Who does what in Wellingborough: a plain English guide

If you have ever reported a pothole to the wrong council and waited three weeks to be told so, this is for you. Wellingborough has two councils and a police force, and each of them owns a different piece of your street. Here is the short version.

North Northamptonshire Council

This is the big one, the unitary council that replaced the old borough council in 2021. It owns the roads and pavements, streetlights, bins and recycling, fly tipping, planning applications, council tax, housing, schools admissions, social care and most of the parks and open spaces in the town. Its offices in Wellingborough are at the Tithe Barn, but most things are best reported online, with a photo and the nearest house number. Keep the reference number. That reference is what I use to chase.

Wellingborough Town Council

This is the council I sit on. It is much smaller and much closer. It runs Swanspool Gardens and the Pavilion, the tennis courts, the market, the Carnival, Party in the Park, the junior parkrun, civic events, the Mayoralty and grants to local groups. If your issue is one of those, it lands on a desk a few feet from mine, and I have a vote on it.

Northamptonshire Police

Emergencies are always 999. Everything else is 101 or the online reporting form. What residents often do not realise is that the police allocate patrols based partly on what gets reported. If the same corner is a problem every Friday night and nobody logs it, on paper it is not a problem. Report it, then tell me, because I raise patterns directly with the police and with the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

And me

I am not a council department, and I cannot fix a pothole myself. What I can do is tell you within a day which of the three owns your problem, help you report it properly, chase it with the right officer, and keep chasing until you get a real answer rather than a holding one. If it is not any of the three, housing associations, utilities, the NHS, I will help you find who it is.