Council won't call judicial review over Corby warehouse planning consultation cock-up

The leader of North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) says they won’t be calling a judicial review into a Corby warehouse cock-up.

Cllr Jason Smithers (Con, Oundle) told Hooke Close residents they wouldn’t be asking a judge to look at their actions over the controversial development at the nearby former Weetabix site.

Bungling NNC planning officers had consulted the wrong street – going to Hubble Road near the other Corby Weetabix site instead – before approving the plan for a 160,800 sq ft warehouse right on the residents’ doorsteps.

But Cllr Smithers, who has been urged to resign, has resisted calls from furious residents for a judicial review.

In a letter to residents, he said: “With the limitations of a judicial review, as well as our desire to find the underlying cause of this issue, we do not believe a judicial review is the best course of action.”

In the letter, the council leader said they had held discussions with developers and asked them to pause the works – but there is no plan for them to do so.

Cllr Smithers said: “I can confirm that discussions have taken place with the developers and architects as recently as last Friday in which they were asked to pause the works for a period of time.

"They stated that whilst they were aware of the concerns being raised there were no plans to pause the works."

Earlier this month residents of Corby’s Hooke Close, Pasqual Close and Rockingham Road met with Corby MP Tom Pursglove (Con), Cllr Mark Pengelly (Lab, Lloyds), Cllr WIlliam Colquhoun (Lab, Lloyds), and Marion Turner-Hawes to discuss how they can move forward in their complaints procedure to NNC.

Cllr Mark Pengelly said: “It looks like the council believes that the only resolution to this is to promise it’ll never happen again. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“We’ve already seen that they’re failing on some of the promises like giving advice on how to put a complaint in. They were promised a letter within 48 hours and a week later they’re still waiting for it. The council should be ashamed of themselves for how they’ve been dealing with the people of Hooke Close.”