Fun day to be held in Corby to raise money for legal campaign over controversial warehouse development
A fun day will be held in Corby next month to raise money for residents of Hooke Close who are taking North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) to court.
The fun day will be held on Sunday, June 9, from 12pm to 4pm at the Shire Horse pub.
The funds raised will go towards the residents’ legal campaign for which they need to raise a total of £5,000. They are going to court over the 160,800 sq ft warehouse on the former Weetabix site which has been built behind their homes without their consultation.
At the fun day in June there will be craft stalls, raffles, a tombola, bouncy castles, hair braiding, popcorn, a BBQ and more for all the family to enjoy.
This is their second fundraising event, having held a 90s night earlier this month. They are still a fair bit away from their goal, needing at least another £3,000.
The activities will be charged for but entrance to the event is free.
Work began on the controversial site in November after the bid was approved by NNC.
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.
They have since been up in arms that they were not properly notified of the massive new warehouse that is dwarfing their homes.
In the council’s own words, they said that the planning remained lawful (an internal review found this was not the case) because they placed a notice at the site and a press advert was published.
In February Cllr Jason Smithers (Con), leader of NNC, said: “As part of this process, we have considered whether this error has impacted the lawfulness of the decision and the planning permission granted by the council. We can confirm that the permission remains lawful as a notice was placed at the site and a press advert was published - which fulfils the statutory part of the process.”
Cllr Smithers also went to Hooke Close to apologise to the residents in person but they have not been offered any form of compensation from the council yet.
Georgie Wallis, a resident of Hooke Close, is the named case in the proceedings. She said: “I just think it’s so unfair how they’ve done this all. They know they’ve messed up, there were three things they were meant to do, they’ve only done one of them correctly.
“The consultation letters not being sent to us, Jason Smithers’ apology - they don’t care, it’s just a show to put in the media.
“We’re all so drained from it all because we’ve been fighting since the end of January and still nothing’s happened, nothing’s changed.
“The council are dragging it out, they’re dragging their feet with it because they think we’re all just going to cave.”
If you would like to aid the residents in their case against the council, you can donate at their GoFundMe page.