As Wellingborough residents prepare for extraordinary meeting to discuss London Road trees those involved in decisions tell their side of the story

As residents meet tonight to question the felling of 14 mature lime trees and the planned felling of at least two dozen more, two major parties will not be attending.

The trees are in the way of a remodelled roundabout and dual carriageway extension at the junction of London Road, Turnells Mill Lane and The Embankment – Route 2 into Stanton Cross to form the Eastern Relief Road.

Cllr Jonathan Ekins, town mayor and chairman of Wellingborough Town Council - a 23-strong parish-style elected body - called the extraordinary meeting for questions to be put to representatives of North Northants Council (NNC) and Vistry Group, the developers behind the £1bn Stanton Cross urban extension housing estate.

With a definite ‘no’ to the invitation from NNC the current planning authority, and no response from Vistry, campaigners will be left with a list of questions and no-one to answer them.

A spokesman for Wellingborough Town Council (WTC) confirmed that NNC had advised WTC they would not be attending the meeting.

The spokesman said: “I have not heard anything from Vistry directly, but I understand they will not be attending either. We have chased Vistry for a response.”

And with NNC not attending, it is not clear how many of the 23 town councillors, who are also councillors on North Northants Council, so-called ‘double-hatters’, will attend.

As neither Wellingborough Town Council nor North Northants Council existed when the planning decisions were originally made by the now-defunct Borough Council of Wellingborough (BCW), uncertainty surrounds how many former BCW councillors who now sit on WTC will attend.

This newspaper has contacted former Borough Council of Wellingborough councillors who sat on the planning committee in 2015 when the plans for Route 2 and another Stanton Cross scheme were put to the council on December 22.

Present at the committee meeting that evening were councillors Peter Morrall (chairman), Malcolm Ward (vice-chairman), Tony Aslam, Paul Bell, Jonathan Ekins, Martin Griffiths, Graham Lawman, Tom Lloyd, Tim Maguire and Andrew Scarborough. Clive Hallam had sent his apologies.

It was recommended by the unelected council officers that planning decisions be delegated to the head of planning and local development to approve, subject to appropriate conditions, and following the completion of a section 106 planning agreement – becoming ‘reserved matters’.

Minutes of the meeting show that Cllr Ekins proposed that the first application be deferred for further information (seconded by Cllr Aslam). With five for and five against, the chairman Cllr Morrall used his casting vote and the amendment allowing more time was voted down.

The committee was invited to ‘determine the application’.

Once again it was proposed by Cllr Ekins – this time seconded by Cllr Graham Lawman – that the ‘Route 2’ application be deferred for further information.

Once again there were five votes in favour and five votes against, and once again the Cllr Morrall used his casting vote and the amendment was beaten.

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) in 2008. This application included the proposals for Route 2 and the removal of the trees associated with these works.

Since that time there have been a large number of more detailed applications, including Variations and Reserved Matters Applications approved against the original outline permission.

The most recent planning permission to which Route 2 relates was granted by BCW’s Planning Committee (Ref. WP/15/00605/VAR) voted on at the December 22, 2015 meeting. The permission was issued on February 6, 2017 as a variation of the earlier WP/2004/0600 application and is the permission being implemented by the developer.

Cllr Martin Griffiths

Former leader of the Borough Council of Wellingborough, who now sits as an independent on NNC Cllr Martin Griffiths robustly defended the BCW’s decision and has sought clarification from NNC.

He was told that NNC planning and highways officers have sought to ensure that the ‘number of trees removed are kept to the absolute minimum’ but in order to divert utilities – gas and electricity – trees would need to be removed under the ‘statutory undertakers exemption’.

As an ‘operational matter’ there had been no requirement to brief either the chairman of strategic planning at NNC or the chairman of Wellingborough planning committee and that ‘all decisions relating to this application thus far have been made by the former Borough Council of Wellingborough’.

Cllr Martin Griffiths said: “It should be clear where this has gone horribly wrong and any attempt to blame a planning committee that sat so long ago and agreed countless plans to bring about a billion pounds worth of investment to the area, much needed housing, schools, open space, and the infrastructure ahead of housing is ridiculous and quite simply unfair.”

He says the committee was advised that a maximum number of 11 trees would be lost to construct a new junction at the embankment to assist in delivering Route 2 into Stanton Cross.

And he added: “There is no way that members of that committee would have voted the way they did if the true extent of the loss of trees, many of which were protected by TPOs issued by BCW, was made aware at that time.”

Cllr Andrew Scarborough

Cllr Andrew Scarborough, who voted against the motion in 2015, called the destruction of the trees ‘appalling vandalism’.

He said: “The meeting to which you refer was now over seven years ago and I do not recall the precise details of the discussion of this item. To the best of my recollection Cllr Graham Lawman proposed that the item be deferred for further consideration by officers and for a more detailed report to be prepared for the committee. I supported that proposal as did other councillors but we were defeated and the matter was delegated to officers for future decision, which I believe did not happen until 2017.

“The reason for seeking deferral was not to do with specific concerns around Route 2 but rather a generalised feeling that an application on this scale needed more scrutiny. There was no mention in the meeting of a proposal for the wholesale felling of trees. Had there been the proposal would undoubtedly have been rejected.

"It is notable that WBC placed a Tree Preservation Order on The Walks in 2016, after this meeting and before the application was approved under delegated powers. It is thus quite clear that WBC intended the The Walks remain in place as far as possible.

“Wellingborough East had, even at that stage, been planned for many years. WBC's preferred option for the southern access had been a road across the Nene directly to the A45, approximately where the Claudius Way/A45 junction is now. This found no support from NCC and was rejected by the Highways Agency. A proposal to construct a road to the Ditchford Lane Junction on the A45 was deferred on affordability grounds to the end of the development period for Stanton Cross, many years hence. This left Route 2 as the only significant southern access.

“We were, of course, aware that this would involve a new bridge over the railway, a substantial embankment across the Ise/Nene flood plain and loss of trees and bushes where the new road met The Embankment.

"We also knew that there would probably need to be work to improve the London Road roundabout which might well lead to the necessary loss of a small number of trees at the junction.

"Not in our wildest nightmares could we have conceived the wholesale carnage now proposed, much of it hundreds of yards away from the roundabout.

“What we did not have in 2015 was the detailed highway design and construction details for Route 2. Nor would they ever have been shared with us as these were matters for the Highways Authority (then NNC and since May 2021 NNC).

"The change from some works at the junction to the complete destruction of the Walks from the Dog and Duck to the river can only have happened in that process... those decisions were made solely by officers who, for whatever reason, did not consider the matter of sufficient importance or public interest to inform even their own councillors of what was contemplated.

"It seems quite clear it was at some time during that process that this appalling proposal was allowed to proceed wholly without democratic scrutiny.”

Cllrs Lora Lawman and Paul Bell

Also present at the December 2015 were Cllr Paul Bell and Cllr Lora Lawman who replied saying they had no detailed recollection of the meeting in question with Cllr Lawman adding: “All I do recall is that there were only two observers, myself and another councillor on the December 22, 2015, [and] no members of the public as far I remember, that one might have expected to attend.”

Cllr Clive Hallam

Cllr Clive Hallam missed the vital meeting after a hospital stay and has welcomed the pause in felling to allow for a ‘public engagement event’ to be organised by Vistry.

He said: “I was aware of the application and had questioned the need to remove trees. I hate removing trees unless there is good reason generally but these formed the beautiful and historic walks down to the Embankment that as far as I’m concerned is an area seriously under used and a huge environmental and recreational opportunity for NNC that BCW never really made the most of.

"I only joined BCW in May 2015 but from memory we were originally considering a small number of trees, 15 comes to mind, I gather it grew due to the effects on services etc and was dealt with under delegated powers but I like others have been questioning the numbers now suggested so it’s good to see the leader (of NNC) delaying things while it is all looked into.

“I think it unlikely the road will now be changed substantially but we should always do everything possible to minimize the trees to be removed and put a proper localized replacement plan in place

“It’s just a shame there wasn’t the same outcry and support when it originally went to planning.”

In a previous statement a spokesman for Stanton Cross said: “Where possible we will seek to minimise the number of trees removed, and those that are removed will then be used in some way in the local area, such as providing hibernaculas, fencing, planting bed mulch, and featuring in the natural play areas in the development.

“These essential works are part of the approved plans to support the delivery of Stanton Cross and enhance Wellingborough’s infrastructure which, as well as road improvements, have also included developing the railway station.

“The wider environmental work at Stanton Cross has already seen 390 new trees planted last summer as part of the Queen’s Canopy initiative, extensive improvement work on the River Ise, and a new 44-acre Town Park, with plans for a further 71-acre Country Park.”

Other councillors have yet to reply.