Upton Parish Council is aware of continuing concerns about anti-social behaviour at and around Sixfields. Residents have reported excessive noise, fires being set, speeding vehicles, loud exhausts and exhausts popping, and suspected illegal car meets.
Sixfields is not within Upton Parish, and Upton Parish Council is not the landowner or the authority responsible for managing the site. However, the impact on Upton residents is real and significant. The residential area of Upton lies immediately to the west of Upton Way (A5123), and homes and families can be directly affected by noise, dangerous driving, smoke, disturbance and intimidating behaviour. There is also increasing evidence of the car park area in Upton being used for a meeting points for suspected illegal and/or anti-social activities.
What residents should do
If you are affected by anti-social behaviour at Sixfields and/or Upton, please report incidents directly to the appropriate authority at the time they occur. Reports help build an evidence base, identify repeat patterns and support targeted action.
- Call 999 if there is an immediate risk to life, a crime is in progress, a fire is being set, or driving presents an immediate danger.
- For non-emergency police matters, including dangerous or anti-social vehicle use, criminal damage, intimidation or suspected illegal activity, report to Northamptonshire Police online, by calling 101, or via Report antisocial behaviour | Northamptonshire Police.
- Join the Upton Safer Sixfields Group. Upton Parish Councillor Mark Watson and a group of concerned residents have set up the group to help coordinate residents’ concerns and add pressure for action from the relevant authorities.
- Keep a clear record where it is safe to do so, including the date, time, location, description of vehicles or people involved, registration numbers, photographs or video, and how the incident affected you. Road-related evidence can also be reported to Operation Snap by emailing OpSnap@northants.pnn.police.uk.
- Sign up to Northamptonshire Talking and complete the survey to help influence local policing priorities in Upton: https://survey.northamptonshiretalking.co.uk/Survey/HASH/334CF8B837EE3A0E48D6742A26BF30D6.
- Do not put yourself at risk by confronting those involved.
Upton Parish Council will continue to represent residents’ concerns and will work with partners to seek a proportionate and effective response. We encourage residents to report incidents consistently so that the scale and seriousness of the problem is properly recorded and acted upon.
What Upton Parish Council can do
The Parish Council will continue to raise residents’ concerns with the appropriate agencies, including West Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire Police and relevant landowners or site managers where these can be identified. We will press for a coordinated response, share evidence and patterns reported by residents, and seek practical measures to reduce the impact on nearby homes.
However, the Parish Council does not have policing powers, cannot issue penalties for anti-social behaviour, cannot direct traffic enforcement, and cannot take enforcement action on land it does not own or control. Effective action depends on incidents being reported to the agencies with the legal powers to respond.
The Parish Council will be calling an Extraordinary Meeting to address the rising trend of anti-social behaviour in local hotspots, particularly Sixfields. The meeting will consider how tackling anti-social behaviour can be moved further up the agenda, including whether additional funding or higher priority should be given to measures such as improved CCTV, dedicated policing resources or youth work. We hear residents’ concerns, and we know this is important. With your help, we can keep the pressure on the relevant authorities and work towards making Upton safer and quieter for everyone to enjoy their homes peacefully.
