Council selling off housing land near to Rushden Lakes to mystery buyer

East Northamptonshire Council is selling 60 acres off land close to Rushden Lakes to an unnamed buyer.

The site at Ditchford Lakes has recently been earmarked for a 45- home development in the council’s local plan and is currently out for consultation.

The full council approved the sale of the land back last summer after it was recommended by the finance sub committee during an exempt session in July as part of its asset management strategy. The sale has been agreed with the mystery buyer without the authority putting the land on the open market.

It is not public how much the land is being sold for although the minutes of the meeting say there was a resolution passed to include a covenant to protect the current use of the site and also to capture any potential future uplift in the land’s value.

A spokesman for the authority says it has followed its constitution in relation to the sale. It also said the nearby nature reserve wold not close.

A spokesman said: “East Northamptonshire Council has accepted an offer on the sale of land at Ditchford Lakes subject to the agreement of terms and conditions. The council is in the process of negotiations with the bidder. At this stage, details of the prospective contract are commercially sensitive and cannot be released.”

Rushden Lakes is now a booming retail and leisure venue, taking many of the county’s shopping pounds since it opened in 2018. However its success has caused road problems with regular tailbacks at the Skew Bridge roundabout which provides access to the shopping centre.

Last month plans to build another shopping and leisure extension to Rushden Lakes as part of the Rushden Living scheme were approved in principle by councillors on the planning committee, against the advice of their planning officers. The scheme will come back to the council to agree 106 planning contributions and will then go to the secretary of state for consideration as the scheme is outside of agreed local plans for the area.

Developers Anonymous Ltd, who are linked with LXB, the original developers of Rushden Lakes, had intimated at the meeting that if the Rushden Living Plan was not agreed then the link road from Ditchford Road could be in jeopardy. The road was agreed in September 2018.The council has put forward the site to the West of Rushden Lakes as a site for 450 homes following a shortfall in housing numbers for the already agreed sites at Irthlingborough West and Rushden East. After assessing five possible sites the council has decided that the site to the west of Rushden Lakes is the most appropriate because of the access to other services such as the Greenway and due to the consented new link road.

People have until March 23 to make representation about the draft local plan consultation.