Fire damaged Northamptonshire building to be replaced

The building, at Rectory Farm in Tiffield, will be used for business, industrial and storage purposes as per the previous building.

It was granted planning permission by councillors on South Northamptonshire Council’s planning committee.

Speaking at the meeting on Thursday (September 5), case officer Maria Philpott told members: “This is a former farmyard which has changed use to commercial use a few years ago. It’s located in open countryside, with the A43 to the east of the site. It was destroyed by fire and has since been demolished. This is the same size, scale and use as the previous building. At the moment, it is just a vacant parcel of land.”

The scheme had received no objections, and had won the backing of the council’s economic development team on the basis that it would ‘regenerate the use of the employment land’.

Although the scheme won the unanimous approval of the committee, Councillor Sandra Barnes said: “I could not see any comment from the fire service, which would have been useful given that this building was damaged by fire.”

Ms Philpott responded that discussions had taken place as to whether the applicants, RFT Partnership, could install a sprinkler system. But they had dismissed the idea on ‘economical grounds’.