IT WILL be very interesting to see if anything actually comes of the alleged internal investigation into the borough councillor whose papers were found strewn across a Northampton alleyway.
Nahar Begum, whose papers they indisputedly were, has denied fly-tipping the documents to the Guildhall’s environment police. That in itself is progress on when the Chron approached her last month following the original incident and she was nowehere to be seen. Or heard. Apparently, Nahar denies a neighbour’s claim her rubbish was left in a back alley on the Saturday morning, a full 48 hours before collection, and was instead put out on Sunday evening. Better still, we hear on very good authority indeed that someone VERY HIGH up at the Guildhall actually went round and physically removed it themselves. A kind of municipal reprise of Harvey Keitel’s “cleaner” in Pulp Fiction. Bearing in mind the borough spends about £750,000 a year clearing up fly-tipped rubbish, we’ll be watching with interest to see if the borough – should its inquiry (if it happens) find against the councillor concerned – is prepared to fine culprits even if they are elected members? We’ve a hunch this will be brushed under the carpet. Fly-tipped even...
AUFONA’s impressed by the advertising campaign launched on the London Underground this week promoting inward investment to Northamptonshire. But in the week when the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership was bunged £47m by the EU, we’re a little disappointed its Oxfordshire-based PR firm didn’t do a better job telling us actually how they were going about it. So instead of showing us actual pictures of the (very good) posters which were being put along escalators, platforms and concourses at London Euston and Kings Cross/St Pancras, or the innovative use of “look Walkers” (a human sandwich board targeting business commuters), or advertising on the LBC Radio website, we had, er, this: “From 1st July, the campaign will go live in key locations to coincide with the launch of LOCATE – a new initiative offering grant funding to encourage businesses outside the county to move to, and prosper in Northamptonshire”. Luckily we managed to obtain an internal brief from one of NEP’s many patrons, the county council, which made an incredibly stodgy press release a rather good story. Could do better Oxfordshire.
HAS poor Liam Costello landed himself in hot water again at Wootton and East Hunsbury Parish Council, Britain’s biggest and most interesting municipal minnow (oh, pleeeaaase Channel 4). Is the rumoured standards board inquiry to do with his last blog, which kicked off, matter-of-factly, “Thank you to all those that voted for me, and congratulations to the Conservative Party employee, and Kingsley resident, Phil Larratt who was elected to represent us here in Nene Valley. Let’s hope that we see him here in Wootton occasionally”.
Soz Bran, you’ve still not told us everything
BRAN Eldred’s apology for “causing concern or confusion” over the, er, decision to turn Far Cotton Rec into a festival car park would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
Among the many unanswered questions from the elusive Councillor Eldred are at what stage exactly was a formal agreement signed with Albert Evans fairs to visit Eastfield Park and Far Cotton Rec or was it simply agreed over a metaphorical pint down the pub? Nor has he explained who was consulted – certainly not residents or local councillors – on the fairs and the car park plan.
The remarkable U-turn on holding a funfair on Far Cotton Rec looks mightily like The Mack has intervened personally and clipped his loyal, if over-zealous, lieutenant’s wings. In the grand scheme of things, funfairs aren’t on The Mack’s radar when you’re dealing with £12m loans to the Cobblers and rebuilding the town centre, but it’s hard to conclude anything otherwise than that Bran has gone off-piste here and needs to be brought down a peg or two. In the meantime, he can console himself that his favourite showman will be doing A Walk in the Park tomorrow and, very likely, for years to come.
BUSY Chris Heaton-Harris often takes to Twitter to impart his one-liners. One, last Sunday, was among his better efforts: “Why did the French chef kill himself? He lost the l’huile d’Olive”. Boom, boom.