I went to an extremely interesting meeting on Tuesday night - South Northants Business Forum. This is a forum set up to look at Business Development across the region and is very well attended by a number of local businesses and development groups. Representatives from Brackley vision http://www.brackleyvision.org/ and Towcester vision http://www.southnorthants.gov.uk/news/docs/2838.htm were also present. These organisations have been set up to revitalise the role of the two Market towns in our modern era.
There was a key note presentation from Mike Hayes who is CEO of West Northants Development Corporation (WNDC) http://www.wndc.co.uk/ Their statement of intent describes them as:
"West Northamptonshire Development Corporation has been set up by government to work with local authorities and partners to make Northampton, Daventry & Towcester better places to live, work and invest."
It was a fascinating presentation and it looks like a lot of great work is being undertaken (and a lot of money spent to support it to!). Their focus is to regenerate our local economy through the development of the area to support new business growth. As, if not more important, they are also ensuring that there is the community infrastructure such as roads, affordable housing, schools, hospitals, retail etc. to support the growth in jobs, thus migration to our area.
This is extremely important as demonstrated in Brackley and my experience of living in Bicester, housing and economic development must go hand in hand. One without the other leads to significant problems for the local communities. Brackley & Bicester have seen massive growth in housing over the past 20 years, yet have done little in the way to improve the Market town centres that this new housing surrounds.
One issue that did worry me somewhat, which I asked Mike Hayes about is affordable housing. With all the economic development going on in our area, we will hopefully see an increase in the affluence of the area. This affluence will undoubtedly lead to higher house prices. Mike's answer was that "...if we don't build sufficient affordable housing, we would have failed" I agree with this, but it did not answer my question fully:
There may well be a significant amount of affordable housing built in South Northants, but will it be built where people want to live? King's Sutton as we know is a fantastic place to live and I would not be surprised if people attracted to the area decide to come and live here. That is great, as I believe we all add a great deal to the fabric of our community. Unfortunately the downside is people who have lived here all their lives will be priced even further out of the housing market.
I am not advocating the building of huge amounts of housing in King's Sutton, as this would I believe ruin our lovely village; but there must be something we can do, as we also need to meet the needs of our village and villagers.
This is a highly complex and emotive issue, which to be honest I do not have the answers to. I will though discuss this at length with people in the village and on South Northants council if I am elected.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Village Meeting 27th April 2007 - 7pm!
On Friday 27th April I'll be holding a meeting in the Millennium Hall. I've organised the meeting as I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce myself to more people in the village and talk further about what I would like to do for the village.
The format of the meeting will be an informal Question & Answer session, as I'd like the meeting to be an exchange of ideas and for me to hear your issues and thoughts.
Communication is extremely important to me and will be an ongoing theme throughout my term if I am elected, not just during election time! I will be holding regular meetings and putting out frequent communications and of course this Blog will be kept up to date.
As discussed above, communication is a two way process; so please drop me a line if you'd like to comment on the Blog or there is anything that I can help with. Hopefully see you next week.
The format of the meeting will be an informal Question & Answer session, as I'd like the meeting to be an exchange of ideas and for me to hear your issues and thoughts.
Communication is extremely important to me and will be an ongoing theme throughout my term if I am elected, not just during election time! I will be holding regular meetings and putting out frequent communications and of course this Blog will be kept up to date.
As discussed above, communication is a two way process; so please drop me a line if you'd like to comment on the Blog or there is anything that I can help with. Hopefully see you next week.
Monday, 9 April 2007
Free Junior Tennis Coaching
Saturday dawned bright and early and saw Andrea & I at 0715! purchasing the refreshments for the Free Junior Coaching sessions, organised by the Tennis Club.
These sessions are held on consecutive weekends and are an annual event aimed at introducing children to tennis in a fun and informative way. The coaching was provided by Corey Butler who is our LTA Professional Coach, ably assisted by members of the tennis club!
The sessions were extremely well attended, with 27 young people coming along; the youngest being 4 and the eldest 15. It was great to see that over 60% of the attendees came from the village, which is well up on last year's figure.
Further to these sessions we will be commencing 6 week rolling programmes on Friday afternoons after school. The aim of these sessions is to provide formal (but still fun!) coaching to develop our youngsters into tennis players of the future. These have been very successful in the past and a good number of our 16-18 year olds are now playing for the adult competitive teams in the local leagues, which is great to see.
These sessions are held on consecutive weekends and are an annual event aimed at introducing children to tennis in a fun and informative way. The coaching was provided by Corey Butler who is our LTA Professional Coach, ably assisted by members of the tennis club!
The sessions were extremely well attended, with 27 young people coming along; the youngest being 4 and the eldest 15. It was great to see that over 60% of the attendees came from the village, which is well up on last year's figure.
Further to these sessions we will be commencing 6 week rolling programmes on Friday afternoons after school. The aim of these sessions is to provide formal (but still fun!) coaching to develop our youngsters into tennis players of the future. These have been very successful in the past and a good number of our 16-18 year olds are now playing for the adult competitive teams in the local leagues, which is great to see.
King's Sutton Roads
One of the key issues that came up throughout the Annual Parish Meeting and has been raised to me during my doorstep canvassing is the state of our roads. The roads in King's Sutton are appalling, and a significant amount of money and effort needs to be spent to bring them up to an acceptable standard. Councillor Melling discussed this issue at length and as always the issue is budget availability; money being available to resolve the backlog of issues and the current problems within the County.
Only 8% of the County's annual budget of circa £915m (£73m) gets spent on the environment, including roads, which I believe is not enough.
The residents of King's Sutton pay an ever increasing amount of Council Tax, and I believe that we are not getting value for money when it comes to our road infrastructure. If I am fortunate enough to be elected I will make this one of the key issues that I will address as a top priority. I will work closely with Councillor Melling to ensure that the road's within King's Sutton are prioritised and brought up to the standard we expect and deserve.
Only 8% of the County's annual budget of circa £915m (£73m) gets spent on the environment, including roads, which I believe is not enough.
The residents of King's Sutton pay an ever increasing amount of Council Tax, and I believe that we are not getting value for money when it comes to our road infrastructure. If I am fortunate enough to be elected I will make this one of the key issues that I will address as a top priority. I will work closely with Councillor Melling to ensure that the road's within King's Sutton are prioritised and brought up to the standard we expect and deserve.
Easter Week
We've had a fantastic week of weather in King's Sutton this week, culminating in glorious conditions over the Easter Bank Holiday. In my humble opinion there is no better place to be on a warm sunny day, then again I would say that because I’m biased!
It's been a busy week with lots going on within the village over the past 7 days:
Last Monday was the Memorial Hall AGM and it was great to see that the Hall is in great hands, with a highly motivated and skilled group acting as the trustees. The Hall is such a wonderful asset for our village and with the careful management that is clearly being undertaken, it will be an asset for future generations to use and enjoy.
Thursday was the monthly Parish Council meeting followed closely by the Annual Parish Meeting. We had a number of speakers throughout the meeting; our County Councillor Ken Melling gave an interesting insight into his activities on the Council and gave an oversight on the responsibilities of the County Council.
Our current District Councillor Valerie Whitaker also gave an interesting update on her activities over the past year and the issues she had addressed as the Councillor for King's Sutton. If I am fortunate enough to be elected, then it will be me giving the annual report to the meeting! It seems there are a significant number of issues that a Councillor needs to address and I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.
It's been a busy week with lots going on within the village over the past 7 days:
Last Monday was the Memorial Hall AGM and it was great to see that the Hall is in great hands, with a highly motivated and skilled group acting as the trustees. The Hall is such a wonderful asset for our village and with the careful management that is clearly being undertaken, it will be an asset for future generations to use and enjoy.
Thursday was the monthly Parish Council meeting followed closely by the Annual Parish Meeting. We had a number of speakers throughout the meeting; our County Councillor Ken Melling gave an interesting insight into his activities on the Council and gave an oversight on the responsibilities of the County Council.
Our current District Councillor Valerie Whitaker also gave an interesting update on her activities over the past year and the issues she had addressed as the Councillor for King's Sutton. If I am fortunate enough to be elected, then it will be me giving the annual report to the meeting! It seems there are a significant number of issues that a Councillor needs to address and I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.
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