Corby MP Tom Pursglove addresses controversial warehouse development

Corby’s MP Tom Pursglove has weighed in on the controversial warehouse development on the old Weetabix site that’s seen residents up in arms.

Work began on a new 160,800 sq ft warehouse on the former Weetabix site in November after a planning application was approved by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) in 2022.

As part of the approval process, planning officers needed to consult residents who might be affected by the plans. But instead of going to Hooke Close – which is right next to the construction site – NNC went to Hubble Road, a street near the other Corby Weetabix site.

Now residents of Hooke Close are waking up to a view entirely obstructed by a rather large warehouse and are furious that they were not properly notified.

Following the exclusive story in the Northants Telegraph three days ago (Monday, February 5), the story has received widespread coverage in places such as the BBC, the Metro, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Sun and more.

Following this, Corby’s MP Tom Pursglove (Cons) has broken his silence on the issue.

He released a statement on his website last night saying that he has been ‘actively supporting local residents in raising these concerns as a matter of urgency with the chief executive of North Northamptonshire Council, in partnership with Councillor Mark Pengelly.’

According to Mr Pursglove, he has requested an urgent meeting involving the chief executive, himself, local councillors and affected resident representatives, sometime this week.

In his statement, he said: “I am pushing them for this to happen and hope that they will be agreeable to such, given the seriousness of the situation.

“I am grateful to all those who have written expressing their concerns, which I have responded to individually, and I stand ready to assist anyone affected locally further in any way that I am able. Indeed, I would urge anyone affected to make contact with me directly, to aid me in best representing local feeling to the fullest possible extent.

“My message is clear - these are seemingly very serious failings of the planning process and all possible avenues of remedy must now be explored in the circumstances. I shall continue to support residents in strongly making that case and will provide any updates here as I have them.”

Cllr Pengelly (Lab) said: “Myself and Lee Barron (Labour Parliamentary candidate for Corby) held an initial meeting with residents a week ago, since then we’ve managed to get this in the national spotlight. We’ve still not had a proper response from the council on what went wrong and we don’t know what they’re doing to look at this.

“We welcome involvement from everybody and I’m happy that Tom Pursglove is now getting involved. We’re looking forward to him coming to meet the residents shortly.”

To read Mr Pursglove’s full statement, visit his website.