Plans for 11-hectare employment site in Northamptonshire to go to appeal after council's rejection
Proposals to build an 11-hectare employment site on the edge of a Northamptonshire town, which was recently kicked out by the council, will now go to appeal.
The Government’s planning inspectorate will be tasked with assessing West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) decision to refuse the plans for a 500-job business site on fields next to Bell Plantation Garden Centre in Towcester, next to the A43 and the A5.
More than 70 letters of objection were submitted from members of the public as well as local parish and town councils.
Applicant Alban Mann LLP said the new full-time jobs created by the development would add around £16 million to the local economy each year. According to the indicative masterplan, the site would contain more than a dozen small to medium-sized buildings which would be a mix of warehousing and commercial use.
No statutory objections were made against the plans, but concerns were raised by local highways against “severe cumulative impacts” on the road network in the future if the multiple proposed large employment sites are approved.
An Alban Mann LLP spokesperson shared concerns at the November council meeting that their application was being “tarred with the brush of DHL”, another warehousing scheme of their site which received more than 1,000 public objections and was refused by the same committee just months prior.
He argued that the site provided “the exact type of employment development that was originally envisaged” for the area and that it should be a “straightforward” approval for members.
Planning inspectors will have the power to overturn the council’s decision and green-light the application if they see fit. The appeals website indicates that all evidence from the local authority and developers will be due in May 2025.
No inquiry date for the appeal has been set as of yet.