Relive the action as Northampton beat Exeter in the League Two play-off final at Wembley.

Exeter boss Matt Taylor and Northampton manager Keith Curle prepare for their League Two play-off final at an empty Wembley.

Inspectors branded a Kettering home inadequate after 15 deaths during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Craig Lewis
BBC Online East

Image source, Getty Images

A bid for more than £12m aimed at transforming the centre of Northampton has been submitted to the government.

Northampton Forward, external, made up of partners including the borough council, the university and the Royal & Derngate Theatre, has submitted the bid to the Future High Streets Fund.

If successful, the money will be put towards the redevelopment of the town's historic Market Square. Plans for the area are part of Northampton town centre masterplan, which includes proposals to radically reinvent the town centre as a shopping and tourist attraction.

Image source, Northampton Borough Council

Borough council leader Jonathan Nunn said the "bold and ambitious" plans would lead to "more quality jobs, better entertainment, better homes, better public spaces, better town centre events and better connectivity".

Northampton Forward is also developing proposals in the form of a Town Investment Plan as part of a bid for a share of the £3.6bn Towns Fund which will focus on improved transport, broadband connectivity, skills and culture.

• BBC: Plan to save 'decaying' town centre revealed

Trust chairman Oliver Wicksteed says the support has been "truly outstanding" as £370,000 is raised.

Northampton Saints sign South African flanker Shaun Adendorff and loose-head prop Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi.

A fundraising appeal to save much-loved Wicksteed Park has topped £370,000.

The news comes as the National Lottery Heritage Fund announced it will provide the Kettering-based park an emergency grant of £247,000.

One of the oldest theme parks in the UK, Wicksteed Park had been struggling financially due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The park is owned by Wicksteed Charitable Trust, but was run by subsidiary company, Wicksteed Park Limited.

That company went into administration, with the loss of 48 permanent and 67 part-time jobs, but the Trust has managed to form a new company aimed at getting the park through to next spring when it is hoped it can reopen fully.

The National Lottery grant, added to more than £123,000 already raised by the Trust, will be used to support free access to the park, as well as staffing, security, insurance, utility bills, maintenance, refuse collection and looking after the animals there.

Chairman of the charity, Oliver Wicksteed, said it costs £110,000 a month to run the park, even without its rides and attractions.

He said the response from local fundraisers has been "truly outstanding".

Dale Peter Bates is due to appear before magistrates in Northampton later, police say.

Inspectors find serious failings at a Kettering home closed after deaths during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Bedford say they have been "given a lifeline" after Northampton announced a strategic partnership with the Championship club.

The arts community is questioning why theatres will not be able to stage live performances - but can open on 4 July.

Kevin Roach, runs The Deco, external in Northampton, said being allowed to open but not to stage anything was like "opening a pub without beer".

Image source, The Deco

Peter Jay, owner of Great Yarmouth's Hippodrome Circus, external, said not being able to open on 4 July had "thrown a spanner in the works".

"The artists are not singing towards the audience which I think they were afraid of, and they are family groups doing all the acts, so it works well for us," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said it was "doing all we can to support the sector through government grants, loans, the furlough scheme and the Arts Council's £160m emergency response package".

The spokesperson added: "We are working with the sector to get it fully back up and running as soon as possible and considering ways in which we may be able to support it further in addition to this unprecedented financial assistance."

Tom Percival
BBC Radio Northampton

A dog walker who regularly uses a park has said the amount of litter being discarded is worse since lockdown started.

Serien Partridge has done a weekly litter-pick at Upton Country Park in Northampton since it opened in 2008, but for the past three months has carried out a daily clean-up.

She told me that she has found all manor of horrible things, including human excrement, "in the woods where children are playing".

Jonathan Nunn, leader of Northampton Borough Council, external, said: "We do need to more up here" and that the council would "challenge people" who were making a mess.

A planned reopening of seven libraries across Northamptonshire is going ahead.

They are: Wellingborough, Irthlingborough, Brackley, Kettering, Weston Favell, Daventry and Oundle.

The opening times will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 10:00 to 16:00 and Saturdays from 10:00 to 14:00.

Service available include:

• A signposting inquiry service
• Access to the internet by booked appointment
• A select-and-collect lending service by prior arrangement only

Image source, Northamptonshire County Council

Lizzy Bowen, deputy leader of the council, said: “The phased reopening will ensure that health and safety measures are in place and social distancing guidelines can be adhered to, to protect both our staff and customers."

The hospital said patient discharge had been "in line with national guidance".

A high of 32.6C is recorded at Heathrow, with temperatures likely to rise as the week continues.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A decision on building a logistics park on the edge of Corby has been pushed back a week after planning officers submitted new information at the eleventh hour, which interested parties would not have had time to look at.

Hundreds of objectors to Mulberry Developments' warehouse park, external at the Cowthick plantation off the A43 will now have to wait until Monday to find out its fate.

The proposal is for 4,300,000 sq ft of buildings opposite the Holiday Inn and stretching to the landfill site on the edge of Weldon.

In an unusual move the council’s monitoring officer Paul Goult told Corby Borough Council's virtual planning meeting, external that the application should not be discussed, but instead deferred because making a decision last night would have been unfair and unsafe as the information had only been "sent out this afternoon, however it is quite substantial and obviously significant".

Planning officers recommended approval despite the scheme not being in the council's guiding masterplan for the area.

If approved the 4,300,000 sq ft of building space would be built on the 1.6km site which sits opposite the Holiday Inn to the landfill site on the edge of Weldon.

Andrew Pomroy was discovered by police who had been called over concerns about his welfare.

Mike Davide is unable to visit his 13-year-old daughter, Bella, who caught coronavirus last month.

A mobile Covid-19 testing station will be in Northampton for the next four days in support of the government's national testing programme.

Image source, PA

Testing is by appointment only and can be booked online, external.

The mobile units will have an integrated one-way system that allows people with an appointment to attend for either walk-in or drive-through testing.

The eligibility criteria for tests have been extended to include anyone with coronavirus symptoms which include a new, continuous cough, a high temperature, loss of or change in sense of smell or taste.

Jonathan Nunn, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said it would offer "more Northampton people the chance to access testing closer to where they live".

Could the trend for working from home mean being on location in London becomes less relevant?