Northants Telegraph Sunday Extra: Tories win by-election, agency staff spending and awards success

We've got so much news these days that we can't always squeeze everything into the working week. So every Sunday we'll bring you updates on recent stories, some news-in-brief and other things you need to know from across Corby, Wellingborough, East Northamptonshire and Kettering.

The Conservatives have held onto their Rushden Town Council Spencer Ward seat following a by-election this week.

The seat had become vacant following the death of Cllr Sarah Peacock in the summer.

It was won by Conservative candidate Tony Spooner with 255 votes, with Lib Dem Liam Wilson on 210 votes and Labour’s Chris Ashton on 131.

North Northamptonshire Council spent £881,000 on Opus agency staff during August.

August was a five-week month so the cost is inflated, but the figure has steadily risen throughout the past year.

The authority has struggled to recruit staff since its inception in April 2021 and currently has 732 full time vacancies. They have spent £3.423m on agency staff already this year.

The figure represents those staff working for the authority from its preferred Opus, and not those from other agencies. Councillors have repeatedly asked for the full figures for all agency staff to be publicly released.

DLT Engineering in Higham Ferrers has been named a winner at the British Construction Industry Awards 2022 in the category of the Product Innovation of the year.

The firm was shortlisted and then won the award in recognition of their transformational contribution to the construction of the 1915Çanakkale Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, over the Dardanelles in Turkey.

The DLT team developed the state-of-the-art lifting gantries which were self-erected onto the main cables. Almost 3.3km long, the bridge was erected in two months. This innovative gantry system improved efficiency and shortened bridge construction duration.

Jade Pateman at Elm Bank Care Home in Kettering has beaten all the competition to be crowned National Health and Safety Champion of the Year in the Barchester Care Awards 2022.

Her win was announced at a special ceremony earlier this month.

Jade said: “I cannot believe after all these years of being passionate about everyone’s safety within our care services that I would receive such an award.

“To be the National Health and Safety Champion is an incredible achievement and I hope we can not only educate our team but also the community on keeping each other safe. Our next challenge will be to set up our community fall fighters to support not only our care homes but also the public.”

A newly-refurbished funeral home in Kettering is hosting a Remembrance Day coffee morning on Friday, November 11.

The Central Coop in London Road will hold the event from 10am to 2pm with refreshments available as they pay their respects to those lost in war.

Expert florists will be holding a wreath making demonstration and they will be fundraising for the home’s charity partner, Dementia UK.

Tresham College, working with North Northamptonshire Council, hosted their first Techspo event at the Kettering campus this month.

Students started the day by taking part in a Dragon’s Den-style event focused on using technology in the field of sustainability.

Ideas ranged from the use of robots to pick up and recycle litter on beaches to solar powered e-bikes. The winning students pitched the idea of monetising recycling by using a QR code for people to tap, identify their item to recycle before opening a recycling container to drop the item into. Money is then transferred to your bank.

The rest of the day was made up of a market place with innovative businesses engaging with students on their area of technology and career pathways. There were workshops all day for students to attend and learn how different skills, including the user centred design skills to design their own mobile app led by North Northants Council’s head of digital Kat Sexton.

The Weetabix Food Company has committed to setting out a roadmap that will enable it to produce its first box of zero carbon Weetabix Original.

The roadmap will draw on the results of carbon footprint studies that the company is undertaking with its farmers to explore the different factors contributing to carbon emissions associated with producing their wheat.

The first study - completed this year with 17 of its top farmers who produce a third of the wheat supplied to make Weetabix biscuits - reveals that their greenhouse gas emissions for the 2021 harvest were likely to have been between 40% and 50% lower than the standard emission factors for UK wheat production used in previous calculations.

Weetabix has formed a collective of British farmers all located within 50 miles of its Northamptonshire factory to grow the best quality wheat for its products. Since it was set up in 2010, the Growers’ Group has involved over 350 local farmers growing approximately 75,000 metric tonnes of wheat each year across more than 4 million acres - equivalent to almost 3,000 football pitches.

The Higham Ferrers Footpath Group has released details of its planned walks in November and December.

They are as follows:

Sunday, November 6 - Cranford St Andrew

Cindy (07552993777) will lead this 6.5mile walk.

Meet at 9.30 am in Saffron Road car park for car sharing or 10am near the Village Hall, Grafton Road, Cranford St Andrew. NN14 4JE

Sunday, November 20 -Northampton Round. Leg 6 Harpole to Church Brampton- Linear Walk

Karin and Andrew (07879577433) will lead this 6.5 mile Linear walk

For car sharing meet at 9 am in Saffron Road car park or 9.40am near the Church, Harleston Road, Church Brampton NN6 8AT for car shares to the starting point. Please call the leader by Saturday lunchtime if you are walking so car sharing can be arranged.

Sunday, December 4 - Chelveston circular

Julie (07796281247) will lead a 6.2 mile circular walk to Chelveston.

Meet at 10am in Saffron Road car park

Sunday, December 18 - Colmworth, Bolnhurst circular Christmas hat walk

The 5 mile Christmas walk will be led by Cindy (07552993777)

Meet at 9.30 am in Saffron Road car park for car sharing or 10am at Colmworth Golf Club car park, New Road, Colmworth MK42 2AP

Christmas Hats and tinsel scarfs welcome and Christmas chat in the ‘Coffee Cup Café’, post-walk.