Developer of 'disgraceful' car park without planning permission in Northampton town centre closes the site... for now

Developers of a ‘disgraceful’ car park built without planning permission in Northampton town centre have voluntarily closed the site…for now.

The 58-space car park on derelict land between Northampton Crown Court and the Grosvenor Centre has been voluntarily closed by Zone Developments.

The site has been in operation for months despite not having the go-ahead from West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

The blunder came to light only after the Chronicle and Echo spotted the planning application for the car park this month (March) – yet reporters knew that the site had already been built and was open to motorists.

Earlier this month (March), a Northants Police, Fire and Rescue spokesman said: “This car park has none of the attributes of a safe place to park. It is disgraceful that it has been allowed to open with no permanent perimeter fence line, no landscaping, no lighting and no height restriction barrier in place all of which are commonplace on all other car parks in Northampton. Rectification works to meet that standard should be implemented immediately.”

West Northants Highways also said the car park is ‘dangerous’ partly due to being on a ‘blind bend’.

A retrospective planning application has been lodged by the developer, with a decision date set for April 16.

On Tuesday (March 26), WNC said: “The council is in dialogue with the site owners and understand they are going to voluntarily shut the car park whilst access issues are resolved.”

This newspaper went down to the car park today (Tuesday) and can confirm the site been padlocked and closed.

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

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

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.

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