It must warm Richard Church's heart to think that long after the Lib-Dems have vanished from the political scene (for another fifty years), the kids and dogs of the town will remember them. It's very handy too, if you've been sitting on the seats under the trees and got bird-crapped; you can nip over to the fountain and wash it off.
But apart from that, there's not much you can say for it. The council has spent £250,000 of public funding on re-hashing the south-east entrance to the market square, and about four months of the building site stifling trade to the market from that direction, and all they've got is a municipal feature pretty well the same as that in hundreds of other towns up and down the country. Surely they don't think that people will flock into the town centre to see a fountain? This is 2010 after all, not 1510!
1510:
("They do say, neighbour, that Northampton Town doth now have a fountain!"
"Verily? This miracle I must attend. I will pack the donkey on the morrow for the three-day journey. Is the fountain Blessed?"
"Yea, by the very Church, 'tis said").
I heard a blind man had wandered into it a week or so ago, and got soaked, but council officials said this report was unconfirmed, meaning that no official complaint had been made. You certainly don't want to be standing over it when it's off, as I'm told it switches on automatically at pre-set times; anyone could get soaked, and it would be particularly uplifting if you were wearing a skirt or kilt. It comes on without warning, Jock.
Eventually it's supposed to be controlled by electronics, but not yet. They are working on it, though if it's to be controlled by wireless that gives lots of opportunity for a spot of hacking into the system. You can see it now, some geek with his wifi laptop sitting under the trees getting quietly crapped on, making the fountain do amazing things.
I also hear the fountain is to be turned off at 9.00 PM every night, to stop drunken cavorting and lavatory use. Some drinkers are tanked up well before then on Saturday nights, so the CCTV boys should see a few sights. A Copper told me the CCTV there is old and gives a poor picture, which is why they couldn't identify the guy who plumbed the fountain the other week.
Can you just see the next headline: "Lib-Dems spend £250,000 on new CCTV to protect fountain!"
Let's hope that the Lib-Dems are the last of the real big spenders, and that those who take control of the council next May will ensure much better care of public money, whether it comes from local or national sources.
