Agenda item
Northampton Alive:Public Debate
Minutes:
Cllr David Mackintosh, the Leader of Northampton Borough Council, led a public debate about a number of regeneration projects due to happen in Northampton and which together are known as “Northampton Alive”.
More information about the projects, including a film, can be found at www.northampton.gov.uk/northamptonalive.
Cllr Mackintosh described the Enterprise Zone – the largest in the country and providing Northampton with an advantage for attracting businesses.
The development of the Grosvenor Centre should create lots more jobs.
The Fishmarket will become situated in the cultural quarter of the town, close to the museum, art gallery, Royal and Derngate theatres and the due new cinema.
St John’s development will have cafes and other facilities.
New student accommodation and the university locating closer to the town centre will help the town centre economy.
The Marina is now open. Long-term this should help with promoting culture and leisure in the town and make more of the waterside area.
Heritage was also important he said, particularly Delapre Abbey.
There was interest in car parking to meet needs of more people in the town centre. The under-usage of current car parking was noted, but it is recognised that current provision would not guarantee to meet future needs. Cllr Mackintosh said car parking would need to be kept under review as new businesses come to Northampton. The inability to use Greyfriars due to acid falling on cars should be offset by new car parking in the new Grosvenor Centre.
A Roy noted that the “cultural quarter” is brought up in meetings without specifically acknowledging black and minority ethnic presence in the town. She said it misses out geographically parts of the town where such communities live and meet. It would be nice to see a community recognition as this goes forward. The Gateway Centre for example is missed, also the Sikh community centre – key landmarks in the BME community.
In Northampton and other towns in the county, there’s a problem about faith space. A Roy said a number of incidents reflect that this is not good for communities. There may be opportunities to build in faith space within the exciting future vision for Northampton.
A Roy said the ambition here creates unique opportunities to have challenging equality targets within the development e.g. like Leicester city centre where there were targets for companies to have commitments to corporate giving and were taking on the council’s own equality duties by taking on diverse workforces and apprenticeships for young people in the town.
Cllr Mackintosh welcomed the points made by A Roy. He said he would be pleased to look at growing the cultural quarter further, for example having carnival passing through it, having it truly reflecting the town. He felt having the arts collective working with others would provide opportunities and mentioned they had already come up with ideas what they want to do.
With regard to faith places, Cllr Mackintosh said he was aware that some planning issues in the past were barriers to meeting community needs. He advised he is working with Northampton Inter Faith Forum to help overcome this.
Cllr Mackintosh said having more students in town centre will bring more diversity too.
Cllr Mackintosh said the new Grosvenor Centre will include a multi-faith prayer room.
With regard to the enterprise zone and requirements on companies, Cllr Mackintosh said he believes it is a two-way process: for the council to show that Northampton is open for business, but also to showcase Northampton and initiatives in relation to communities and volunteering and encourage them to be included. Apprenticeships, for example, he said, were important and the council is already among some looking to do more in this area – and wants to see this culture embedded into companies coming into the area too.
A Roy offered that Northants Rights and Equality Council might propose some more formal equality targets. Cllr DM welcomed this and suggested they meet soon as things are moving fast.
M Walker noted when it was the ‘cultural mile’ it took in community groups no longer within the ‘cultural quarter’. Cllr Mackintosh said that the new quarter brings together key players and there is no wish to prohibit other activity elsewhere. He said that ideas on how to enhance this would be welcome.
J Rawlings welcomed the relocation of the arts collective to an ideal location.
The Greyfriars Plus group representative introduced himself as one of a group who want to keep bus station in its current location. He asked why not just demolish the car park and offices which refurbishment of would cost £23M but keep the bus station underneath. He accepted it is an ugly building in bad condition. He said he was concerned to read in a local newspaper that while bus interchange plans for the site of the current Fishmarket have not been cleared, the council had already cut down trees around it. He wanted to know whether the council had acted legally in cutting its trees.
Cllr Mackintosh replied that in relation to costs, it is necessary to look at opportunity costs not just those of refurbishing the car park and offices at the Greyfriars site. It is recognised that there is a need for more car parking capacity as discussed earlier and that the building overall is in bad state of repair; but an even greater cost is the loss of income and job opportunities for local people if it were not possible to expand the Grosvenor Centre. This would impact on people’s willingness to come to Northampton. Big name companies have said they would come to Northampton if the Grosvenor Centre is developed.
In relation to the Fishmarket location, Cllr Mackintosh confirmed that others had been looked at for the bus interchange but were rejected for being too far from the town centre and for not encouraging use of the Market Square in way Fishmarket did – for both the market and events. Cllr Mackintosh said that the planning application for the bus interchange was submitted yesterday and would be considered by Planning Committee in due course. Now it had been submitted people could look at it for themselves. With regard to tree works to the council’s trees, Cllr Mackintosh confirmed that the works are not part of the planning application. He said that the laws about the trees allowed the council to do works to them.
Cllr Mackintosh pointed to early signs that showcasing what Northampton has to offer can help the local economy: the Market and its events includes a new branding “Love Northampton” launched around Christmas time to help encourage people to come to live, work and shop in Northampton. In just a few months it had been found to have increased footfall. It had shown good results by getting business, council and other partners working effectively together. Cllr Mackintosh said he felt the Northampton Alive projects should help to continue to do this.
There would be an exhibition with plans for the Bus Interchange in One Stop Shop from Friday 20 April 2012. People would be able to come to drop in.
The Greyfriars Plus group rep said he had concerns that the new plans would not take account of needs of older people in the way the current bus station did. John Rawlings asked if retaining the bus station were not possible, what the representative felt about the proposed alternative bus interchange. He replied that he was concerned about old people’s needs and their being obliged to wait for buses in the cold and wet. Cllr Mackintosh advised that lots of views had been gained from older people and others through a number of consultation activities. The plans now submitted provide warm safe places for people to wait for their buses. Cllr Mackintosh said that now the planning application had been submitted everyone could see and form views how such needs have been heard and responded to in the design process.
The Chair thanked Cllr Mackintosh for coming to speak to the forum.
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