Across West Northamptonshire, voters will elect 76 councillors in 35 different wards. More than 350 candidates are standing from ten political parties, as well as a number of independents. Find a full list of candidates here.
Chronicle & Echo has reached out the leaders of the parties to ask them about four topics that matter most to our readers.
Over the next few days we will be publishing a series of articles, detailing the responses we have received from some of the political parties competing for your votes on polling day on Thursday May 1.
Next up is the issue of mass infrastructure the effect on facilities such as health setting and schools. We asked the leaders what their party intends to do to address the issue if they are elected.
We received responses from the Conservatives, the Green Party, the Heritage Party (which has one candidate standing in Dallington and Spencer), an Independent candidate, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
Below are the responses from those parties regarding the issue of mass infrastructure and the effect on facilities such as health setting and schools, in alphabetical order of party name.
Chronicle & Echo also contacted The Social Democratic Party and The Labour and Co-operative Party - who have candidates standing in West Northamptonshire - but we did not receive a response.
If any independent candidates would like to offer their response to this issue, please email [email protected].
The first article about potholes can be found here. And the second article about fly-tipping and littering can be found here. Click here for responses to regulating HMOs.
1. Leaders of political parties in West Northamptonshire have their say ahead of polling day
Here's what the leaders had to say about mass infrastructure and the impact on facilities... Photo: Various
2. Conservatives
Leader of the West Northamptonshire Conservatives, Cllr Adam Brown, said: "Labour have decided that thousands more homes must be delivered in West Northamptonshire, and they’ve also brought forward proposals to deny local communities a say on planning by preventing the vast majority of decisions from going in front of a committee of local members. This direct attack on local democracy will have a chilling effect on the ability of councillors to demand the right facilities on development sites or to apply sensible conditions to developments around road safety or adequate parking provision that their local knowledge can bring. The Conservatives will ensure that planners at the council remain answerable to local representatives in one form or another whether through public scrutiny meetings or by being quizzed by a specialist planning committee. We are also ready to start asking residents across West Northamptonshire about what planning priorities should be set out in the new local plan. That means where development takes place, what infrastructure is a priority to them, and what green spaces matter most in their areas. That means we can capture local nuances such as difficulties in accessing GP surgeries, issues with school provision, and incorporate those concerns into planning policy for the years ahead. The Conservatives would take a community-led approach to planning, and resist Labour’s top-down diktats including the building of New Towns in our precious countryside. We are a county with magnificent rurality, and we need to keep it that way." Photo: WNC
3. The Green Party
Emmie Willliamson is Chair of West Northamptonshire Green Party. The party said: "The new national planning framework, if fully implemented, is going to require WNC to approve a massive increase in housebuilding. Green belt land is threatened in a way that it has not been for decades and current local plans – which set out what kind of developments local communities can expect – will need to be scrapped. We’ve seen the effects of poor planning decisions all over our area. From villages that don’t have a proper centre anymore, to increased flooding, crumbling roads, and overstretched doctors and dentists. Where playgrounds and parks have been promised, the developers can too often get away with not delivering these. The Green Party believes in the right homes in the right places at the right price. Green Party councillors will support communities to protect their neighbourhoods and villages. Sprawling estates of low-quality houses aren’t acceptable. Nor are over-priced executive homes that local people can’t afford. Proposals that don’t include upgrades to local roads, drainage, sewage treatment, playgrounds, schools and medical facilities should be sent back. With the new regulations, it will not always be possible to simply say ‘NO’ to a proposal, so we want to make sure that local communities are ready with their demands for ‘ONLY IF.’ And we’ll push the council’s lawyers to go after any developers who don’t deliver exactly what local people signed up for. Like other councils, WNC is holding a big reserve of unspent section 106 money – funds that housing developers pay the council to improve local services. Green Party councillors will demand transparency about the council’s plans for these funds. It’s not good enough that money meant for local projects has been sitting for years in the council’s bank account." Photo: The Green Party
4. Heritage Party
Kim Fuller, who is standing for the Heritage Party in Dallington and Spencer, said: "The whole country has a housing crisis which is inextricably linked to mass, rapid immigration over the last 25 years. The population has grown from 59 million in 2000 to officially 69 million in 2025. Successive governments have accelerated the pace of immigration until now net migration stands at 700,000 per year. The current government has said on record that five out of seven of the 1.5 million homes they want to build in the next four years will not be for local constituents, but for asylum seekers and migrants. Local constituents who need council housing will have no choice but to continue to live in conditions with damp and mould, something which has been ongoing since the 1960s. Yet there are simply not enough houses being built for all the immigrants coming to the country let alone for British people wanting to have a home of their own and perhaps start a family. Neither are there enough public services to cope with the influx of new people arriving in our town with all the extra housing developments being built. There are not enough doctors, surgeries, dentists, hospital beds and school places for all the extra people that are being pushed into Northampton. The Heritage Party would advocate for an end to the era of mass rapid immigration which is the only way to stop the pressure on our public services and our countryside and return to normality." Photo: Kim Fuller