George and others like him. Georges work this year even earned him a special "Judges Award" for his efforts.

Northampton in Bloom Ethel Street

So I conclude that a probable third placed Bronze Medal for NBC is then turned into a second place Silver Medal by the efforts of community groups and volunteers, which then as the only entrant in the category enables Northampton Borough Council to become  the"Category Winners" and go forward to the National award ceremony to receive even further plaudits.

EVERYONE'S IS INDEED A WINNER, they all cry, but none more it seems than those sent to represent the Council at the Annual awards. Obviously Britain in Bloom are very aware of the tight fiscal and economic climate that all Councils are now operating within and choose the venues of their award ceremonies very carefully indeed.

Last year they all gathered at the 5 star St Andrews Hotel overlooking the Old Course at the Royal and Ancient club and this year they are all off to Guernsey!

What a wonderful story, and so close to the florally scented press releases shooting forth from the budding press officers at the Guildhall.

 Bouquet's all round

TAKING THE ELECTORATE FOR GRANT - AID

So, no news, emails or interventions from within the Local Labour Party about cleaning up their own act or accepting that they still have work to do to become the sort of party you would like to join on a local basis. Of the three "issues" I raised in an earlier post I have laid one of them to one side on the request of an individual involved as they themselves attempt to seek their own justice, so more of that perhaps at a later date, so instead lets us start with the tale below, which I shall entitle:

TAKING THE ELECTORATE FOR GRANT AID

'The events below and in other posts are as told to me by people (plural) concerned about the issues outlined therein and the lack of any disciplinary action seemingly taken either within the Borough Council Labour Group or at any higher level. It is for others to judge the culpability of those involved and the probability of success of any disciplinary action and also for the Labour Party to act should it wish to do so .If any person involved identifies themselves and wishes me to consider altering or removing any provable errors in the post then I will be happy to do so if they contact me.

I ask just one simple question, why is it that some party members seem to be excluded and expelled for what are very minor misdemeanour's and after long winded investigations and disciplinary hearings whilst others seem to be blessed with no action being taken for what would be in most people opinion much more serious offences?"

Funding and grants for local charities and organisations are becoming harder and harder to source as Local Authorities and national funders both clamp down on funding streams and replace long term community financing with short term political handouts often disguised as "Empowerment Funds" or "Community Chests"

Imagine then the delight of a chair of a local organisation when they received an e-mail from a local Labour Borough Cllr informing them that their organisation had had an application approved by the Borough Council for the sum £15,000 for funding to provide training and community events withiin their area, all they now had to do to receive the money was to sign on the dotted line.

Well initial delight turned very quickly into troubled uneasiness when the chair of the organisation realised that they had never actually submitted an application to the Council in the first place and didn't need the training or events proposed! What's more it seemed that these same "Training and Community" events were to be provided by a company run by? You guessed it the same Labour Cllr who had submitted the application and informed them of the windfall themselves!

Being 100% above board and not interested in anything remotely dodgy the Chair immediately called a meeting of the organisations executive committee and laid out to them all what had happened, the committee were outraged, how had someone been allowed to make an application for funding out on their behalf, and in their name without their knowledge or authority? How had this Labour Cllr decided what their organisation needed when applying for monies? And how was it that the Labour Cllr responsible for submitting the application to the same Council they served on would also be benefiting from the payment of the grant by providing services through their own company?

The last straw for the committee was that the chair of their organisation was also a Labour Cllr on the same Authority and they wanted no blame or stain being placed on his reputation by the independent actions of another Cllr without his knowledge. The executive therefore asked that the police and the council be informed of their concerns, and as a matter of courtesy the Labour Group were also informed. The police having I am told spoken to the local authority decided on this occasion to take no further action, they were willing to accept that as a new Cllr the individual involved was probably not as aware of the rules and laws surrounding grant funding as they should have been, and as a consequence they would be given the benefit of doubt in the belief that they were attempting to serve the community irrespective of any potential private gain.

The issue caused some understandable friction between the two Cllrs concerned and should have led to the Cllr responsible for self submitting the grant on behalf of an other organisation without their consent or even knowledge being dealt with internally by the party and told to be much more careful in future.

And yet less than two months later this same Labour Cllr submitted another grant application on behalf of another charity group for a daytime event in their ward, this time the organisation were aware of the application being made and of the Cllrs role in assisting them with it. The problem this time though is that the application was submitted to a local funder with little to no real information purporting to the organisation (details of officers, membership, accounts, costings of the event etc) and was submitted under an address which belonged to a completely different organisation (a local church) who had no idea that their address was being used to support the funding bid! The Cllr then attracted further funding for the event from their fellow Borough and County Cllrs through their empowerment funds (supposedly with the same poor level of detail).

And then what happened? Well AN event took place, but not the one mentioned in the funding requests, it was at least on the same day, but took place in the evening rather than the applied for "Daytime" family based activities mentioned in the application and instead of providing support for the local resident community the event was a UK wide "Nation Day" event which has been a part of the calender for many years where members of a local ethnic community invite their friends and family from across the Country to come together to party late into the night, a great and colourful event it always is, I know because I have attended on more than one occasion over the years, and have thoroughly enjoyed it but it has never needed funding before as the Community members themselves bring their own food and provide their own entertainment. So just what was promised regarding the funding that was given and what exactly was it spent on?

A third application from the same Cllr to a funding body on behalf of another third party came to my attention this week which it seems also (unsurprisingly) has not met the criteria level for providing the relevant information regarding either the organisation or the costing and provision of the services requested to be provided through the funding, surprise surprise.

Over the years Labour Councils and groups across the UK have been embarrassed more than once over funding bids which were not all they were made out to be, individual Cllrs have found themselves in very hot water after being found to personally benefit from grants they themselves had a hand in acquiring.

So I wonder what our local Labour Group has to say about the above?

THE FIRE THAT ENLIGHTENS IS THE SAME FIRE THAT CONSUMES

Some even stranger than normal news coming out from Westbridge depot involving Enterprises hapless management of the Refuse Collection contract for Northampton Borough Council. We already know that the company are failing to deliver on the contract and that the Council are to impose £250,000 penalties against the agreement but now it seems they are having to deal with something altogether hotter and more inflammable as it is discovered that they have a curious and dangerous outbreak of Refuse Vehicle based Spontaneous Combustion!

That's right, their dustbin lorries are going up in smoke! I am told by a reliable source that no less than 7 NEW vehicles have gone up in flames since the contract began in 2011. And so concerned are the private contractors insurance company and also the workers Trade Union (GMB) that they are now seriously concerned as to the safety of continued use of these vehicles for both their operatives and the general public.

So why is this happening? and why does it seem to be restricted to only the new vehicles that the Borough Council lent Enterprise the money for to purchase in the first place? You will remember from an earlier post that operatives were already complaining that these new vehicles which only load from one side were useless in Northampton's terraced streets as some roads have to be driven down twice or operatives have further to carry the waste, but that it seems is just a minor design fault when compared to the whole damn lorry bursting into flames!

Any light that readers can throw onto this strange waste truck flame based phenomenon would be very very welcome. Perhaps there is a strange inner force at work? A Trekkie friend tells me that the original Starship Enterprise was fueled without any need for flames so we can properly rule out Klingon interference.

Meanwhile Enterprise's continued staff reduction programme continues ever apace as more and more senior managers are shown the door. I now understand that 8 operations managers have been relieved of their duties, many for simply pointing out that Enterprise were going about the contract in totally the wrong way. No doubt the removal of so many staff who had run the contract perfectly well in house for NBC for many many years will make it even more difficult for the Council should they take the inevitable decision to take the contract back in house

Part of the missing expertise it seems may also be having a massive detrimental  effect on the amount of income the contractor is achieving from recyclables. It would seem that written into the contract is a clause whereby both Enterprise and NBC/DDC   will suffer heavily financially to the combined possible tune of millions of pounds if they cannot get from the market the right price for  their recycled goods, and the market price is dropping alarmingly on a daily basis. Of course Enterprise have taken their own unique steps to alleviate this problem themselves by scaling down on staff and use of the recycling depot at Westbridge.

From just the above it would seem that the impending fact finding visit to Westbridge and the Town Hall of Cllr Bassam Mahfouz from Ealing Council who want to prevent similar problems arising in their contract with Enterprise in West London may be quite an eyeopener for him!

SHORT SHORTS

Thought I would just catch up on a few stories for purpose of updating Joe Public on all matters local national and international.

EALING COMEDY

Regular readers will be aware of the ongoing teething problems with Northampton Borough Councils's (and DDC's) 14 year contract with Enterprise Services to provide Refuse Collection, Grass Cutting and Street Sweeping Services across Northampton and Daventry. Well the so called "teething problems" are still causing much pain to all concerned and are quickly turning into a a very nasty and prolonged toothache.

With Enterprise now it is suggested losing somewhere between £40,000 and £60,000 a week on the contract they have cut back even further on their workforce numbers, leading to more collections being missed, more grass left uncut and even less streets swept. The problems which we were told initially by the administration at NBC were little more than hiccups have now led to the Council having to look at fining the contractor £250,000 in penalties for not delivering on the service contract.

My contacts at Westbridge tell me it can only get worse in the coming months but meanwhile Northampton's woes with Enterprise as a contractor have now reached the ears of other elected members on Tory controlled Ealing Council  in West London, who are very keen not to fall into the same trap as the Borough having just engaged Enterprise, 4 months ago on a similar 15 year contract!   Enterprise took over the service from previous contractor May Gurney on April 1 2012, after it was awarded the £300 million 15-year collection contract in July 2011


Under the deal Enterprise was meant to operate a kerbside sort system for the collection of dry recyclables and food waste but following familiar  ‘teething problems’ it had to move to a commingled system to work through the backlog of missed collections. All sounding very familiar?

It now seems that after 4 months of missed collections and what letsrecycle.com called a "Fiasco in Ealing" Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, portfolio holder for transport and environment is under pressure from the opposition to resign his post over the services failures. But in an attempt to keep the attack dogs at bay Cllr Mahfouz has come up with a cunning plan, he is sending a crack squad down to see us all here in Northampton as he explains " “What we don’t want is to be a year down the line and then fining them. We are getting the guys to go down to those councils to learn what they did right and wrong.”

I could save Cllr Mahfouz and Ealing Council some money on funding the journey as its very clear what they did wrong, they signed a contract full of holes, put up as a lost leader, at a price no one could ever deliver the service for, they (as in all three political parties) then ignored the two independent members on the Council who warned them that this was bound to happen and banked the savings regardless of the consequences.

What a farce indeed,

ALL SIT DOWN FOR TEAM GB

As the row continues unabashed as to those unused seats at most events for this years London Olympics I was reminded of a conversation some weeks ago on Radio Four when the station was previewing our Gold Medal chances ahead of the Games, and what it all boiled down to was that "Sitting" was what we British do best, not just in watching the varied sporting extravaganzas, but also it seems in competing.

And so it is after an edgy start to the games and a continued wait for team GB's first gold that we must now look to those sat on their back sides to deliver the goods for Blighty. So bring on the brave rowers and the canoeists from Britain's finest public schools. All hail the horsey equestrian set with their jolly jodhpurs and jaunty japes. Cry out loud for the British Cyclists and their two wheeled velodrome heroics.

Britains Gold medal chances it seems rest solely on Britains backsides, on Boats, Bikes and Horses. So how about letting us working class folk also get in on the act? After all it is our games. I suggest the London Olympic Committee therefore immediately introduce more sitting down sports for us to compete in in this years games, we will soon rise up the medal table then.

How about Downhill Soapbox racing? I loved that as a kid, and who's for a go at a Spacehopper marathon! how delightful it would be to see all those large orange or even flag printed spherical objects bouncing up and down along the Mall in unison.

Perhaps even our Lib Dem friends could get involved with qualifiers for Olympic style Fence sitting?

SYRIA LEFT TO SUFFER AS THE WORLD LOOKS THE OTHER WAY

This blog has a very good history of predicting events local, national and even international, but for once I was hoping that I had judged it all wrong when I said that an all out civil war in Syria was probably inevitable http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/why-syrias-tears-are-wasted-on-west.html but as predicted HM Government it seems values the lives of Syrian Civilians far less than they did Libyan Civilians, there have been no cries this time for military intervention, no NATO proposed safe corridor, no NO FLY ZONE.

So what has Libya got that Syria hasn't ? Sympathy? Willpower? Oil? I explained the best I could in my last blog that the rebel army (or armies) in Syria are a diverse, complicated and split force who will probably not be able to wrestle power from the regime no matter how much they believe in their cause, and as a result the blood letting will continue unchecked. Meanwhile William Hague pops up on our screens every few days to tell us how awful it all is and how wicked Bashir Hassad is whilst saying nothing about who may replace him in any successful uprising, and also doing nothing to protect the civilian's caught up in this horrific bloody struggle for Syria's future.

The country's uprising has been played out constantly on the internet website YouTube, but while the brutal images of death remain the same, images of the armed opposition groups as also predicted are ever changing. Some groups now openly say they are affiliated with al-Qaeda, fly its flags, and say they now have training camps inside the country. Phil Rees, filmmaker and author of 'Dining with Terrorists', told Al Jazeera that for Al Qaeda, Syria is "an attractive place to come now." Who is Al Qaeda? Someone coming from Libya who helped overthrow [Muammar] Gaddafi? During Libya, they were considered to be freedom fighters and the British government supported them. Now they travel to Syria where they feel a jihad going on,"

I am sure that if the charge against the British Government of double standards being applied to different countries and different peoples has not already been made clear, then their current silence and inaction on Syria can only make it ever more translucent.

RECYCLED EXCUSES AND BUCK PASSING WONT DELIVER THE SERVICES

My blog below, highlighting the current plight of staff employed at Enterprise Managed Services (the councils outside environment services contractor) and the impact that this failing privatisation is having on our local services at least is seems stirred some people into action. Ex Independent Cllr Malcolm Mildren and myself of course could be forgiven for saying we told you so, given our single handed attempts last year to prevent NBC from signing such an obviously flawed contract, but the Chronicle and Echo and it now seems the opposition groups at the Guildhall are both belatedly waking up to the story. I am bound to say that it's a pity it has took them so long and that all three parties on the Council would have served the public better by airing their concerns with ourselves last year rather than offering slavish support to the deal and now belatedly deciding that we may just have had a point all the way along.

And so "serious questions" we are told will now be asked?, but is this a solution to the growing problem or simply a way to bide time, will they now accept that the contract is non deliverable or hold out in the hope of rescuing a few red faces by letting the contract limp on? And what will that do to protect local services already failing through a bungled and undeliverable contract? After all the Portfolio Holder responsible for the contract Cllr Jon Caswell (Con) tells us that it has nothing to do with the Council and that these are all issues for Enterprise to sort out!

Well as always, let me tell you my blog readers first, including many Cllrs who I know read the blog to catch up on the news their own Council won't reveal to them, just how bad matters have really become.

First of all it seems (unbelievably) that EMS have now decided that they miscounted the number of properties in Northampton that needed their bins collected when they first quoted for the contract (whose fault is that?) and now they want an additional £800,000 a year more from the local Council Tax payer than they originally quoted for these services alone (next we will no doubt hear that the grass is growing much quicker than anticpiated and that people are throwing far too much rubbish on the streets). This £800,000 they no doubt hope will go towards the £2.5m loss estimated by some as EMS's first years operational loss.

Secondly, on job losses (despite assurances to the contrary at the time) it seems as if the majority of 50+  staff shown the door at Westbridge in the last 12 months have come from the original Council staff who were TUPE'd across from both Councils (TUPE stands for Transfer of Undertakings, and the Protection of Employees, and is a way of protecting staff post any buy out or transfer of contracts) and these "redundancies" are not just limited to the front line, as middle managers are just as expensive in EMS's eyes as workers. Certainly both Waste Managers who transferred from Northampton Borough and Daventry District Councils have now gone, meaning all their local knowledge and expertise has gone with them!. Meanwhile replacement agency staff are still being employed on "daily" basis at Westbridge with workers turning up at 6am with their lunch boxes to hopefully be "hand picked" and told at 7am which of them have secured a days work. The rest are sent home with the Dickension term "No work today" ringing in their ears.

And what about the services themselves? Well we can all see that ourselves clearly by the uncut grass, unswept pavements and uncollected rubbish littering our streets. But to give you a clearer insight, I can "exclusively" (before the local press and politicians tell you they knew this anyway, and repeat it without naming the source) reveal that not only have the number of total refuse rounds been cut, but that all of the emergency and spare vehicles have all now been off hired to save money. This is despite the loan of £750,000 given to EMS by the council last year for new vehicles and site improvements. So now the service is being delivered in the main with an ageing fleet of trucks which are constantly breaking down mid round. And if EMS underestimated the number of homes to collect from, then how are they now collecting it with less lorries and staff than they first started with

And this causes another problem, the refuse contract rounds are now 9.5 hours long (far too long in my view for continued manual work) and the drivers all have to work to a legal limit of  9 hours driving in any one day (4.5hrs +  4.5hrs with a 45 minute break in between) or a maximum of 10 hours on two out of any 5 days if they work with an additional 45 minute  break over a 11.5 hour day. What this means to anyone with even a basic rudimentary knowledge of HGV driving regulations is that if for any reason a lorry breaks down, or the round is delayed, then there are no back up vehicles to replace any of those out of action and the drivers cannot even legally drive their wagons back to the depot without them breaking the law. The above vehicle break downs and round delays it seems are the real reason that rubbish is now left uncollected on the street at the end of every day as drivers are running out of driving time and there are no additional drivers or wagons at Westbridge to relieve them.

Meanwhile as intimated in my last post I can confirm that the Main Recycling Facility at Westbridge has all but closed its doors and rumours abound that Enterprise have plans to knock it down, and also the promised refurbishment of the current recycling facility at Daventry to begin to handle food waste has now been cancelled due to EMS saying they now have no money to afford to implement it.

It doesn't look good, in fact it's a shambles, EMS can't afford to deliver the service for the price they quoted, NBC can't afford to re tender or take the service back in house as they have "banked" the saving from their wider cuts programme, and services are deteriorating by the minute. But don't worry, we are all in this together!

SIMPLY A MATTER OF BINS AND BUGS - TOPICAL SHORTS (3)

There was a time in Local Government when if you had 10 Councillors in a room then you were sure to get a least 15 different opinions. Then somewhere during the mid 1990s all opinions blurred into first of all three camps (Tory/Lab/LibDem) and then into just one, not a Coalition but it seems at local level a Coatrition.

For this reason as an Independent I often found it nearly impossible to promote new ideas or even question the status quo at Council meetings and when I and other Independent colleagues did so our points of view were dismissed by all parties as scaremongering or trouble making we were left out on a limb, our concerns dismissed as negativity, and our comments often ignored in the press.

So thank god for the blogosphere, here we can say as we please within reason, and be judged on not just the opinion we express but also on whether or not we called it right at the time.

Today in the third of my topical shorts we revisit two earlier blogs from the past to give you an update as to how close we called it at the time:

WHAT A LOAD OF OLD RUBBISH

Most of you will remember my posts on "Enterprise Managed Services" the new company that took over all of the Borough Councils refuse, cleansing and groundworks contracts in a 14 year deal. Praise came from all round the Council chamber from the big three, and in my last post on this subject I reminded readers that even Labour's Leader at the time Lee Mason commented that she didn't care who collected her bins as long as they didn't change colour! The Lib Dems agreed the deal, the Tory's trumpeted it as their own when they came to power, even going as far as to hold a re signing photo opportunity for the agreement.

Only two Cllrs at the time, myself and Malcolm Mildren spoke out, We challenged the figures, said that Enterprise had put in a loss leader as a bid and could not afford to deliver the service at anywhere near the price set. We questioned the long term security of the staff who would be transferred, and warned that 14 years was along long time if they made a mistake. We urged the Council to make its own changes to the in house delivery in order to keep control of the service. And we were ignored.

The warning signs were there, at the time Enterprise told the Council that it couldn't raise the funds itself externally to buy new vehicles to run the new contract and asked the Council to lend them the money to do so! Again Malcolm and myself tried to promote caution but our comments were relegated to the wheelie bin

So Enterprise started the contract, to begin with we had the usual teething problems, and as a result some changes were made, some at times seemed to have an effect, but only over time would we be able to judge the outcome.

That time is now approaching, and it is approaching at break neck speed. Let me tell you what my contacts down at Westbridge have been telling me over the last few days. First of all it seems as if Enterprise have lost money on the contract (surprise surprise) the figure I was told was that they have lost £2.5m in the first year. As a result of the above 15 staff were made redundant last week, with more to follow, refuse collectors, street cleaners, groundworkers all being cut back. The emergency clean up team who was successful in clearing up the mess made by their own refuse and recycling officers gone. 5 of the shiny new vehicles which Enterprise borrowed money from the Council to purchase gone. The Councils flagship recycling unit at Westbridge Depot? Closed and the staff laid off and the waste now being diverted by road to other recycling centres in the country expanding further the carbon footprint.

None of the above has hit the ears of Cllrs at NBC yet, and there has not been as much as a sausage in the local press, but when your bins are not collected as often, or you wonder where the street sweepers have all gone, or why the grass is three feet tall again. You can say I read about this on a blog from a bloke who the council said was talking rubbish when he warned them that this would happen. Rubbish indeed!

FOUNTAIN OF ALL KNOWLEDGE

The other criticism I receive is that I must be a real anorak at times to know so much about the most inane of subjects. I hold my hand up to this one, when I get my teeth into something I can't let go, and a number of times on this blog and on the Chronicle and Echos website I have warned about the potential dangers of the Council's next to useless fountain on the market square. If you want all the gory details just click here.  http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/dont-go-chasing-waterfalls.html 

What a load of old tosh they said, its perfectly safe. And yet it seems to have been off more than it is on recently, and anyone who missed in the press the ridiculous exchange between the Chron and the Councils leader over why it was currently turned off will be tickled to hear the story which goes something like this:

Local newspaper contacts Council and says "Is the fountain turned off because of the hose pipe ban"?
The Council responds by saying No not at all and  announcing that  "the fountain would remain on throughout the drought as turning it off would not actually make any difference to the town’s water supply". "So why is it off now then said the Chron two days later"? The Council replied with the following gem

"The water feature on Northampton Market Square will be switched off during the hosepipe ban to avoid causing concern to members of the public who might think it’s wasting water, the fountain was constructed to be very environmentally friendly. It‘s full of water which simply recycles itself over and over again. However, it’s hard to spread that message to everyone who will come into town over the summer, so rather than cause concern, we’ve decided to switch the fountain off until the ban is over.”

The above was all from a spokesperson with not one member of the Councils administration willing to be quoted.

So is this really the reason that the fountain runs dry? or is not everything as it should be? You see following my concerns raised with the council about how all that recycling of water in an area where dogs, pigeons and even humans foul cannot be good for little mites running through the mist ingesting all and sundry the council at least promised to carry out regular testing for a whole range of bugs and nasty's  including TVC, E-coli & Coliforms, Pseudomonas, Legionella and of course Cryptosporidium.

For those who missed my earlier posts, my concern was that the above bugs and their spores are to be found where water has come into contact with animal faecal matter.

The Market Square Fountain is open to pigeon fouling, dog fouling and any organisms transported on the shoes of those walking through the area

These spores where present are easily ingested through the air in mist or through the mouth from contaminated water and attack those with low immune defence such as children and those with HIV

The jets in the Market Square Fountain are of course at just the right height to be ingested by small children playing in the fountain

These tests started in Aug 2010 and took place in Aug/Sept 2010 April/May 2011 June/July 2011and again in Sept 2011.

But no testing has taken place since. More worrying is that the last test for Cryptosporidium was way back in Aug 2010 some 20 months ago!

Of course since September 2011 you can count on one hand the number of times the fountain has been working, but surely nothing untoward was found at that time?

After all Cllr Clarke (as I was told by many) was just scaremongering, the fountain is perfectly safe. And the Council surely would have said something to us if there was any public health risk. And if there was anything untoward we would have read about it in the Chron surely? And Councillors would have been made aware and would have considered it a duty to tell us if there was a problem? So it must be safe.

Safe that is until you discover that the test for TVC, E-coli & Coliforms taken on Sept 2nd 2011 was proven as positive!

JUST SAY NO

Anyone who watched the BBC Police Drama “Ashes to Ashes” will understand my concern that as a whole nation we may have been somehow transported back in time to the 1980’s The NHS is under threat from privatisation from a Tory Government, Unemployment  is at record levels, we have riots on the streets and tension between the UK and Argentina over the Falklands, and of course locally a Tory administration on Northampton Borough Council which wants to sell off our Council Housing stock!

For council housing the rot started when Margaret  Thatcher conned the country into believing that the "right to buy" council houses would create wealth and opportunity for all. Shelter ran an excellent campaign which pointed out that if the price of food had risen at the same rate as that of housing a chicken would now cost something like £25. We now have families told to use their living room as a bedroom, parents forced to share bedrooms with their children and families of five in one-bedroom accommodation told that they are not overcrowded. We have Council’s in wealthy parts of the country offloading their housing problems on poorer areas. We have a generation of sofa-surfers who do not even register on the homeless statistics. We have working people encouraged to turn on one another in competition for what little housing there is. And now we have a government that vilifies council tenants as scroungers, aided by the Mail, the Express and the Sun, in order to justify massive benefit cuts. It’s not less Council Housing we need, it is more! 

The 1980’s saw the criminal disposal of the vast bulk of the country's best council housing stock and an effective ban on new council house building. We have seen negative equity, homelessness and overcrowding rising relentlessly and house-price inflation that has put access to decent housing out of the reach of a generation. Our two Council’s Borough and County provide little service these days to tenants in Northampton, we can’t even afford street lights! But selling peoples homes from under their feet is the last straw.

The huge benefit of council housing that the some would have us forget is that it is democratic. If your council does a bad job maintaining your council homes you can vote them out. You cannot
do that to a private landlord, a bank or even a housing association. By destroying the welfare state and our rights to council homes the government Local and National are taking away democratic accountability. The Borough Council has now announced that they will spend £2m persuading,  or blackmailing council tenants to transfer to housing associations, or arms-length Housing Trusts. Housing associations can play a positive role as a minor co-operative sector, but they should not be the lead player in local social housing. 

The £2m the Council will waste on Consultation should be being spent on improvements to homes, but instead you wait and see all the propaganda sent out to tell you that only by selling out will you ever get your repairs seen to. 80% of Spring Boroughs residents are Council Tenants and the Council cannot sell your home unless they ballot you first and ask you to vote in favour of the sell out. . Like health, like social care, like education I believe that housing cannot be seen as a commodity but as an essential requirement for life. So when they ask you, I urge you all to respond, loud and clear with an unequivocal answer.

NO – OUR COUNCIL HOMES ARE NOT FOR SALE


(with thanks to Britains finest Red Top newspaper - The Morning Star)