West Northamptonshire

At a glance

Type

Unitary authority

ONS code

E06000062

Area

1,380 km²

Region

East Midlands

Fire and rescue

Northamptonshire

Police

Northamptonshire

Emergency planning partnership

Northamptonshire Local Resilience Forum

Largest built-up areas

Northampton, Daventry, Towcester and Brackley

Council emergency pages

• Council website westnorthants.gov.uk
• Emergency planning Emergency planning (westnorthants.gov.uk)
• Gritting and winter roads Gritting West Northamptonshire (westnorthants.gov.uk)
• Current emergencies and severe weather Same page as above.

Councils announce rest centres, road closures and emergency help on these pages and their social media. Find your council by postcode (GOV.UK).

Power cuts

Report a power cut or check one: call 105 free from any phone, or use the operator’s website.

Network operator (not your supplier):

• National Grid Electricity Distribution (East Midlands)

Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:

• East Midlands (National Grid Electricity Distribution): 34.3 interruptions per 100 customers and 24.6 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 44.2 and 26.1)

Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for West Northamptonshire alone. About this dataset

Flooding

Environment Agency: 11 flood alert areas and 24 flood warning areas overlap West Northamptonshire. Waters named: River Cherwell, Charlton Brook, Ashby Brook, Culworth Brook, Chacombe Brook, River Great Ouse.

Warning areas include: Areas near the Dallington Brook and Brampton Branch in Northampton; Areas near the Wootton Brook in the Collingtree, Merefield and Shelfleys parts of Northampton; Bugbrooke and Nether Heyford including areas near the upper River Nene; Clay Coton Brook at Clay Coton and Yelvertoft Brook at Yelvertoft; Cogenhoe Mill Caravan Site; Grendon Brook catchment including Yardley Hastings, Denton, Bozeat, Easton Maudit and Grendon; Isolated properties and mills near the upper River Nene; Isolated properties near the River Nene from Cogenhoe to Great Doddington; and 16 more.

Check for flooding now · Sign up for free flood warnings (GOV.UK). Floodline: 0345 988 1188.

Weather warnings

The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorms and extreme heat. Current Met Office warnings (choose East Midlands on the map) · What the colours mean

Health: NHS help and the nearest A&E

For urgent medical help that is not life-threatening, use NHS 111 online or call 111. Find urgent and emergency care services · Find NHS services near you (NHS website)

The nearest type 1 (major) A&E departments to the centre of each of the largest built-up areas, by straight-line distance (as the crow flies, not by road):

• Northampton: Northampton General Hospital (0.8 km); Kettering General Hospital (21.1 km); Milton Keynes University Hospital (25.9 km).
• Daventry: Northampton General Hospital (19.5 km); University Hospital Coventry (25.5 km).
• Towcester: Northampton General Hospital (13.9 km); Milton Keynes University Hospital (20.6 km).

We have not found an open official list of urgent treatment centres and minor injury units for England, so they are not shown here.

About this dataset

Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.

Water supply

Water company for this area:

• Anglian Water · Check on or report an issue

To report no water, low pressure or a burst main, use the company’s page above. Your water bill names your supplier.

Water resource zones covering West Northamptonshire: Ruthamford North (Anglian Water, about 65% of the area); Ruthamford West (Anglian Water, about 34% of the area). What a water resource zone is

What to do when the water goes off

Local risks and emergency planning

• Flooding: 24 flood warning areas and 11 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
• Northamptonshire Local Resilience Forum publishes a community risk register: the official list of emergencies that planners prepare for here. The register document.
• Hazards the register names include (our grouping of its wording): Flooding; Cyber attacks; Industrial and chemical accidents; Heatwaves; Terrorism; Space weather; Storms and severe weather; Power cuts; Wildfires; Snow and low temperatures; Pandemic; Animal disease; Public disorder; Outbreaks of infectious disease. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.

We list only what official sources say. We do not rate how safe or risky anywhere is.

Map

Phone and broadband coverage

Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in West Northamptonshire, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.

• Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 90%; from none: 0.4%.
• Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 99%; from none: 0%.
• Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 97%; from none: less than 0.1%.
• Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 94%.
• Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 233 (0.1%).

Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · About this dataset

Local radio

BBC Radio Northampton

This is the BBC station for the county or area, from the BBC Sounds station list. Coverage overlaps council boundaries, so tune to whichever station you receive.

Census 2021: planning prompts

• Households with no car or van: 15.9%
• Residents aged 65 or over: 17.1%
• Households of one person aged 66 or over: 11.3%

Who would fetch food or medicines for you or a neighbour on icy or flooded roads, and who would you check on in a power cut? Ask your pharmacist about repeat prescriptions before bad weather.

Largest built-up areas

• Northampton
  • Areas near the Wootton Brook in the Collingtree, Merefield and Shelfleys parts of Northampton
  • River Nene upstream of the Northampton Washlands and properties near the Old River Nene in Abington
  • River Nene and tributaries in Northampton, including low-lying areas adjacent to the river
• Daventry
• Towcester
  • River Tove and Silverstone Brook at Towcester
  • River Tove at Towcester and Cosgrove
• Brackley
  • River Great Ouse at Brackley

Other built-up areas include Collingtree and Milton Malsor, Moulton (West Northamptonshire), Cottesbrooke, Aston le Walls, Brixworth and Long Buckby.

Neighbouring councils

Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, North Northamptonshire, Harborough, Cherwell, Rugby, Stratford-on-Avon

Guides for any emergency

• Power cut: call 105 free. Priority Services Register · Compensation calculator
• Power cuts
• First hour of a power cut
• Flooding
• Flood alerts and warnings
• Storms
• Cold weather
• Grab bag and evacuation
• Emergency Alerts
• A battery or wind-up radio keeps working in a power cut.
• All council pages in England · All UK council pages