Agenda and minutes

The co-chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and stressed that the Pensioners Forum was non –political and was for open discussion. He mentioned that he was happy to see so many people in attendance. He introduced Councillor Oldham – the co-chair of the Forum.

Apologies were received from Mr and Mrs Owusu-Akuffo.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 20^th January 2012 were agreed once an amendment to them correcting BFI to PFI be made.

Matters Arising

There were none.

Northampton Alive and the Northampton Bus Interchange were taken under the next agenda item as a joint item.

The Leader gave a presentation, which set out the administrations vision for the future. He commented that the Enterprise Zone would create new jobs as more businesses would move into the area and subsequently generate growth in and around the Northampton area. He reported that there was a need for the redevelopment of the Grosvenor Centre in order to attract more people and more businesses into the Town Centre, and a number of businesses had commented that they considered it to be commercially unviable due to the limited space available and lack of potential development.

With regards to the Bus Interchange, it was reported that it was a jointly funded project, which involved West Northants Development Corporation, Northamptonshire County Council and the Borough Council. It was reported that the location of the Fish Market had been chosen due to its proximity to the Drapery and the Market Square and unlike the current bus station, the proposed station would not house buses overnight. He reported that currently there were office spaces that could not be filled and a redundant car park that was not usable due to the problem of an acidic solution dropping on to cars and structural engineers had deemed the car park as unsafe for use and therefore, money was being lost hence part of the reason for the proposed development.

The Leader informed the Forum that the St Johns Development would see student accommodation to ensure the growth and development of the University, which would be in the heart of the Town Centre. The current car parking facility had always been designated development land and therefore with car parking not at capacity in the Town Centre, the development of student accommodation would be welcomed without loss of parking spaces. Further projects were mentioned such as the Marina in Becketts Park and the restoration of parts of Delapre Abbey, partly funded by the Lottery, working towards preserving the heritage of Northampton. Discussions were still underway with regards to the refurbishment of the Train Station to encourage and attract people and businesses to the area.

A questions and answer session followed the presentation:

Q) When will the Conservative administration start listening to people and are Legal and General dictating what happens to the town?

A) On going discussions have been had with Legal and General and there have been frustrations with the amount of time that this had taken. People are being listened to and he welcomed people to examine the plans when the application would be made for the Grosvenor Centre development later this year and a consultation would be undertaken whereby peoples opinions and concerns would be listened to.

Q) Two main concerns were expressed by the Bus User Group – I)Public Consultation had been very limited and people had felt excluded from the discussion and ii) There needs to be collaborative working with other Councils and agencies for the development to be a success.

A) Collective partnership working was of paramount importance and extensive communications with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

It was explained that the Community Governance Review was an opportunity for local people to have their say about how their local communities are run with regards to whether or not they would be parished or not. It was noted that people needed to sign a petition in the area that affected them before submission closes on the 27^th April and that a percentage of votes would be needed in order for the petition to be considered.

Due to time restrictions forum members suggested that further consideration be given to the matter at a future meeting.

Cllr Markham – Cabinet Member for Housing explained the forum members that some people had requested information about the position of Sheltered Housing. She commented that people living longer and therefore the demand for Sheltered Housing would increase. She commented that a report would go before Cabinet in June 2012.

Cllr Markham, in response to a question explained that there had been an increase in the number of people who were homeless and as a last resort; some of those people had been housed in Bed and Breakfast accommodation. She stated that the number of people temporarily housed in Bed and Breakfasts was 29. She further elaborated that consideration had been given to the Housing Stick Transfer and that she was committed to providing the people of Northampton with housing that met the Decent Homes Standards, housing stock transfer being one of the ways in which this could be achieved and assured the forum that she would continue to work with the finances allocated to her. She further explained that a secured tenancy was for Council tenants and assured tenancy being for housing association tenants.

• Community Governance Review
• Platform 51

Tuesday 1^st May 2012 at 2pm

Thursday 7^th June 2012 at 2pm

1^st May 2012

7^th July 2012