Appeal against DHL warehouse in Northamptonshire town cost council £170,000, according to FOI request

Planning committee members were originally told to approve the plans for the 32-hectare DHL employment site, just north of Towcester. The community’s strength of feeling, which saw more than 1,100 letters of objections and more than 100 people attend the September 2024 planning meeting in protest, encouraged councillors to go against recommendations and throw out the project.

Developer DHL later decided to take the rejected plans to appeal, which led to the government’s planning inspectorate overturning the decision after a nine-day public inquiry.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) said it acted “overwhelmingly in the public interest” when fighting the appeal and that the large payment would be covered by its annual legal budget.

Barristers represented each of the three parties at the inquiry. According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the total cost of legal fees to the council has now been revealed as £169,999.53.

The authority has stated that additional costs on top of external consultants and legal counsel have not been calculated. This includes council staff time, administrative support, printing of core documents, and WNC legal support.

A decision to allow the appeal was published at the start of April. Developers now have permission to build an 18.5 metre tall DHL warehouse and outline permission for further warehouse plots on the site.

The council announced shortly afterwards that it would not be making any representation on a separate warehousing appeal for land next to Bell Plantation in Towcester. Planning officers said that the sites had “very significant crossover” and that the reasons for refusal were no longer sustainable when looking at the DHL appeal result.

A WNC spokesman said: “West Northamptonshire Council has an annual legal budget that can be used to defend planning appeals and seek legal assistance. It was used in this case for an appeal which received widespread community support where the council acted overwhelmingly in the public interest.

“The council’s new administration will be prioritising work to put in place a cohesive and robust Local Plan for our area to protect our communities from inappropriate development.”