Council confirms it DOESN'T own land where Northampton car park is operating WITHOUT permission but refuses to comment further

The developer who has built and opened a car park in Northampton without planning permission is the land owner, according to West Northamptonshire Council.

A 58-space car park on derelict land between Northampton Crown Court and the Grosvenor Centre is already built and in full operation, despite not having the go-ahead from West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

The blunder came to light only after the Chron spotted the planning application for the car park last week – yet reporters knew that the site had already been built and was open to motorists.

It was initially unclear who owned the land – formerly known as ‘rat island’ and officially now known as East Island Car Park - which sits next to vacant land next to the former Greyfriars bus station which is due to form part of a huge regeneration project in that area of town.

More than a week later Councillor Daniel Lister, cabinet member for Town Centre Regeneration and Growth, has now said that WNC is “working with the developer” in terms of the Greyfriars masterplan.

It is understood the car park to be a temporary development and will not be part of the regeneration project when it is finalised.

The land is currently owned by Zone Developments, after being sold by Evolve, the owner of the Grosvenor Centre.

The name listed on the WNC planning application for the East Island Car Park is Neil Thakkar of Zone Developments, based in Leicester.

Zone Developments is the same firm which is currently converting the former Debenhams site in Drapery into 201 student flats, which will be spread across seven floors of a brand new building.

The company will not be providing any car parking spaces at Debenhams for the hundreds of students set to move into the halls once they are open.

Zone Developments cleared the East Island land last year and began operating the ANPR car park system in December.

Councillor Danielle Stone, a Castle ward representative, said: “I understand Zone Developments have applied for retrospective planning permission. I am shocked because I thought East Island was going to be part of the regeneration scheme for this area. How is a car park going to fit with regeneration? It makes no sense.”

Councillor Enam Haque, also a Castle ward representative, said: “We should have a robust plan in place in terms of dealing with these sorts of applications. Going forward this should never happen again.

“Obviously it doesn’t look good on the authority and it doesn’t look good on the developer.”

The planning application is now in the hands of the WNC planning department which is expected to make a decision via delegated powers rather than it going to a planning committee meeting.

A spokesperson from WNC said: “A full planning application has been submitted and is out to consultation.

"Once determined, the outcome will be published on the West Northamptonshire Council website for members of the public to review.

“Planning enforcement officers have now been made aware of this issue and planning services are in the process of prioritising this planning application. Once this is determined, we will take any appropriate next steps.”

Further questions have been put to WNC about how the car park was allowed to be built and opened without permission.

WNC said it would not comment any further due to this being "a live planning application”.

Several attempts at contacting Zone Developments have been made by the Chron.