LABOUR Northampton Mayor Suspended From Party

A West Northamptonshire councillor and former mayor of Northampton has been suspended from the Labour party after being found guilty of breaching a Community Protection Notice ordering him to clear rubbish from land he owned.

Back in 2019, Northampton Borough Council put its own Mayor in the dock after a disused plot of land he owned which became a fly-tipping hotspot.

In the years since, however, Councillor Nazim Choudary failed to comply with an order to clear rubbish and fix a fence to stop more dumping, and last month was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay the council’s costs of nearly £1,800 after being convicted by magistrates.

Yesterday, the East Midlands Labour Party confirmed that councillor Nazim Choudary had been suspended pending an investigation.

Northampton Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Warden for the area had tried to work with councillor Choudary to get the site cleared and properly secured in 2019.

But when the council received no response to their communications, a written warning was issued in November 2019, followed by a Community Protection Notice in February 2020.

And with councillor Choudary taking no action to resolve the issue, the council secured the land with temporary fencing to prevent further fly-tipping.

The resulting prosecution was delayed due to a backlog in the court system as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, before eventually being brought by West Northamptonshire Council.