Mystery continues to surround just how WNC allowed a car park to be built and operate in Northampton town centre without planning permission

At the back end of 2023, Zone Developments cleared the land - which it is now officially calling 'East Island'.

By December, Zone opened a 58-space car park - sandwiched between Lady's Lane and Greyfriars - and was regularly full with cars.

In March, the Chron spotted a planning application for the ANPR car park had been submitted by Zone to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

However Chronicle & Echo knew the car park had been built already and was in full operation taking money from customers for months - all without the legal planning consent in place.

WNC confirmed to the Chron that the planning application had been submitted and was out to consultation.

It also confirmed that the council did not own the land. Evolve, owner of the Grosvenor Centre, had sold the land to Zone Developments.

WNC said it was working with Zone to develop the Greyfriars Masterplan on and around the car park site - set for multi million pound regeneration.

Zone Developments is also currently converting the former Debenhams site in the Drapery into 201 flats.

The authority remained tight-lipped as to how Zone had been allowed to build and open the car park and whether or not enforcement action would be taken against the Leicester-based company.

As part of the planning consultation, Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was “disgraceful” that the car park had been allowed to open in its current state.

West Northamptonshire Highways also wrote a scathing review saying the car park was dangerous.

On March 26 WNC told the Chron that it has been in dialogue with the owners who had voluntarily decided to close the car park “whilst access issues are resolved”.

The car park was padlocked shut and has not been operational since.

Target decision dates were set for April 16 and then again on July 31 - both deadlines were missed with WNC saying reviews were ongoing.

Last week (August 13) the planning application was finally refused by WNC's planning department after months of wrangling.

Although the plans had initially been submitted by Zone Developments to convert the site into a car park for a three-year period, the applicant has since then changed to the ‘East Island Partnership’.

The WNC planning report stated that the site is known to consist of medieval historical remains of archaeological interest. It said that the applicant “failed” to demonstrate it had not caused harm to “irreplaceable heritage assets”.

The highways department also picked out its poor layout and access arrangement resulting in an “unsafe” development.

“The fact that the access is at such an acute angle facing into traffic, is dangerous,” it explained in its objection.

“Motorists will have to enter the highways angled the wrong way and must perform a U-turn to follow the direction of traffic.”

Another complaint by the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police said it was “disgraceful” that the site was being used, whilst remaining a “work in progress” with trip hazards and debris.

Planning officers concluded the benefits are very limited and do not outweigh the harm identified. Therefore, planning permission was refused.

However the question remains - how was it ever allowed to be built in the first place without planning permission and why did it take WNC so long to act?

The Chron submitted a long list of questions to the council, asking it to explain the process.

WNC said it knew about the existence of the car park in December 2023. It claims it acted at the “first stage” to approach the developer asking that operations ceased.

“This removed the need for formal enforcement, which can take longer and is sometimes unnecessary”, WNC said.

When asked why the build wasn't stopped when it was realised it didn't have planning WNC said the developer was asked to cease operating as soon as police and highways raised their concerns.

When the Chron approached Northamptonshire Police it said it received a consultation request from WNC on February 26 to do a site visit.

The objection via the police was submitted by letter on March 8.

The Chron remains unclear as to why it took WNC from December 2023 to February 2024 to approach police as a consultee and why the car park was allowed to continue to operate during this time.

When presenting WNC with another set of questions, a spokesperson told the Chron: "The owners of the East Island land progressed with development without the benefit of planning.

"Once we were aware, the council identified the need for this to be rectified and consulted with statutory consultees as to the safety and appropriateness of a car park in this location.

"The car park construction was completed prior to receiving this feedback however upon receipt, West Northamptonshire Council's planning service requested that the car park was to be closed following concerns raised by the Police and Highways.

"The owner has tried over the intervening months to resolve the concerns raised however this has not been achieved and therefore the planning application was refused.

"The owner is now considering its next steps, however the car park will remain closed as we consider future options for its use or whether the car park needs to be removed. It is unfortunate that the developer has invested significant funding into this scheme which proved not to be acceptable, this is an example of ensuring that planning is in place prior to starting any development."

A further statement issued by WNC said: “Once the council had been made aware that the car park had opened and that the developer did not have planning permission we started discussions with all parties, including conversations with the police and highways engineers to access the acceptability of the construction.

“We also followed Government guidance to advise developers of the need to formalise the planning status and that we fully expected a planning application to be submitted as soon as possible. A planning application was submitted and validated quickly which also triggered a formal consultation with statutory consultees including the police in February.

We can only enforce on a development where it is clear that a planning application would be or has been refused. As soon as concerns were raised, we contacted the developer and they agreed to close the car park immediately.

"A further period of negotiation was carried out to see if the car park could be brought up to a satisfactory standard but due to the constraints of the site this has not been possible, and the application has now been refused. It is unfortunate that the developer will have spent a significant amount of money on the building of this car park however this is the risk of not applying for planning permission and why we always recommend that people contact the council for guidance in advance.”

Zone Developments have repeatedly been contacted for comment.