Appeal lodged over Kettering apartment building with illegal extra storey

A construction company that breached planning permission and began adding an extra floor to a Kettering apartment block has launched an appeal after being told to remove it.

Michigan Construction Ltd had been granted planning permission to develop the site next to the Prince of Wales pub in Job’s Yard, managing to secure approval for a four-storey building for nine flats.

But, as reported by this newspaper earlier this month, builders started work to add a fifth floor in a breach of the approved planning permission, leading to a temporary stop notice being issued by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) in August.

A second stop notice had been issued and attached to the site's railings on September 8 stating that to ‘remedy the breach of planning control’, the firm must ‘permanently remove the fifth storey’.

Michigan Construction has a base in Robinson Way, on the Telford Way Industrial Estate, Kettering, but the company office is registered in Towcester and is owned by Marcus Fielding.

Now Mr Fielding has launched an appeal - within the time limit set by the planning authority NNC - to keep the extra and currently illegal storey which would give an extra two apartments.

In the laminated document zip-tied to the railings the appeal document sets out the plans and concludes: "This statement of case is submitted in support of an appeal for the erection of eleven apartments at land adjacent to the Prince of Wales, Job's Yard, Kettering.

"The council has raised no objections to the principle of residential development at this site. The statement has demonstrated that the design of the proposed building would sympathetically integrate with the street scene, and therefore the proposed development would not cause detrimental harm to the character and appearance of the area nor would it cause harm to the setting of the Kettering Town Centre Conservation Area.

"Further to this, the proposal would not result in undue harm to the amenities of the residents of Job's Court in terms of the creation of an overbearing impact, loss of outlook, overlooking or loss of privacy.

"In addition, the scheme would provide numerous social, economic and environmental benefits which collectively substantially weigh in favour of the appeal scheme, including the regeneration of this area of Kettering town centre and the re-use of a vacant brownfield site in a sustainable town centre location.

"It is therefore respectfully requested that the council consider the arguments put forward here and allows the appeal."

Planning permission for the Job’s Yard development of nine apartments – six one-bedroom and three two-bedroom – had been granted after an appeal to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate on January 26, overturning a decision made by the then Kettering Borough Council.

The planning permission appeal was granted for a four-storey apartment block with a stepped profile to set the upper storeys further from the adjacent buildings.

The first stop notice had stated that the builder was “to cease all the activity – construction activity associated with the building of a five-storey block of flats – other than limited work required to make this site safe,” adding the reason for the notice being issued as “a fifth floor is being constructed unlawfully following the grant of planning permission under KT/2019/0908 which was for four storeys only.”