Campaigners need £10,000 in 'David and Goliath' battle against Kettering warehouse park plan

Campaigners who are embroiled in a David and Goliath battle to save a Kettering green space say they need £10,000 in a final fundraising push.

A three-and-a-half year fight to stop plans for a warehouse park on land near Weekley Hall Wood will soon end one way or another, with a planning inquiry set to start next month which will decide the controversial application.

The Save Weekley Hall Wood (SWHW) campaign group was set up in 2020 to fight the plans from Buccleuch Property, the development company of the Duke of Buccleuch who is one of Britain’s wealthiest landowners.

They have a ‘seat at the table’ in November’s planning inquiry, having been granted ‘Rule 6’ status as an interested party, and have already raised £20,000 which is enough for a down payment on a barrister. But they need another £10,000 to give them the best legal chance of convincing a planning inspector of their case.

Campaigner Frankie O’Dowd said: “We have never directly asked people to dig into their pockets and what we have raised so far is staggering, but a legal hearing is costly and it is crucial to have our say.”

In August we reported that the decision on the planning application had been taken out of North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) hands, with a Government-appointed inspector ruling on it instead, after the developers said NNC had taken too long to approve or reject it. Correspondence from NNC, seen by the Northants Telegraph, said that, at this stage, permission would have been refused for a ‘number of reasons’ had they been in a position to determine the application.

An eight-day hearing is set to begin on November 28 and campaigners say they have been told it will take place in Thrapston, rather than Kettering, but have urged NNC to reconsider and instead hold the inquiry closer to those who are most directly affected.

A spokesman for NNC said: “The Planning Inspectorate (PINs) have set the timetable for the hearing, which has proved challenging as we have had relatively short notice to find a venue that meets the requirements of PINs and is available for a two week period.

“The [council] chamber at Thrapston is the only option open to NNC that allows the council to meet the timetable and requirements of PINs. We wrote to PINs to make them aware of the challenge around finding a suitable venue and asked for a postponement to the inquiry to enable us to resolve this, however it has not been possible for PIN to move the dates.”

The complex plan – which has hundreds of documents attached to it on the council’s website – originally had more than 40,000 sq m of trees earmarked for the chop before it was redesigned last year because of the backlash it received.

Swathes of woodland will no longer be cut down but campaigners say the plans remain unacceptable as they would still see the loss of a meadow and popular walking routes.

Plans revealed Symrise Limited – a food and drink firm based in Corby – legally committed to a new £20m bespoke facility at the site. Five other units would also be built if approved.

SWHW campaigner Cllr Dez Dell (Green, Clover Hill) said: “Myself and the Save Weekley Hall Wood team were all surprised when we found out the application we have all been fighting would be decided by a planning inspector.

“Since then we have pulled together to work out how to be most effective in getting the developer’s warehouses refused.

“The team has been amazing and the support from residents has kept us going for these last three years, so we are hopeful that we will raise the money needed to hire a quality barrister to represent the threatened wood and meadow.”

A spokesperson for Buccleuch Property said they had tried to work with the council to bring the bid to a planning committee and ‘reluctantly’ decided that going to the Planning Inspectorate was the only way they get a decision on the plan.

They said: “This application has been with the council now for three years and because of the non-determination over such a lengthy period, Buccleuch reluctantly concluded that an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate was the only way we could obtain the clarity of determination.

"We did seek to proactively work with the council to take this application to committee, including engaging with pre-application process and undertaking a considerable amount of technical work.

"This is an application for employment use on an allocated strategic employment site which is a key element of the council’s economic development strategy, and we hope that our appeal can resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”

A petition against the plan, which has received hundreds of objections and has been the subject of protests, has gained almost 23,000 signatures.

Concerns include harm to biodiversity, alleged flaws in the way wildlife surveys were carried out, access to the site from the busy ‘hamburger’ roundabout and whether the application complies with planning policies.

The SWHS survey team say they have discovered a wide variety of endangered birds such as the red-listed grasshopper warbler and lapwing as well as rare butterflies like the grizzled skipper and dingy skipper.

Simon Eppey, a landscape photographer who is part of the campaign group, said: “We must make a stand and fight to protect our wildlife and its habitats. We need to save this precious green space from development or it will be lost forever.”

To donate to their cause visit https://saveweekleyhallwood.com/donate/.