Man who built six-storey apartment building in Kettering town centre appears in court
A man whose company has built a controversial six-storey apartment building in Kettering town centre has appeared in court today (Wednesday).
Builder Marcus Fielding, sole director and employee of company Michigan Construction Ltd, was present in Northampton Magistrates Court regarding a block of flats in Job’s Yard.
Wearing a white jumper with blue stripes and jeans, Mr Fielding appeared at court to answer charges after a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Magistrates were due to hear three charges brought against him and his company by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under health and safety legislation relating to the building in Job’s Yard.
But due to the court not knowing his correct address, the summons never reached Mr Fielding who has been living in Kettering, not Towcester as the court believed.
When asked, Mr Fielding told the court: “At the moment I am residing on our development. It’s not a house, it’s our development that we are trying to undertake.”
He also told the court he had no other address.
Mr Fielding said: “I don’t own any other property so that’s the place where I’m staying.”
Asked if there was a name for the block of flats, he said ‘not yet,’ adding the building was ‘white’ but it had no assigned name.
He said: “There’s no assigned name. It’s an unregistered building. I don’t really know the address.”
The court was not satisfied with an email address for official court correspondence so in an attempt to pin down his address, magistrates, court officials and the duty solicitor assigned to Mr Fielding all tried to locate Job’s Yard using Google Maps.
After several minutes, an address of ‘The White Building, next to the Prince of Wales Public House’ Kettering, was allocated for Mr Fielding’s deliveries.
With no prosecution present and a lack of papers provided to Mr Fielding’s defence solicitor, the case was adjourned until Thursday, November 20.
Mr Fielding was granted unconditional bail.
The three charges against him, brought by the Health and Safety Executive, are:
- that during the construction of the block he failed to take steps to prevent danger to the public through the potential collapse of an unstable building.
- that between June 2022 and April 2025 he failed to take practicable steps to prevent danger to the public from structural collapse.
- that between June 2022 and April 2025 he contravened a requirement imposed by a prohibition notice that forced him to take steps to ensure scaffolding was safe and it was prevented from collapsing.
Three mirror charges have also been laid against his company, Michigan Construction.
The building was the subject of separate legal action by North Northamptonshire Council who won a high court case that ordered its demolition in November 2023. It remains cordoned off.
North Northamptonshire Council has advised that people should not enter the site ‘at any point’.