Wellingborough Walks trees given FOUR MONTH stay of execution as council leader intervenes

Trees in Wellingborough’s Walks have been given a temporary stay of execution until midnight on July 31 after North Northants Council (NNC) leader Cllr Jason Smithers said he would not expect ‘the developer to undertake any works to the trees’.

Cllr Smithers made the unusual intervention as he released a string of documents showing the legal process that led to the start of works to fell up to 61 trees by developers Stanton Cross LLP.

Cllr Smithers said that Stanton Cross Developments LLP ‘benefit from a lawful exemption to the Tree Preservation Order that enables the removal of trees at the London Road / The Walks area in order to develop Route 2 of the Stanton Cross Sustainable Urban Extension’.

But that lawful removal of the trees would not be expected to happen in the nesting season – which runs from the March 1 to July 31.

The statement added: “Nesting birds are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which is the responsibility of the police to enforce.”

Cllr Smithers issued the statement after a farcical public exhibition at which the press were barred from asking questions or taking video or photographs.

He said: “Following the meeting between myself, as leader of North Northamptonshire Council and Stanton Cross Development LLP at which it was agreed to temporarily pause the current works to enable wider community engagement, the council is aware that the developers held a well-attended community engagement event on March 23.“The council understands that following the community engagement event, there remains some questions regarding the lawfulness of the works undertaken by the developer that were not fully addressed by the content of the developer’s event.”The original outline planning permission for the Stanton Cross Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) (Reference WP/2004/0600) was approved by the Borough Council of Wellingborough (BCW) on the 28 January 2008. This application included the proposals for Route 2 and identified the necessity for the removal of the trees associated with these works.

Route 2 of the £1bn Stanton Cross development would require dozens of trees to be demolished to make way for the remodelled roundabout.The council has admitted that vital planning documents are not available to the public via the online portal.

It said: “As a part of the planning permission granted in January 2008, BCW approved the detailed design for Route 2 in full. This was made clear in Section 3 of the Committee Report which although not accessible online.”

A crunch council meeting tonight will hear a motion from Cllr Val Anslow (Lab, Croyland and Swanspool) proposing the council enforces tree protection orders.