Your views on parking options and tackling anti-social behaviour at Northampton Racecourse

Overview

We are asking people to give their views on parking and anti-social behaviour at Northampton Racecourse, Kettering Road, Northampton to help us put new plans in place to address the issues.

Background

The Racecourse in Northampton is situated roughly a mile from the town centre and boasts a number of sports pitches (including changing facilities), a few playgrounds and is generally a very popular destination for sports and recreation, as well as some planned events.

In January 2023, you told us in our 2023/2024 Council budget consultation that you disagreed with introducing car parking charges to bring in line with other parks and address budgetary issues. As a result of that feedback, we did not introduce the parking charge but indicated that we would review matter at a future time.

Since then, we are aware that parking at the Racecourse experiencing issues such as:

• The Racecourse car park is primarily being occupied by people that are not visiting the Racecourse, and is
• Attracting issues of anti-social behaviour such as drug dealing and taking, and excessively loud music causing nuisance, and also
• There are reports of intimidating behaviours towards people using the Racecourse and its car park.

We are now looking into how we can manage these issues to ensure the access and safety of visitors by asking people to feedback on their use and views about the options being considered for the car park. These include whether we should reconsider a car parking charge with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and other crime deterrent features, such as further CCTV cameras to compliment the ones that are in operation on the park itself.

How to have your say

We welcome feedback from all Racecourse visitors, residents', local business and organisations, and others with an interest in the car park at the Racecourse.

You can have your say by accessing the online survey by using the link below. If you need assistance to complete the online questionnaire, would like a copy of it in another format, or respond via an alternative method our contact details are as follows:

Email address: Alan.Craggs@westnorthants.gov.uk

Postal address:

• Northampton Racecourse Car Park Engagement
• Alan Craggs, Transport Facilities and CCTV Manager
• West Northamptonshire Council
• The Guildhall 
• St Giles' Street
• Northampton
• NN1 1DE

This survey closes midnight Sunday 24 November 2024

For information about how consultation and engagement responses are managed, please see the consultation and engagement privacy notice.

What happens next?

Following this survey, all feedback received will be considered and will help shape decisions on how to combat the issues on the Racecourse car park. The results will be summarised and presented to cabinet, where a decision will be made on how to proceed.