A Timely Opportunity For East Northants

During the ‘boom’ years many towns throughout the UK embarked on hasty expansion plans, pushing for redevelopment, taking advantage of developers hunger for sites (residential and commercial), the abundance of finance available and a healthy demand from occupiers. Indeed, neighbouring towns often competed with each other and rushed through plans / designs for new developments, in many cases basing these on advice from ‘alien’ consultants who didn’t know the area well and who themselves were basing the advice on templates used elsewhere on towns that had little in common with the subject town - steam rollering projects rather than listening (and using) local opinion.

Many of these projects are now on hold – the finance no longer available – but the projects have been approved and based on what are now historic trends (probably outdated and unlikely to return for many years) – some too advanced for major re-modelling.

There is no doubt that East Northants would have been caught up in this maelstrom (much akin to panic buying) but just in time, the panic is over.

So with time on their hands and the ability to look back on the errors of others, now is the time to take a more measured and considered review of future plans.

Not every town needs to be the same, have the same shops, same pubs, same street furniture and same vision. How refreshing it would be for East Northants to buck the trend and ‘paddle its own canoe’. With so many ‘old fashioned’ market towns striving to become modern metropolises, each completing directly with each other, surely it would be so much better to design a town to compliment its neighbours. With the A45 & A14 cutting through the district like a hot knife through butter, the population has the ability to easily access the bright lights of MK and Birmingham. Any overwhelming desire to visit Dorothy Perkins or Monsoon can be quenched within an hour’s drive (mores the pity).

Town planners and development consultants / developers have for too long based their advice on the commerciality of multiple retailers / businesses. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not adverse to change – that’s my point. Change would be avoiding the monotony of another ‘plastic’ town.

Perhaps a return to values linked to the community, with local produce and local services would be so much more attractive to the local population – not to say far more sustainable. No doubt there are those that will point out that this approach would deprive those without cars to their weekly rendezvous with Dorothy...but perhaps this would encourage more effort from those running public transport to make their services and vehicles more comfortable, attractive and efficient.

East Northants is set in some wonderful countryside, scattered with lovely villages offering a high standard of living. The Local Authority has maintained this ‘life style’ and contributed to it with major projects like Stanwick Lakes. It’s not devoid of 21^st century retail either – Crown Park boasts a John Lewis / Waitrose Food & Leisure Superstore, Focus DIY & Lidl discount food retailer, whilst Rushden town centre provides an Asda superstore, WH Smith and Boots as well as many other local retailers. Traffic flow works well (unlike many of its neighbouring towns), parking is easy. The High street is compact and user friendly. The employment land and industrial estates are all easily accessible from the ring roads / A45 without having to pass through the town centre.

So the existing framework looks good. All that is needed is to hit the ‘refresh button’ rather than the erase button.

With the opportunities now present, there should be no excuse for getting it wrong........

Saturday, August 1, 2009