Council denies Northampton group's request to give them more time to read hundreds of pages of North West Relief Road plans

A resident group has accused the county council of "pushing through" Northampton's controversial North West Relief Road after it refused a request to give them more time to read hundreds of pages of planning documents.

The plan to link the A428 Harlestone Road and the A5199 Welford Road with a dual carriageway has been in the works for several years.

While the aim is to redirect heavy traffic away from the town centre, critics have called the current plans a "rushed" scheme to open up surrounding fields for housing developments while funnelling congestion and M1 traffic into Kingsthorpe.

Then, in June 18, the county council uploaded hundreds of pages of revised plans and gave residents a month - until July 20 - to respond as part of a consultation.

But residents group WASPRA has now criticised the council for "pushing through" the plans after they asked for an extension to consult on the plans - to which the council said 'no'.

In an email on June 25, the county council's principal development control officer Pete Moor wrote in an email: "Normally, we would grant an extension to comment where timescales allow but in this instance, it will not be possible.

"We are intending to take the application to committee in the last week of July and we need your comments to incorporate into our report."

WASPRA has now hit back at the idea and says it sees "no reason" why an extension cannot be given.

Co-chair Sean Brady told the Chron: "They've absolutely fired 10s of documents onto the applications and given the public until July 20 to respond.

"We're talking hundreds of pages of data. Even the best town planners in the world would take a long time to get through it.

"We're highly concerned this is being now pushed across the line and they have no intention of hearing our concerns by making it impossible for the ordinary public to look into it.

"It's not that we don't want a road - we do - but it want it to be the right one and right now we're saying go back to the drawing board."

WASPRA says the council's own traffic models show that the road will lead to delays of up to 15 minutes on roads around the NWRR plan and will cause severe congestion in Kingsthorpe.

It comes after the group commissioned their own traffic study in 2019 that showed the relief road would case delays of up to 15 minutes at one junction.

Council paper also showed delays of up to 20 minutes around one of the relief road's planned roundabouts - which was later revised and dropped 20 seconds, which Waspra branded as "nonsense".

The county council has been contacted for a comment.

It comes as Northampton Borough Council - a statutory consultant to the NWRR with the power to recommend it does not proceed - will tonight discuss the plan at a planning meeting (July 7).

Councillor for Kingsthorpe North Sam Rumens, who will speak against the current plans tonight, said: "What this road does right now is provide the building blocks for a large housing estate, and will be instantly full.

"It will not provide any sort of relief despite its name. Don't build a road if it's going to make a bad situation worse, go back to the drawing board and make a working road.

"The best result I can hope for tonight is the borough council recommends as a consultant to recommend these plans as they are do not go ahead."

It comes after a borough council planning committee waved through plans in December 2019 and officially said they could offer 'no formal objection'.