The Ferret: English authorities under global scrutiny

That's not Northampton in Massachusetts, nor the one in Pennsylvania. The area in question is our very own Northamptonshire County Council in the East Midlands. Rarely can an English local authority have been the subject of a front page story in the New York Times.

The article was highlighting the situation in Northamptonshire to illustrate the wider funding crisis affecting local government in England. The in-depth analysis of the council's funding crisis - since February, it has been run by government-appointed officials and a moratorium imposed on spending other than statutory duties - assesses the role played by austerity in public sector finances and the impact it has had on local people. Despite years of cuts and closures to children's centres, youth clubs and playground facilities, one Tory councillor told the paper it was the prospect of all the council's libraries being closed that tipped him over the edge.