Corby Liberal Democrats

03/09/2026

We back the plan to expand Rail Station with Alex Lock writing to MPs for Corby and Rutland to back our campaign to open rail to the north of Corby.

We had our Corby Town Council motion backed and now we want to see something happen.

Corby Rail Campaign

03/09/2026

UK goods exports to the EU were still 14% below their 2019 level last year, in real terms. Six years on, and the gap has not closed.

That border runs straight through this area’s biggest employers. The council’s own pitch to investors counts over 22,000 manufacturing jobs here, nearly twice the national average share; its growth strategy counts 17,000 more in transport and storage, over twice the national share. Making things and moving them is what this place does for a living — and it is exactly what a customs border taxes.

The council says manufacturing employs over 30% of the workforce in towns like Corby. This town makes things — and sells them into Europe across a customs border we chose to build.

Every one of the red lines keeps that paperwork in place. Join the single market, negotiate a customs union, and rejoin the EU. That is the Liberal Democrat position and we are not shy about it.

'Resolutions' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

02/09/2026

Nearly £2,000. That is how much worse off the average person in Britain was in a single year because of Brexit — and there are close to two million fewer jobs across the UK than there would otherwise have been.

That is Cambridge Econometrics, commissioned by City Hall. Not a Liberal Democrat press release.

On top of it, House of Commons Library analysis puts the tax the Treasury is losing at £65 to £90 billion a year — up to £250 million a day that never reaches a hospital, a school or a police force.

That is a per-person figure — every adult and every child in Corby included. Ministers chose to keep the arrangement that causes it.

That is the price of being outside the EU. The Liberal Democrats would join the single market and negotiate a new customs union — the biggest step back towards the membership we still believe Britain should have.

'This Too Shall Pass' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

01/09/2026

Free school meals now reach every child in a Universal Credit household. That is a genuinely good change, and families in Corby should claim it.

But read the guidance and you find the bit that did not change. A child who becomes newly eligible this month does not become eligible for a holiday club place — the Holiday Activities and Food programme stays on the old, lower threshold.

Same child. Same family. Same six weeks in the summer with no school lunch to fall back on.

That gap should be closed. In the meantime, if you have not applied, apply.

'A Kind Of Hope' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

01/09/2026

Homes England has agreed in principle that Pen Green should become a community asset for . What does that mean?

What it does mean: a public body with best consideration obligations has looked at a worked proposition and said yes in principle, in writing. Nothing like that has happened here in twenty years. It is a real change and it is worth saying so.

What it does not mean: it is not a transfer, not a contract, and not a promise. It is a door held open.

Metropolitan Housing Trust also holds an interest in this land and has not yet replied. We will work with them, and we are carrying on in the meantime.

Three things now have to happen.

1) The land needs designating as Local Green Space in the Local Plan the council consults on this October. Designation is the only protection that binds a future owner and a future planning committee, and it can only be granted while a plan is being prepared. That is why the date matters more than the volume of the campaigning.

2) An Asset of Community Value nomination needs lodging. A town or parish council can nominate land in its own area directly. It costs nothing, and it has to happen before any sale is agreed.

3) Tree preservation orders for key trees within the area. NNC can make them without the landowner's consent, at no cost, within weeks. They are the fastest protective step available to the council.

None of that is dramatic. All of it is the difference between good news in August and protected land by the spring.

https://www.northnorthantslibdems.org.uk/campaigns/pen-green-lakes

'Cirrus' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

31/08/2026

On 17 June, Ed Davey had a message for Andy Burnham, for Wes Streeting — “to whoever the next Prime Minister may be”. It was this: “Drop those red lines. Drop them now.”

On 20 July, Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.

On 24 August, Downing Street said he had told the President of the European Council that the UK “had to be bolder in terms of getting closer to the bloc”. The same day, Downing Street said there would be “no return to the customs union, the single market, or freedom of movement”.

He was asked. He is keeping them. You cannot be bolder in Europe and keep the rules that stop you getting there.

Corby voted 64% Leave in 2016 — the highest in the county. Nobody is pretending that didn’t happen. We are asking a simpler question: is this deal working for us?

Every one of those red lines has a price — in jobs here, and in money out of your pocket. The Liberal Democrats want them dropped, and we are clear about where we want to end up: back in the European Union. This week we’ll show you what being outside it costs.

'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

30/08/2026

Meet your Liberal Democrat candidate for the Corby West by-election on Thursday 1 October — Alex Bailey.

Alex has been reporting the potholes, overflowing bins, fly-tipped sofas and blocked drains across Corby West. He backed the knife bin now coming to Corby town centre, is pushing for regular trains north from Corby, and is campaigning to bring back the town's free fireworks display.

Corby demands better.

28/08/2026

In and around Corby, 1 in 19 reported burglaries ends with someone charged. Go out past Weldon, Deene and King’s Cliffe and it gets worse: across the villages of North Northamptonshire, 86% of burglaries never identify a suspect at all.

This is not officers failing to turn up. Every burglary victim in Northamptonshire has been guaranteed a visit since 2019, years before the rest of the country followed.

It is everything after the visit. In June, inspectors graded Northamptonshire Police inadequate at investigating crime and issued a formal cause of concern.

Fixing that needs detectives and forensics, and those cost money the force has not had.

'This Too Shall Pass' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

26/08/2026

£5 a month. That is what Ofgem’s new price cap adds to a typical household bill from 1 October, just as the heating goes back on!

All of it is gas. The electricity side only looks steady because VAT came off, and that is set to run out in March.

A tax cut that expires isn’t a plan. Insulating homes is.

22/08/2026

The Government is consulting on new "clean up squads" — councils would be able to make fly-tippers do up to 20 hours of clearing up and pay for the mess. But the plan is built around mayors leading the response, and Corby hasn't got one. Dumping out past Weldon and Deene isn't solved by a form. It's organised gangs running illegal waste sites, and they are beyond any council. Until the National Crime Agency is empowered to go after them, none of this reaches the people actually responsible.