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18 July 2024
![Pupils and adults standing outside in the sun at Daventry Country Park with a wooden sculpture](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-07/2024-JW-Willow-Sculpture-Daventry-Park-5371.jpg)
A willow sculpture (pictured) has been installed at Daventry Country Park based on two winning students designs to reflect Children’s Mental Health week.
Hosted by Healthy Schools, Public Health team as part of a competition which took place last year to mark Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, students were invited to take part in an art competition on ‘what does good mental health look like’ to them. Schools who signed up, received a free willow weaving workshop during the week where students got involved and got to put their creativity to practice.
Winning designs from two students at Barby Primary and East Hunsbury Primary in West Northants have now been crafted into one amazing willow sculpture by artist, Debs Jones and is located at Daventry Country Park which showcases how connecting with nature can support positive mental wellbeing in children and young people. The sculpture installation can be found by using google maps or using what three words: shortens.catching.liberty
Suman Bedi, Headteacher at Barby CE Primary School, said: “This was a great opportunity for the pupils at Barby as we were really looking at wellbeing and mental health with our children and how we can help, how the children can help and what we can do to ensure we are always mentally healthy. Also, we have been discussing how we can communicate and support each other to ensure that we can always ensure that our actions don’t impact others negatively. The children loved doing this and we really loved the entries that came in. We are really proud of the winners as they can hopefully have long lasting impact on their school peers and now their local community.”
Kathryn Pennington, Headteacher at East Hunsbury Primary School, said: “Here at East Hunsbury Primary, we know that school isn’t just about reading, maths and writing – for us, it is about educating the whole child and children’s mental and physical health is really important to us. Each year, we take part in Children’s Mental Health week and we jumped at the chance to participate in the: ‘What does good mental health look like?’ competition. Children across the school got involved and wonderful, important discussions were had. We were then thrilled to learn that one of our pupils had been selected to be the joint winner and were incredibly proud of them. We can’t wait to visit the sculpture and to continue our work on Mental Health.”
Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Public Health and Regulatory Services at West Northamptonshire Council said: “This was a great idea from our Healthy Schools team to get our young people involved in a creative task whilst thinking about how connecting with nature benefits their mental wellbeing.
“Talking about mental wellbeing is so important and this was an engaging way to start these conversations with students. A big well done and thank you to all who took part, there were many incredible entries – and the winning designs were truly well deserved as the final sculpture looks brilliant!”
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18 July 2024
![four WNC office buildings](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-05/WNC%20Council%20offices_0.png)
The leaders and chief executives of six local authorities have collectively endorsed Universal Destinations & Experiences’ potential theme park and resort project. In a letter sent to the Prime Minister, the region's leadership emphasised the transformative potential of this initiative.
The project creates 20,000 jobs during construction, with an additional 20,000 jobs generated directly and, in the supply-chain during the resort’s operation. This significant job creation underscores the tangible economic impact the potential project will have on the region. Additionally, the project’s scale will help set England’s South Midlands as one of the foremost visitor destinations in Europe and the World.
“As a Council, we fully endorse this project and want to show our full support and commitment to working with both our local authority partners and Universal Destinations & Experiences to maximise the benefits for local people and communities.Cllr Adam Brown, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council“The South Midlands is extremely well connected and with West Northants situated just over 30 minutes from Bedford, this project presents an array of opportunities for our residents including jobs, economic growth and an enhanced visitor economy with tourists from far and wide coming into West Northamptonshire to enjoy everything we have to offer.”
“This is an exciting opportunity which will bring extraordinary economic benefits to the wider South Midlands area and locally here in West Northamptonshire, not only presenting us as a top destination for visitors from across the UK but also from around the world.”Anna Earnshaw, Chief Executive of West Northamptonshire Council
“We know the importance of this Universal project getting the green light. Not only will the potential theme park and resort serve as a major draw for visitors, attracting millions of annual visitors, with many projected to come from Europe and overseas, it will help bolster the UK's profile as a leader in the creative industries, a must-see visitor destination, business investment hub and deliver growth.”Laura Church, Chief Executive of Bedford Borough Council
The letter is signed by the chief executives and political leaders of Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire, Luton Borough, Milton Keynes City, North Northamptonshire, and West Northamptonshire councils, demonstrating strong regional support for the project.
Universal continue to share updates as the project progresses on their website at universalukproject.co.uk
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18 July 2024
![Two people holding a Green Flag award next to the lake.](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-07/Green%20Flag%20Award%202024-25.jpg)
Green Flags are being raised at Five of West Northamptonshire Council’s parks as they’ve once again been awarded the coveted Green Flag status, which celebrates Britain’s greatest parks and green spaces.
Abington Park, Bradlaugh Fields, Daventry Country Park, Delapre Park and Brixworth Country Park have all retained their Green Flag Awards - nationally recognised as the benchmark for the management of recreational outdoor spaces.
Bradlaugh Fields in Northampton has retained the award for the fifth year running and Abington and Delapre parks, also in Northampton, retain their awards for the eleventh and twelfth years in a row respectively, in recognition for the hard work of community groups and volunteers to maintain these widely used open spaces.
Daventry Country Park, which has seen improvements to its visitor facilities in recent years, achieves the award for the 25th time.
The Green Health at Daventry project was also successful in achieving the Green Flag Community Award for the community garden run with support from Daventry Country Park’s rangers.
It is fantastic news that five of our parks have retained their Green Flags for 2024/25. Our green spaces are essential to our residents wellbeing and provide vital environmental benefits for local wildlife.Cllr Rebecca Breese for Environment, Recycling and WasteThe coveted award recognises the brilliant work that our park rangers, community groups, volunteers, and residents continue to do to maintain and improve our open spaces.
To find out more about open spaces and parks across West Northamptonshire, visit our parks and open spaces page.
The full list of winners can be viewed on the Green Flag Award website.
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18 July 2024
![People walking in a street outside in the dark with string lighting](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-07/Greyfriars%20Emporium%20Way%20Night%20CGI%20web.jpg)
West Northamptonshire Council has been shortlisted for the Community Engagement award as part of the annual National Building and Construction Awards in recognition of their use of extensive and innovative community involvement and focus on the value of local opinions as part of the Greyfriars Masterplan consultation.
As the only Council shortlisted for this industry award, which celebrates excellence across construction and building, WNC is paving the way for community engagement in shaping transformational regeneration schemes.
Through their ambitions to repurpose the 15-acreGreyfriars site, which has been derelict since the year 2015, the Council’s vision sets out their ambitions to transform it into a new vibrant neighbourhood, which can revitalise the town centre and act as a catalyst for the infusion of new life into Northampton.
The proposals have been crafted by a multi-disciplinary team led by Studio Egret West, who have been commissioned by West Northamptonshire Council to create the vision for the area. This team comprises urban designers, architects, landscape architects, and transport, commercial and sustainability experts. The community engagement and digital consultation platform were led by specialists Deetu, part of BWB Consulting.
The Greyfriars consultation has allowed the council to be shortlisted for this award due to the fact that their bright vision for the Greyfriars area being an opportunity to drive positive change across the town of Northampton would not have been possible without involvement and engagement from the town’s lively and motivated community.
Cllr Dan Lister, Cabinet Member for Local Economy, Culture and Leisure at West Northamptonshire Council, said: “It is fantastic that the consultation and engagement for the vision of the future Greyfriars site has received national recognition. The prestigious industry awards bring together exemplars across the country and finest in their fields, and it is an honour that our Council is the only one to be recognised at this level. We look forward to the next stage and celebrating all the finalists in October.”
Engagement and involvement from Northampton’s community was achieved through utilisation of digital collaboration opposed to reliance upon traditional surveys and town stalls. Instead, town residents were able to participate in much wider-reaching online surveys to which over 2,500 people gave their responses and additionally over 6,000 individual comments were received. The website recorded over 12,000 sessions and 20,000 page views from nearly 10,00 unique users revealing the high amount of interaction with the community that the council was able to achieve through their use of online methods of feedback and communication.
In contrast to this, knowing that not all people have reliable access to the internet the Council also utilised methods which ensured that all town members could engage with the consultation regardless of how well they are able to access the internet. A clear example of one of these methods was an in-person event that was held at the Grosvenor Shopping centre on Saturday 1 June which was able to attract itself towards 680 people. A lot of these people that attended were unaware of the scheme previously meaning this event was a useful asset in introducing the Greyfriars scheme to more people.
The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony on Thursday 24th October 2024. Click here to find out more about the regeneration schemes across Northampton.
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19 July 2024
![four WNC office buildings](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-05/WNC%20Council%20offices_0.png)
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) will be developing a compelling long-term plan for improving the area and working more strategically with partners in the months ahead as it progresses the recommendations of a recent independent review.
Work is already under way by the Council on addressing the findings of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge in March, which looked in detail at how effective the authority is at providing services and delivering upon the vision to make West Northants a Great Place to Live, Visit, Work and Thrive.
A feedback report from the review said that the Council had made a strong positive start as a new unitary authority with ‘much achieved at pace’ during its first three years, and now needed to look ‘outwards and explore with partners what it wants for West Northamptonshire.’
Having also described external partner organisations’ relationships with the Council as ‘the best they have ever been’, the review said the Council now needed to build on this by working with them more closely and strategically on shaping the future of the area.
Within the report the Peers put forward eight recommendations from the review and the Council recently developed and published an action plan on how it plans to progress them, with work now under way. The action plan and timescales for progress can be viewed on the Council’s website.
Alongside engaging more strategically with partners and producing a long-term vision, other recommendations included developing how the Council plans for its medium to longer term budget pressures, further development of overview and scrutiny and improving customer transactions and the Council’s website.
The LGA review was undertaken during a four-day visit in March by a team of senior officers and members from other councils across the country who held more than 40 sessions to gather information and views of over 110 people including staff, councillors and external partners from the business, health, community and education sectors.
The Peers will now return to the Council later this year with a follow-up visit to measure WNC’s progress against the recommendations it has been set.
“The peer review was an excellent opportunity for us to invite in independent assessors as "critical friends" who could look into detail at how we work and let us know where we’re doing well and where we can improve.Councillor Adam Brown, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council“They rightfully highlighted key challenges that we need to confront in the months and years ahead, such as improving some of our strategic relationships and developing "a compelling long-term vision for the area" – and I'm delighted to say work is already underway on these issues, as we seek to build on the foundations we've laid over the past three years as a new unitary council.
“Three years in and after creating key joint strategies working with partners and residents, we will be bringing them together to create a new 5-year business plan that sets out how we will achieve the vision our stakeholders agreed when we started, to “make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive” and the actions we will be taking with our partners to deliver this vision. We will set out an area-wide strategic approach to housing and economic growth alongside partnership ambitions for improving services for children to help them get the best start in life and ensuring older residents age and live well.”
The LGA Corporate Peer Challenge took place from 4-7 March at WNC’s office in One Angel Square, Northampton. The peer team considered the core themes looked at by all corporate peer challenges, namely: local priorities and outcomes, organisational and place leadership, governance and culture, financial planning and management and capacity for improvement.
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