Northampton Town Centre Watchdog

CASTELLO FORTIOR CONCORDIA

Sins of the past

2016

If 30-40 years ago a professional Saboteur had been paid a huge fee by the owners of Milton Keynes to destroy Northampton town centre, that person would probably have created the following action plan.

The first phase would have been to relocate to outside the centre, the following sites which naturally generated high and diverse footfalls.

  • The Notra Dame School from Abington Street.
  • The Derngate High School from Derngate.
  • The Borough Council from The Guildhall.
  • The County Council from Wellington Street.
  • The Police Headquarters from The Mounts.
  • Barclaycard from Mayfair.

This action plan alone would almost certainly have been considered destructive enough to devastate the town centre.

To be absolutely certain however, the plan might have added a few extra nails in to the coffin, notably:

  • The building of a few retail parks around the periphery of the town ----- together with the provision of acres of free parking!
  • The final blow and therefore the “coup de grace” would have been to then insist on parking charges from those with disposable incomes who persisted in making the journey in to the centre!

And so it came to pass!!!! --- not at the hands of the owners of MK but at the hands of our own political and civic leaders of the time!!

Can you imagine anything more incompetent?

Little wonder the town centre has problems, even though a serious effort has recently been made to reverse some of these insane actions.

The question remains: is it too little, too late??

Sadly, the answer is YES!

 

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