There can’t be many things that carry more gravitas than Northampton’s retail future, so we were naturally interested by Northampton BID’s presentaton to a Guildhall scrutiny panel meeting on Monday.
While citizens rode the carousels outside, a Chron scribe was poised to record the event for posterity. Only the attendees were a bit thin on the ground. BID chairman and keynote speaker, Stephen Chown, sent his apologies as he had only just flown back in from Spain that day.
Another speaker, Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Northamptonshire Chamber, was also absent, as was The University of Northampton bod who took leave due to “unforseen circumstances”. Still, there was committee chairman, Councillor Matt Lynch, to talk about his fact-finding mission to Norwich. Wasn’t there? Oh, wait, he was ill, leaving a perplexed single member of the public to pick over the entrails of a “debate”. Still, no rush to sort those “elephants in the room”: parking, rates and rubbish.
 |  |