LOCAL RESIDENTS attending the March meeting of the St James Residents’ Association complained of the state of so many garages in the area. There are 1,800 empty council-owned garages in Northampton, and at a time when people are keen to rent a garage from the Northampton Borough Council, the council has many, many garages that are impossible to rent out because they have been poorly maintained – there are missing doors, missing roofs and burnt-out garages. This is unacceptable because the council could be earning a significant income from these garages if they were simply brought back into use. For some strange reason this article was edited out of the Chron’s ‘Down Your Way’ column of 3 April – was it too controversial?!