Tory Planning and Crookery again

[Colin Warnek]

After HS2, you couldn't make this up.... could you?​

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Warehouse ‘monstrosity’ looms over homes after blundering council consults wrong street​

Corby residents say they are 'living in hell' after they awoke to find a large metal frame erected yards from their back doors

Ewan Somerville6 February 2024 • 3:50pm

Related Topics

• Planning,
• Local councils,
• UK property

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The huge frame for the warehouse has been erected yards from residential homes CREDIT: Tom Maddick/SWNS
Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.
Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.
Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.
North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.
The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.
The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.

Town hall bosses have admitted the blunder but insisted they still acted legally. However, residents say they are “living in hell” after builders moved in.
Groundwork construction at the site began in November, but in the past month the structure has started to be erected, which has left residents distressed by the banging of metal.
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Georgie Wallis, one of those affected, said: “How can you get that so wrong? How can you make such an error and wonder why no one has objected?
“It’s enormous. Once the shell goes in it, that’s going to be a complete eyesore, and it already is, it’s awful.”
Another neighbour, Jose Cruz, 64, and his wife Olga, 59, moved into their £200,000 two-bedroom semi-detached home in 2011 and fear they will now be unable to sell it.

Eight-acre site will have parking for 109 cars and 25 HGVs CREDIT: Tom Maddick/SWNS
Mr Cruz, a supermarket worker, said: “It’s a nightmare, the building will leave our home in complete darkness.
“There used to be a Weetabix factory on the site but that was half the size of this monstrosity and it had been dormant for a long time.
“We get the sun in the morning into our kitchen, garden and bedroom but not any more.”
Operations manager Kieran Joseph, 30, has lived in the street with hairdresser Megan Cowan, 28, and their two children, for seven years but is now considering moving.
“The vibrations have caused a crack in our roof so the kids’ bedroom leaks and when I or Megan work from home we’ve had to explain and apologise to customers because of the noise,” he said.
“The galling thing is the council consulted the wrong road of residents and gave them detailed information and milestone dates while we were just kept in the dark.”

Kieran Joseph and Megan Cowan say the building has caused a crack in their roof CREDIT: Tom Maddick/SWNS
The eight-acre site will have enough parking for 109 cars and 25 HGVs and is already being advertised as a distribution warehouse to lease on Rightmove.
Mark Pengelly, a Labour councillor, said: “Incredibly the North Northants planning officers consulted with homes next to a different Weetabix site [on Hubble Road].
“My constituents are furious and would have objected to how close the buildings are to their homes.”
Jason Smithers, the council’s Conservative leader, confirmed that “letters about a planning application [were] sent to residents in Hubble Road, Corby, instead of Hooke Close, Corby”.
“We can confirm that the permission remains lawful as a notice was placed at the site and a press advert was published – which fulfils the statutory part of the process,” he added.
“We apologise again for the error and residents can be assured we are doing all we can to ensure a similar issue doesn’t happen again.”

 

[ThePrisoner]

You say Hubble Road I say Hooke Close, let's call the whole thing a massive pay day for some dodgy property developer who bought the land for peanuts. Probably.

 

[Rofesleg]

It's an odd one. Planning permission for the new building was granted before the old factory was demolished. It was pretty big news at the time.
Canvassing the wrong street is embarrassing but I find it hard to believe the actual residents knew nothing about it until they saw the structure going up.

The old weetabix factory was massive as well btw.