What next For Northampton Borough Council.

Since being elected onto the Borough Council in May 2007 what have we achieved?

The Council was judged to be the worse run council under the previous Conservative administration. Since being elected two years ago the Lib. Dems. have appointed a new Chief Executive and he has reorganised the management team. The councils performance is now improving rapidly and we expect that the very close monitoring of the Council by the government will end soon. This is good news for for residents of Northampton.

Exiting things are beginning to happen in Northampton after many years of inaction. The Market Square is being revitalised with new stalls, better catering, places to sit, chat and enjoy a coffee and a programme of speciality markets and entertainment to attract people into our town centre. We want the market to be more successful and we want the Market Square to be a centre for activity in our town centre when the market traders have gone home each day.

Another piece of good news- a Marina will be built in the old boating lake in Becket's Park with moorinfgs for 82 boats. This will help to kick start better use of our river. The second phase of this project will see a cafeteria in the parkand, we hope, private investment to the south of the river. In a couple of years this will be a nice place to visit.

Lastly I must talk about a biggest project that is going to happen in Northampton- the expansion and refurbishment of the Grosvenor Centre. Legal & General(the owners of the Grosvenor Centre) and the Borough Council continue to work towards a Development Agreement despite the difficult economic situation at the moment. If successful, and I believe we will be, this will result in the largest single investment in Northampton ever. It is a long term project-it will take at least 10 years to complete-but is central to the re-generation of Northampton.