Long awaited supermarket at Priors Hall granted permission

Residents on the growing housing development will soon be able to buy their milk and bread closer to home after Corby councillors agreed the reserved planning matters at the development control meeting on Tuesday night (Oct 29).

Planning permission was also granted for a gym and 10 units at the district centre near to the school and community centre. Sainsbury’s announced at the end of last year that it would be taking on the supermarket and local nursery Busy Bees will take a unit.

Residents first moved into the development nine years ago but have had to drive to Asda at Phoenix Parkway to do their nearest weekly shop.

The new store will be 418 m sq and will and the 10 commercial units will have a combined floorspace of 692 m sq.

Cllr Judy Caine queried the number of cars that would be using the area each day. The planning officer said he did not know the figure but said the application was supported by a traffic assessment and the highways authority had no objections.

The proposal had four objections from residents who were concerned about the plan being outside of planning policy and insufficient parking spaces.

Conditions of the application state that the shops can open until 11pm on all days apart from Sundays when the time changes to 10pm. Deliveries can happen between 6am and 11pm seven days a week.

The district centre will be the main shopping site on the housing estate. There will also be two smaller neighbourhood centres built as the 5,000-home development on the edge of Weldon grows.

All of the councillors on the planning committee voted in favour of the scheme, apart from Cllr Judy Caine who abstained.

Also at the meeting a request from developer Urban & Civic to reduce the number of affordable housing units in Zone 1 from 120 to 75 was deferred after councillors hit out at the practice of developers trying to roll back on their 106 planning obligations.