Neighbourhood questions why empty clinic should become grocery store when they live a minute's walk from Wellingborough Road

Neighbours are calling on the council to throw out a plan to turn an empty clinic in Northampton on their street into a grocery store.

A plan has been put forward to convert the former CT Centre acupuncture clinic on Billington Street into a grocery shop.

But with its location around a minute's walk away from Northampton's busy Wellingborough Road and two minutes from Kettering Road, residents are asking why they need it.

Two letters of objection put to the borough council's planning board in a consultation so far have asked what the store will add to the area.

One letter reads: "Given the plethora of grocery shops nearby, another shop in Billington Street is unlikely to be commercially viable.

"Any license to sell alcohol will impact adversely on the neighboring public house, The Artizan."

Another resident wrote: "There are already congestion issues with regards to parking, which another grocery story will only add to."

Both residents also wrote concerns that the former clinic does not have a rear access to take deliveries, meaning any drop-offs would have to be carried out at in front of the store.

The plans do not specify what brand or chain is behind the grocery store plan.