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27 June 2024
![Red buses outside Guildhall](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-06/HODs.png)
Northampton Transport Heritage Buses have been selected to showcase in the national Heritage Open Days gallery to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary.
The online gallery will feature 30 stories from across the UK covering the breadth of Heritage Open Days over the years and detailing the story behind each one to serve as an important record of the event’s history.
From 1 July, the public will be able to vote for their favourite entries, with the winning 10 being featured in the final gallery and being awarded a small grant from the National Trust.
The vintage bus service is a popular fixture in West Northamptonshire’s Heritage Open Days festival and was selected by the National Trust out of over 100 entries following an entry submitted by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).
The buses have been taking part in Northamptonshire’s Heritage Open Days event since 1994, offering a free hop-on-hop-off service between venues and attractions across the county during the 10-day event, delivered by a great team of volunteers.
Over the years, Northampton Transport Heritage has also provided classic buses representing various operators nationwide, including United Counties and on occasion buses from further afield such as London Transport’s ubiquitous Routemaster.
Heritage Open Days is England's largest community led festival of history and culture, involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations. Each year the event brings people together to celebrate their heritage, community and history with stories, traditions and histories all brought to life with free events and activities.
This year’s Heritage Open Days event will take place between 6 and 15 September and will utilise the theme Routes, Networks & Connections to bring together the past and present with workshops, talks, hidden spaces, walks and activities for all the family.
West Northamptonshire Council has again been co-ordinating this year’s local events programme which, for the first time, includes many offers from attractions across the whole of the county with the aim of making the heritage festival more diverse than ever before.
This year’s events include a film of Northampton’s evolving Market Square, a student showcase of Northampton’s rich heritage and fun runners getting into the heritage spirit. More details will be revealed shortly on the WNC website together with details of where and when the heritage buses will be running.
“We are once again thrilled and proud to be supporting Heritage Open Days with our partners at WNC.Graham Croucher, Chair of Northampton Transport Heritage“Our vehicles have been a feature of the event since its inception 30 years ago when we started with one bus! Now we have anything up to ten buses at any given time. This event is a popular one in the calendar and is looked forward to by local people and visitors from across the country alike.
“As well as the rich seam of history and historic buildings in Northamptonshire, people love the fact they can travel to them on a local heritage bus and they are, in this area, a key attraction in their own right. Our trustees and volunteers are looking forward to providing another fantastic event.”
Find out more about the festival and vote for your favourite stories in the 30th anniversary gallery on the Heritage Open Days website.
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27 June 2024
![Pride 2024 poster with pics of performers](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-06/Pride%20%281%29.png)
There is just two weeks to go until the popular Pride festival hits the streets of Northampton once again with a range of exciting activities and performances, hosted by Northampton Drag Queen Vanellope.
The festival, which is organised by West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) LGBTQ and Allies Forum and the Northampton Pride Committee, will take place on Saturday, 13 July, giving residents in West Northants the opportunity to come together to show allegiance to, and celebrate our LGBTQ+ communities.
This year’s event will once again take place at the University of Northampton’s Waterside Campus from midday to 6pm, with a programme of entertainment and activities, which last year, saw thousands of people attend from Northamptonshire and surrounding areas, creating an unforgettable buzz within the town.
As well as the organised parade from the University campus through the town centre and back, led by a colourful float, this year Pride committee groups and entertainers are inviting everyone to join in the parade. Keep an eye out for the 'Follow Us to Pride' flags to see where to join the parade behind the official organised groups.
If you are thinking of joining the parade, please let us know by registering to tell us you are coming! Follow @WNC on social media for further Pride announcements.
Entertainment on the day will include rainbow stilt walkers, hula hoopers, poetry and spoken word performances, a Drag Kings workshop, Drag story time and musical performances from Freya Rose, Phantom Isle, Afriene, and Leadley, with this year’s stage being sponsored by Northampton Town Council. NLive Radio have also joined this year’s event as official media partner.
This year, local firm GXO Logistics will be sponsoring the stall village where a range of products, food and drink will be available to buy on the day from local sellers including Beastly Boutique and Dam Good Dough. St John ambulance will also be on hand to provide first aid support, funded by Northampton BID.
For the first time the event will also feature a small second stage located near the stall village where people can listen to Tent Talks with local LGBTQ speakers and a reading from local author Maddy T Thomas and take part in a 'mansformation', a workshop with Pecs Drag Kings to help you discover your inner drag king.
The Northampton Pride Committee includes members from West Northants Council, the Northampton LGBTQ Forum, Northants Fire and Rescue Service, University of Northampton, The Lowdown, QSpace, NHFT, BID, NLive and Northampton Town Council.
“Pride is about standing up to represent those who don’t feel they can speak out for themselves while having fun with friends, families, and allies in the process.Northampton Pride Committee“Pride is a party but it is also a protest to recognise that we have a long way to go to achieve true queer liberation and there are still places in the world that oppress and suppress LGBTQ+ people and communities.
“A considerable amount of work has gone into the preparation of Northampton Pride and we hope everyone who comes along has a truly fun and memorable experience.”
For more information about the event including stage timings on the day, please visit the Northampton Pride Facebook page.
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27 June 2024
![Melanie Barnett smiling with new job title in writing](https://cms.westnorthants.gov.uk/sites/default/files/styles/responsive/public/1440/810/0/2024-06/Melanie_Barnett.png)
West Northamptonshire Council has appointed Melanie Barnett as its new Director of Children’s Services.
Melanie, who will be taking up the position at WNC in August, is currently the Director for the All-age Disability Service at Worcestershire Children First, the organisation which provides children’s services countywide for the local authority.
Her current role as Worcestershire County Council’s lead for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities means she will bring with her a proven track record towards delivering and improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Initially starting out on her career in children’s services nearly 20 years ago as a social worker, Melanie has extensive leadership experience and expertise across all aspects of the sector and a passion for driving changes to transform and improve local area systems, and was a member of the Executive Director team of Worcestershire Children First that achieved a Good overall Children's Services Ofsted outcome in May last year.
Melanie joins West Northamptonshire as it embarks on the next chapter of its ongoing improvement journey for children’s services – with social care outcomes for youngsters continuing to make encouraging progress and receive growing positive feedback from Ofsted and where partners are working more closely together on a fresh strategy to improve outcomes for SEND families across the area.
"I am really pleased to be joining West Northamptonshire Council and am looking forward to working collaboratively and in partnership with colleagues both inside and outside of the council, as well as children, young people and their families. I am excited to be a part of the continuing improvement journey and ultimately helping more children and young people to achieve better outcomes, and reach their potential, in West Northamptonshire"Melanie Barnett
“I’m extremely pleased and excited to announce the appointment of Melanie Barnett into the key leadership role of Director for Children’s Services at WNC. Improving outcomes for our children and young people is a top priority for us and Melanie brings with her considerable experience in all aspects of these services, with specific expertise around SEND which is among our key focus areas”.Anna Earnshaw, Chief Executive of West Northamptonshire Council“There was considerable interest in this role with a significant amount of experienced candidates wanting to join our West Northants team and Melanie performed exceptionally throughout the process. I look forward to working closely with her as we continue on our improvement journey for better outcomes for children and young people.”
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A Northamptonshire firefighter took centre stage at an international conference demonstrating how the UK Fire Service can improve its rescue of animals from water.
Mick Titcombe, a Command Training and Operational Assurance Team Manager at Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service, was a keynote speaker at the annual BARTA (British Animal Rescue and Trauma Care Association) conference in Glasgow last week.
In his speech, Mick discussed the findings of his upcoming research paper, which focuses on improving the UK’s preparedness for climate emergencies for incidents involving animals.
Responders, Vets, and emergency planners from 13 countries came together to form an international community of practice to tackle climate issues, from fires floods Earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Mick was successful in securing a Churchill Fellowship grant to fund a research trip to Australia and the United States of America in October 2023, where he was able to train with crews in both countries, study how they deal with animal rescues during climate emergencies and bring his learnings back to the UK.
Mick said: “Australia and the USA have different types of climate related disasters, but the devastation is very similar. In those countries they have responders and systems in place to try and mitigate this, and the main aim of my research was mainly focused on the widescale floodings they have, and learning how they respond and join together the different disciplines of animal and water rescue. It was great to be joined by Dave King, State Emergency service New South Wales Australia, and Eric Thompson Animal Search and Rescue (ASAR) United States to join me with my talk.”
Mick is hugely qualified in animal rescue, having been a long-serving firefighter at Wellingborough – where the Service’s Animal Rescue Unit is based, which is one of the busiest appliances in the county, with NFRS attending more than 80 animal rescues in the 2023/24 financial year.
He also has a strong passion for agriculture, with his grandparents owning a farm, and with a smallholding of his own with several species of animals. That passion led to his involvement in animal rescue with Northamptonshire Fire, where for many years he has taught new recruits all about animal and water rescue. He is now bringing his learnings from abroad into his training in Northamptonshire, but the Conference allowed him to share his findings to a wider audience.
Mick said: “It was a fantastic experience, and it has been great to share my learnings with the BARTA Conference, it is important that we share learning across the international community.
“Climate change is bringing new risks with it to our communities, and so as a Fire Service we need to adapt to those changes. Much of the emergency response models for flooding are focused on human rescue with minimal awareness, equipment, knowledge and experience of rescuing animals from water.
“I want to change this, and hopefully speaking at the conference has been a way of helping to influence the change we need in this country – whether it’s improving our pre-planning, our response, how we work with partners or enhancing the training we receive and the equipment we use.”
Chief Fire Officer Nikki Watson added: “We are very proud of Mick and the work he is doing to improve our response to animal rescue in climate emergencies, not just here in Northamptonshire, but in helping the lead the way nationally.
“We know Mick found his trip to Australia and the USA very informative, and he has already shared his learnings with the National Fire Chiefs’ Council (NFCC). Along with his speech at this conference, he is helping to shape national policy for the future, and his passion for improving this area of work is an inspiration to us all.”
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This week the Fire Service is bidding a fond farewell to Steve Corcoran, fondly known as Korky, who will be retiring after more than 35 years of sterling service.
Steve (pictured centre above) is the third generation of firefighter in his family, with his grandfather Patrick Corcoran serving as a firefighter in London during the blitz, and his father Kevin Corcoran (Korky Senior) serving 27 years wholetime in Northamptonshire. His wife, Claire, is also a serving wholetime firefighter at The Mounts.
Korky joined Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service in 1988, aged just 18, when he became an on-call firefighter at Towcester – going on to serve 13 years. In 1994 he started as a Ministry of Defence firefighter before leaving to join NFRS wholetime in November 2001.
Having been on Blue Watch ever since, he originally started at Corby, and sandwiched between two stints at Wellingborough, Steve served for 18 years at The Mounts.
During his time at The Mounts, Korky started to take a real interest in the building, becoming the official historian for the station (a role he will continue after retirement) and spearheading the campaign for it to become Grade II listed, a goal that was achieved in 2013 and helps to protect its future.
Steve, aged 55, said: “My father served at The Mounts, and so I have been going to the station since I was five years old. It’s a remarkable historical building which I’m incredibly passionate about, and it’s been a great station to work at as it’s probably the busiest in the county. Next year will be its 90th anniversary since opening, so I want the help make sure we celebrate that next summer.”
Long standing colleagues gathered at The Mounts earlier this week to pay tribute to his long years of service ahead of what will be his final shift, at Wellingborough where he currently serves, this evening (June 14). Korky has also now agreed to become the official historian for Wellingborough Fire Station in addition to The Mounts.
Wellingborough Station Commander Dave Wilson was on hand to present him with his leaving statuette at the ceremony, and in return Korky presented the station at Wellingborough with a display to feature about Hannah Sparke, who became a local hero during the Great Fire of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire in 1738 when she prevented the church from going up in flames.
Reflecting on his decision to retire, Steve said: “I feel young at heart still but have to accept I’m at an age where it’s all becoming a bit more difficult. This is now an exciting time to step into a new chapter and spend more time with my family and do some travelling.
“I have worked with some fantastic people on all the Watches I have served on. You spend so much time with these people, whether it’s around the mess table or on shouts, and I have formed fantastic friendships that I will hold dear for the rest of my life.”
Commenting on his years of service, Chief Fire Officer Nikki Watson said: “Steve has dedicated so many years of his life to keeping our communities safe and embodies everything good about the Fire & Rescue Service.
“Not just through his safety work, but through all the extra hours he has dedicated in his spare time to keeping our history alive and protecting our heritage.
“On behalf of everyone at the Service, I want to thank him for everything he has done and achieved in his career, and we wish him all the best for the future in his well-earned retirement.”