£7m sell-off of NNC-owned buildings and land in Kettering, Wellingborough, Rushden and Desborough agreed by executive
The sell-off of buildings and land owned by North Northants Council (NNC) in Kettering, Wellingborough, Rushden and Desborough that could bag the authority £7m has been agreed by the ruling executive.
Deemed surplus to requirement, unproductive or too expensive to maintain, the sale could unlock funds for cash-strapped services.
NNC’s executive met yesterday (Tuesday, February 17) to discuss the sale of five sites identified as ‘no longer needed’ by the council that could raise up to £7m.
The sites Jacksons Lane car park and Phase 2 Glenvale Park fields in Wellingborough, Saunders Close land in Kettering, land at the corner of Rectory Road and John Clark Way, Rushden, and sheltered housing flats in Beech Close, Desborough will now undergo further financial appraisal before they are marketed for sale.
Ownership of the five sites was passed on to NNC after the switch to unitary – inherited from the legacy Kettering Borough, East Northants District and Wellingborough Borough councils.
Jacksons Lane car park has been at the heart of development plans in Wellingborough town centre for two decades, with plans being shelved by The Borough Council of Wellingborough in 2020.
In 2018, more than 5,000 residents signed a petition, organised by the then MP Peter Bone, against the housing plans for the site off High Street.
The proposed sale of the Jacksons Lane car park would ‘support the work of the town centre masterplan for Wellingborough’.
NNC says the site would provide an opportunity for a ‘mixed-use scheme’ that would address ‘long-standing anti-social behaviour in the area, regenerate underutilised parts of the site, whilst still retaining important community parking spaces’ within the development. It has given a capital value of £1.2m.
The 13.6 hectares of farmland that forms Phase 2 of the Glenvale Park estate off Niort Way in Wellingborough has been valued at £5m.
Another plot on the corner of Rectory Road and John Clark Way in Rushden could bag the council £50k. It had been rented for storage by Rushden Historical Society for £240 a year.
At the January meeting of the executive, it was agreed that the existing buildings – The Henley Centre – in Saunders Close, Kettering would be demolished to address anti-social behaviour and ‘support future development opportunities’.
The council believes a disused sheltered housing complex – Beech Close in Desborough – could generate interest from private and care and health service providers as well as residential developers, and might ‘generate a capital receipt in excess of £900,000’.