First stage of project to dual stretch of A509 near Isham

In March plans to build a huge warehouse park on the edge of the village were approved despite the fury of residents who said it would have a detrimental impact on their roads.

One condition passed by Kettering Council, who approved the plan, was that the road between the site’s access and the Kettering A14 roundabout would have to be made a dual carriageway before the first unit is occupied.

Now the first stage of what will be major roadworks has been submitted to the council. Ahead of a full planning application they have asked the council for their opinion on whether the plan should be subject to an environmental impact assessment.

It is not known when work could start if the plan is approved, but with no businesses able to get up and running until the dual carriageway is complete developers DB Symmetry are likely to want to press on as soon as possible.

The dual carriageway plan was first proposed last year because plans for a bypass around the village were millions of pounds short.

Months later the bypass project lost all £25m of its earmarked funding.

At the time, Isham bypass campaigner Graham Rait said he thought a small dual carriageway section would make things worse.

He said: “I think there will be a traffic bottleneck and it will do nothing for Isham.

“The traffic between the roundabouts will be worse than it is now.”

The scheme would need to be future proofed to allow the remainder of the Isham bypass to the south, if it is ever built, to connect to the initial dualled section.

Once complete the warehouse site, known as Symmetry Park, will create more than 2,000 jobs.

The dual carriageway works are part of about £6m worth of highways contributions by the developer. There will also be a 3km cycle path/footpath running across Junction 9 of the A14 and highways works on the A509’s junctions with Station Road (introducing traffic lights) and Finedon Station Road.