23 December 2022

West Northamptonshire Council has expressed significant concerns to the Home Office over its decision to temporarily house up to 400 additional asylum seekers in the area, which has already welcomed many refugees, and as services already in high demand face increasing pressure.

In early December the Home Office informed the council of its intention to use a former hotel as a fourth site for asylum contingency accommodation in West Northants, with the possibility of it becoming operational at the start of January.

The council and its residents have welcomed many asylum seekers over the recent months and currently supports the largest number of hotel guests in the East Midlands. While we are proud of this record it is because of this that we expressed our concerns over the unsuitability of the proposed location and the added strain that providing access to essential services would place on already-stretched health, education and social care.

Proposed timescales also added to concerns, not allowing sufficient time to ensure basic statutory services are in place to support the move.

The council has consistently made its concerns and objections clear to Home Office representatives but these have been disregarded.

With the new influx of migrants, there will be more than 1,000 staying in hotel accommodation across West Northamptonshire. This includes 250 Afghan guests across two hotels, with the remainder in four of the Government’s Asylum Contingency accommodation. In addition, around 500 Ukrainian refugees, who also need access to local services, are staying with hosts in the area.

The location of the latest hotel means there are three in very close proximity to each other, creating a number of issues including:

• Incredible pressure on a single primary care network, which looks after the GP practices already covering two of the hotels
• Capacity issues in local schools already struggling to keep up with demand
• Additional strain on adult social care which is already struggling with unprecedented demand
• Irregular public transport, with the closest hospital nine miles away.

“The Home Office has decided to use a further hotel within our area to house asylum seekers.

"We have expressed significant concerns about this move, due to the unsuitable location and the impact that a fourth asylum contingency hotel would have on services such as health, education and social care, already in high demand from all our residents.

"We’re incredibly proud that West Northamptonshire has welcomed many families and individuals fleeing persecution and conflict into our area through our resettlement schemes, and residents tell us that they are too. But it’s only right that we have sufficient resources in place to meet their essential needs and help make the best of their situation.

"This latest decision by the Home Office has placed services in our area under unreasonable and unsustainable pressure.

"This is not acceptable when there are other areas with nowhere close to same kind of commitment, and we will continue to make representation to the Home Office over this issue in the hope that they recognise that fact and completely re-think this."

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council.

Since the Government’s initial approach, the council has been engaging with local parishes, community and faith groups to see what support can be arranged in the event that the Government failed to listen.

22 December 2022

Left to right: Corner or Lorner Road and Bailiff Street, Abington Place Carpark and Semilong Road.

People dumping their waste on streets and a carpark in Northampton, were fined a total of nearly £5,000 by Magistrates this week.

At Wellingborough Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 20 December the following people were issued fines in their absence:

• 22-year-old Exauce Kuri of Bailiff Street, Northampton was fined £250 and ordered to pay costs of £750 and a £34 victim surcharge after he was found guilty of dumping a large amount of waste on the corner of Bailiff Street and Lorne Road which was found by West Northants Council (WNC) Neighbourhood Wardens on Thursday, 30 June.
• 28-year-old Dana Paltere of York Road was fined £73 and ordered to pay £250 costs and a victim surcharge of £29 after she was found guilty of dumping refuse bags by a footpath at the back of the Abington Place Carpark which wardens discovered on Monday, 20 June.
• 23-year-old Chloe Page of Semilong Road was fined £250 and ordered to pay costs of £750 and a victim surcharge of £100 after previously pleading guilty to dumping refuse on the street in front of her house two days before the collection day.

In all cases the defendants had been offered the opportunity to resolve the matter with a £150 Fixed Penalty Fine but either ignored the notice or failed to pay.

"The vast majority of people make the effort to dispose of their waste properly.

"However, a minority of people choose to dump waste on our streets, we are determined to stamp out this environmental crime and should people not abide by the rules they should not be surprised to receive a fixed penalty notice or fine through the door.

"If they do not pay the fine, they could face prosecution for the offence."

Cllr David Smith, WNC’s Cabinet Member for community safety and engagement and regulatory services.

This month WNC launched its Fly-tipping Charter setting out how the council will work to tackle environmental crime.

It outlines the Council’s commitment to working with local communities to reduce fly-tipping, backed by a robust enforcement policy to discourage and prosecute offenders.

The Charter includes a detailed plan of action including targeted patrols, the use of CCTV, and working with residents, businesses, and town and parish councils to avoid fly-tipping and gather intelligence to prosecute.

It also sets out how the Council will communicate with businesses, landlords and householders to ensure they are clear on their responsibilities towards managing their waste responsibly.

The new Fly-Tipping Charter complements the existing Litter Charter, which was launched last summer to ensure the Council takes a coordinated approach to tackling litter across West Northants.

22 December 2022

Public Health officials in West and North Northamptonshire are advising residents to 'up their hygiene game' ahead of Christmas and New Year festivities in a bid to ward off infections and viruses currently circulating locally.
 

Handwashing regularly and covering your nose or mouth when you sneeze or cough may seem obvious, but they remain important yet simple methods of keeping the spread of lots of viruses at bay. This is particularly important at this time of year when we are spending more time indoors together.

Clean water is something we perhaps take for granted. However, handwashing is still a vital public health intervention to help prevent the spread of illness.

Hands are the gateway viruses use to enter your body, for example touching a contaminated surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth. This leaves us open to all sorts of bacteria and viruses.

For many in Northamptonshire food will play an important part in celebrating the festive season with families, friends, and communities, so protect yourself and others by washing hands thoroughly and regularly, especially when preparing food, and before eating it.

The simplest, most effective way is to simply wash hands thoroughly with soap using running water then drying them. How to wash your hands - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Dr Annapurna Sen, Consultant in Health Protection for North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire Councils says:

“Coughing and sneezing increases the number of particles released by a person. as well as the distance those particles travel, and the time they stay suspended in the air. An infected person who coughs or sneezes without covering their mouth or nose significantly increases the risk of infecting others around them.

"Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough using a disposable tissue then dispose of the used tissue in a bin as soon as you can, then and wash your hands thoroughly, or use a hand sanitiser. If you don’t have a tissue sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow, not into your hand.

"Sanitising your hands is a good temporary measure after coughing or sneezing but should only be used as a short-term alternative to thoroughly washing your hands.

"Washing your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds kills most germs, including those responsible for sickness bugs like norovirus which aren’t killed by sanitiser.”

Following this basic hygiene advice will let you enjoy the festivities safely, and also protect those you care about.

21 December 2022

You may notice activity involving ambulance staff, as industrial action takes place from 6am on Wednesday 21 December until 6am on Thursday 22 December.

It is likely that 999 call handlers will be very busy and NHS 111 call centres will have fewer staff. Longer call response times are expected across the system. As a result, anyone with non-urgent care needs are being asked to first seek medical help from NHS 111 online.

Patients should continue to call 999 in a medical or mental health emergency – when someone is seriously ill or injured, or their life is at risk.

Impacted organisations within Integrated Care Northamptonshire have plans to deal with disruptions such as industrial action and have been working in partnership with members of UNISON and Unite to ensure emergency and urgent services are prioritised.

If patients have not been contacted and told otherwise, they are advised to attend appointments as planned. This includes GP appointments, which are not impacted by this industrial action.

There will be fewer ambulances on the roads during industrial action, with the NHS prioritising those with life-threatening needs. As a result, patients whose conditions are not life-threatening are unlikely to get an ambulance on strike days.

See the ast Midlands Ambulance Service for more information about industrial action taking place

For more information on when to call 999 and when to go to A&E, you can visit the NHS UK website.

Helping patients to return home or into a community setting from hospital

Our priority remains the safety and good care of patients and we are working closely with our partner health and care organisations in Northamptonshire to ensure those who are ready to be discharged from hospital can be.

This is an unprecedented situation for the NHS and we continue to face on-going pressures in our system. The staff in all of our health and care organisations are doing their very best to ensure that we have a hospital bed for anyone who is seriously ill, injured, or their life is at risk so that we can help reduce waiting times and ambulance delays at Accident and Emergency Departments.

Making sure people go home as soon as they are ready is a daily countywide effort with partners to help patients get any additional support needed to leave the hospital and continue their recovery at home.

To help us do this, we would ask all families who have a relative in hospital who no longer need care in an acute hospital, to help us to support their relatives to be discharged to their home or a community setting, so that we can make that bed available for someone who is more in need.

21 December 2022

Riders across the country are being encouraged to get around for £2 as part of a Government funded initiative.

Many bus fares across West Northamptonshire will be reduced for the first three months of 2023 as part of the Government’s scheme to provide more affordable public transport at a time when many are impacted by the cost of the living crisis.

Operators including Stagecoach and Uno are capping single fares at £2 from the start of next year until the end of the March.

This will mean a reduction of more than 60 per cent in the cost of the fare on the longest routes.

The scheme seeks to get more people to travel by buses and help to reduce emissions by taking an estimated 2 million cars off the roads during this period.

“At a time when costs are impacted by inflation, the bus industry has faced a challenging time.

“We welcome this initiative in West Northamptonshire, and hope that it will encourage more people across the area to make the most of bus services during the first three months of 2023 at this fantastically reduced rate.

“Not only will the discounted fares enable people to save money it will help to reduce emissions across the area supporting our objective of West Northants becoming net zero.”

Cllr Phil Larratt, WNC’s Cabinet Member for environment, transport, highways and waste.

The bus operators who have confirmed they are participating in the scheme across West Northamptonshire so far are:

• Arriva the Shires
• Cogenhoe & Whiston Parish Council
• Stagecoach East
• Stagecoach Midlands
• Stagecoach West
• Uno Bus