Comments for SEMILONG.ORG Neighbourhood Blog

Comment on Semilong Northampton From A Young Person’s Perspective by Tell Sid

Tell Sid — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:18:44 +0000

Residents here, especially the kids, really need to be proud of their area but until things improve that is going to be hard to achieve. As the author of this article picks up on, there is a widening gap of inequality between different neighbourhoods in Northampton and Semilong seems to be ignored in many respects. In addition a series of poor decisions have been taken with regard to neighbourhood management in Semilong Northampton. This has resulted in a currently high crime rate (according to Northants Police’s own figures), of environmental issues such as littering and flytipping being widespread and of groups of kids hanging about because their is nothing for them to do. As the writer of the article says, Semilong needs to change…so that people can be proud enough of their area to tell their kids..“that was such a nice place”

Comment on Semilong Northampton From A Young Person’s Perspective by anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:29:41 +0000

wow, now i know i have been here once or twice from wooton and seen a few things thats bad about semilong it surprised me too see it so openly.. i think the kids deserve better there!

Comment on Free Swimming In Northampton To End? by Tell Sid

Tell Sid — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:52:43 +0000

What makes cutting the free swimming scheme so awful is that it is so badly needed and also so popular. The health benefits of it for the younger and older generations must surely outweigh the cost? Wouldn’t you think? Also the fact that it makes a profit should count for something.. However, the phrase all that counts can’t be counted comes to mind..

Comment on Free Swimming In Northampton To End? by David

David — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:23:18 +0000

Ending the free swimming for under 16′s and over 60′s was unfortunately always on the cards. The country is in dire straits and the Government needs to cut cut cut. It wouldnt be surprising if many services provided by grant from national and local government is done away with. brian, you said about three sports centres being transferred into a a trust. Not sure yet if this is a good thing as I recall reading many sports centres have tried this and ending up closing particularly in Wales. Don’t knwo, I hope it saves ours.

Comment on Free Swimming In Northampton To End? by Brian

Brian — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:06:42 +0000

I’ve just read the news that the government will be ending the free swimming at the end of July, saving just £40M.
I just can’t believe it.
Hopefully our local centres will find a way to fund it for a little longer beyond the 31st July.

Comment on Free Swimming In Northampton To End? by Brian

Brian — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:45:20 +0000

As a member of the customer forum at Mounts Baths, I am aware that government funding for free swimming was awarded for 2 years, this is due to end 31st March 2011.
During this period the council will be encouraged to find a way to absorb the costs of offering free swimming so this can continue beyond March 2011.

There are many factors to take into considderation as to wheather it will continue or not. One being that the current cabinet of the borough council agreed to offload the 3 sports centres into trust. They will continue to operate as a business and a committee of volunteers will be formed to oversee their management. This new committee will ultimately decide if the free swimming continues, but that will be based on finances.

Hopefully, with the centres being managed by a public committee, they will be able to secure more funding from opportunities that would not be available to a council body.
Lets hope the public pools of Northampton will remain half full and not half empty.

Comment on Fair & Reasonable To Fine Five Who Flouted Bins Laws? by Tell Sid

Tell Sid — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:12:23 +0000

Thanks for your comment net_gal. Councillor Trini Crake speaks a lot of sense especially when she says that residents need to look after their neighbourhoods and to take pride in their environment. Afterall, the environment standard we are setting has so many knock on effects, including in terms of crime, anti-social behaviour, and the basic safety of our children. However, we have somehow slid into being almost accepting of our neighbourhoods looking like a rubbish tip. It is wrong, so wrong. How are the generations that follow us going to feel about our stewardship of their environment?

So Councillor Trini Crake certainly has our support. If only she could extend her common sense approach across the whole range of Council Departments that follow practices which she sometimes has to attempt to justify and which fly in the face of her (and our) standard. We are not sure why she tries to do this. We have emailed her and asked to meet so that we could put the case to her to change these entrenched practices. Unfortunately, we had no reply.

Consequently, we are left with continuing to photograph and video record incidents of the Council’s own staff dumping rubbish into neighbourhoods whilst raising it as an issue very publically and lobbying for change in a wide range of arenas. One day, we are sure they will listen. They have already changed practices in one respect…but thats for another blog post another time.

Comment on Fair & Reasonable To Fine Five Who Flouted Bins Laws? by net_gal

net_gal — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:27:24 +0000

Good blog story and you raise an interesting point. The Council cannot operate with a ‘Do as I say Not as I Do’ attitude. Maybe that is why they do not enforce the recycling rules that often, they know that their own staff abide by them! However, I do agree completely with Councillor Trini Crake’s views and I am glad that a Councillor is taking this blight on our town seriously.