Council FINALLY throws out car park built in Northampton town centre WITHOUT planning permission
East Island Car Park, Ladys Lane, has been refused retrospective planning permission by WNC after building and running the facility without permission v.1
A car park in Northampton town centre which was built and run without planning permission has been thrown out by the council.
Work on the 55-space car park, which was branded as “dangerous” by highways officers, started as early as December 2023 on East Island, a piece of derelict land near the Grosvenor Centre and the former Greyfriars bus station.
Plans were initially submitted by Zone Developments to convert the site into a car park for a three-year period, but the applicant has since changed to the ‘East Island Partnership’. West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) today (August 13) issued them a refusal notice.
Though it was initially open for the public to use, the site was voluntarily closed in March after the Chron spotted it was operating without planning permission. The planning application asking for permission to begin building was only validated by WNC in February this year.
Formerly the application site was green open space with dense trees and shrubbery and was used as a pedestrian connectivity route between Lady’s Lane and Greyfriars.
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 has been refused.