Labour group leader slams council over huge Corby warehouse consultation blunder

The leader of north Northamptonshire’s Labour group has called for a full independent investigation into a Corby warehouse planning blunder.

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.

Cllr Matt Keane, leader of the Labour group on NNC, says both he and his Labour colleagues are furious about how the council have dealt with the situation and treated the residents at Hooke Close.

Cllr Keane said in a statement today: “Cllr [Mark] Pengelly, who has been working tirelessly on this for his constituents, first emailed the council on January 19 and it’s taken the national press coverage for the council to sit up and take this seriously...all the council seems to have done is a half-baked apology and given incorrect advice from the council leader for residents to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman when he must be aware you do not go down that avenue until you have gone through the council’s complaints procedure.

“We are asking for a full independent investigation of this application from start to finish. The council have stated that even though mistakes happened the decision is safe. This response from NNC was given very quickly so who advised the council of this? Or was it their own planning department marking their own homework and is the leader satisfied with the advice given?

“We also want to know what the council haa done to ensure this does not happen again and can the council assure us there have been no other applications where this has happened?

“North Northants residents and the residents of Hooke Close deserve better.”

Many of North Northants Labour Group members are councillors on Corby Town Council, who as consultees of the application offered no objections at the time.

Cllr Martyn Reuby, deputy leader of Corby Town Council said: “As a town council we don’t carry out the same level of consultation as NNC and were not aware that the development was controversial at the time. Had residents come forward with concerns we would have objected, but as the residents were not contacted by NNC, nobody came forward.”