West Northamptonshire Council is committed to working with town and parish councils. The Community Safety and Engagement service operates a parish liaison function to help parish clerks gain timely responses to enquiries submitted to our council. The function was introduced following a series of recommendations put to the Executive Leadership Team in October 2022. The parish liaison officer can be contacted by email to [email protected].
Services are encouraged to maintain good working relationships with parish clerks and engage with them early around issues and initiatives that may be of interest to the parish.
This page has been developed to provide clerks with a single place to access West Northamptonshire Council and its services.
Below are the expected standards for communication with town and parish councils or the Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils (NCALC) as the representative body for parish councils.
Each service should have a generic email address for parish councils to contact, and a single point of contact identified to monitor and respond to this Inbox.
On receipt of an email from a parish clerk:
- an acknowledgement email should be sent within 5 working days
- a response on progress on the identified issue to be sent within 10 working days (which could be, if necessary, a holding email saying further investigation required and giving an expected date for a further response). Update email on progress to be sent within 10 working days if still not resolved, until the case has been resolved and the clerk notified
- failure on either of these would trigger an escalation email from the clerk to the Single Point of Contact for that service
- failure to respond by Single Point of Contact needs to be reported to the Parish Council Liaison Officer
- Parish Council Liaison Officer will investigate and respond within 10 working days.
Contact us
To contact various departments see our contact us page.
Clerks can utilize self-service options through the contact us form.
Organisational structure
See our organisational structure
Electoral services
Our electoral services team provides resources you might require for local elections, including a timetable of activity.
Licensing applications
The Public Register provides details of current licensing applications.
Councillors Code of Conduct
To initiate a complaint about a councillor.
Highways
Highways issues can be reported on Fix My Street.
The Regulation Team gives permission for planters, bins, benches and planting, on land adjacent to highways.
For all of these you will have to provide:
- a plan of the area marked to show location
- design of whatever they want to install
- a copy of agreement to maintain
- a copy of public liability
- a copy of adjacent landowner’s agreement
- if planting/trees we need to know what species
Please send details to [email protected].
Planning
The West Northamptonshire Planning Register holds all planning applications since 1974
Mapping
- West Northamptonshire interactive mapping
- Parish Online is a subscription-based mapping tool designed specifically for parish councils
Assets of Community Value
Information on Assets of Community Value including the nomination process and the Assets of Community Value register.
Customer Services outreach events
West Northamptonshire Customer Services team are available at regular drop-in sessions in libraries and other locations across West Northants. Find out if there is a drop-in session near you.
Emergency planning
Find guidance for preparing a Community Emergency and Flood Plan.
https://www.floodtoolkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Community-Emergency-and-Flood-Plan-Guidance-June-2017.pdf
If you need to contact emergency planning, please email [email protected] or go to our emergency planning page for more information
Waste management page
For any issues relating to Waste please see our the Bins, Recycling and Waste pages.
Litter reporting
Report a need for street sweeping.
Public Spaces Protection Order
There are a number of Public Spaces Protection Orders in place across West Northamptonshire including one for Dog Control and the Prohibition of Smoking in specific open spaces. Find out more Public Spaces Protection Orders. (PSPOs).
Generic email addresses
As described in the engagement protocol, clerks are encouraged to use the self-service options that can be accessed through the contact us page. If there is no response through this, the following email addresses can be used.
- Highways - [email protected]
- Estates - [email protected]
- Waste
- former Daventry District area - [email protected]
- former South Northamptonshire area - [email protected]
- former Northampton area - [email protected]
For any issues relating to household recycling centres - [email protected]