Kettering Energy Park meeting to help public understand complex application 'before it is too late'
Members of the public are being invited to a presentation to ‘cut through’ the planning permission put forward to create Kettering Energy Park.
The Kettering Energy Park public information evening takes place at Kettering Arts Centre, in St Andrew’s Church on Wednesday, July 22.
Starting at 7.30pm, local campaign group Landscape not Industrial Estate will talk residents through the complex planning application.
If given permission, Kettering Energy Park would cover the area of 550 football pitches on land between Burton Latimer, Finedon, Great Addington and Cranford, stretching 2.5-miles across Burton Wold.
Kevin Binley, trustee of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Northamptonshire, is due to deliver the presentation.
He said: “This is one of the largest and most complex planning applications North Northamptonshire has seen for many years, yet many residents in Kettering still do not know what is being proposed, where the site is, or how it could affect them.
"The presentation is intended to give people a clear, factual and accessible explanation of the Kettering Energy Park application, including its scale, the planning issues, the traffic implications, the landscape and environmental concerns, and how residents can make informed comments before decisions are made.
“This is not about telling people what to think; it is about making sure they understand what is at stake. I would encourage anyone who cares about the future of Kettering, Burton Wold, the A14, local villages or the surrounding countryside to come along, listen, ask questions and get informed.”
Campaigners say the huge warehouses will create more than 13,000 extra vehicle movements on the A14 per day. Mr Binley added: “People cannot have a meaningful say on something they do not understand. This presentation is about cutting through a very complex planning application and giving residents the facts, in plain English, before it is too late.”
The presentation takes place at Kettering Arts Centre, St Andrew’s Church, NN16 8RG, on Wednesday, July 22 starting at 7.30pm.
Developer, First Renewable Developments Ltd, the company behind the plans is proposing to invest £500 million at Kettering Energy Park.
The company says that once completed the development will deliver ‘4,000 jobs in a variety of sectors’, ‘apprenticeships, work placements and outreach programmes’ and make a ‘£410 million per annum contribution to the UK economy’.