New venue for North Northamptonshire council chamber decided this week

A decision will be made this week about whether to hire a Kettering venue as the council chamber for the new North Northamptonshire shadow unitary authority.

The North Northamptonshire Joint Committee is being recommended to approve hiring the Kettering Conference Centre as the new chamber for council meetings.

The venue has been proposed because none of the four existing council chambers in the area are large enough to fit the 78 councillors who will be elected to the shadow council. The new unitary proper will be created in April 2021 when the county’s existing county and borough councils are closed down.

A plan to modify the chamber at Corby Cube was voted against by the existing leaders of the four councils in the north of the county, however Corby Council’s leader Cllr Tom Beattie has voiced his annoyance at the decision.

Although the financial costs are not included in the paper that will go before councils on Thursday (March 5) Cllr Beattie has said the cost of hiring Kettering Conference Centre will be £13,000 and costs to have adapted Corby Cube would have stood at around £39,000.

The recommendation is to block book the Kettering venue, however the committee could decide to put forward an amendment and decide to go with the Corby option.

The paper says the first meeting of the full shadow council will take place on May 21, two weeks after elections take place, and the other executive and committee meetings of the council will be held in rooms at the existing councils.

At the meeting there will also be an update on the unitary reorganisation and and a code of conduct for the shadow unitary councillors to abide by will be up for approval.

The meeting will take place at 6.30pm at Kettering Council’s chamber and is open to the public.