'Greenwashing’, 'patronising' and 'fairytales' say members of public at Kettering Energy Park consultation

The controversial Kettering Energy Park proposal was criticised by local people who branded it ‘patronising’ and ‘fairytales’ at a consultation at Finedon Community Centre on Saturday.

The event, which ran from 10am until 1pm, gave people and officials the opportunity to express their views on the development, with many accusing the project of ‘greenwashing’ and usurping natural green spaces in favour of warehouses that aren’t needed.

Andrew Weatherill, a Finedon representative on North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), said: “I’m entirely against this development, I think it’s the wrong solution in the wrong place.

“I don’t think we should be ripping up top quality arable land to build warehouses on. I think some of the justifications are incorrect, I think justifying it on the basis of solar doesn’t wash with me. I would say a lot of this appears to be greenwashing.

“We’ve got a major problem with the infrastructure and the junctions, especially the traffic implications coming through Finedon.

“If you’ve got 4,000 people going to be going back and forth to work every day there, where are they going to be living? Where’s the schools, where’s the doctors, and how are they going to get there?”

The ‘masterplan’ is currently subject to a six-week public consultation which runs up until May 15, 2024. Following this, the findings will be presented to NNC’s planning communities executive advisory panel, with First Renewable Developments, as site promoters, submitting planning applications to the council soon after.

Once a planning application has been received by NNC, the application will face a statutory public consultation.

It is estimated that the development will bring more than 16,000 vehicle movements per day, which was acknowledged by the backers of the development, First Renewable Developments.

Tony Watkins of First Renewable Developments said: “The feedback we’re getting from a lot of people is highways-based concerns about road traffic that this will produce, and concerns about how we benefit directly the local communities involved.”

Julia Freeman-Hall of Wellingborough had strong opinions on the matter.

She said: “It’s in the middle of the countryside, the roads aren’t safe, it’s undulating.

"On the A510 I use every morning you’ve got 60mph traffic, it’s got very tight corners, and it’s also got a sign that tells you there’s a farm there, so when you’re coming up to the corner where they want to put the entrance to this industrial estate, which is nothing to do with energy, you can be going 60mph and suddenly there’s traffic in front of you.”

Others criticised the plan’s biodiversity and environmental impact, despite the project’s ‘series of commitments to mitigate against the impact on the local environment’. This includes the planting of an additional 1,400 trees, and new hedgerows to replace any removed as part of the proposal. It also claims to accelerate agriculture, increasing yield per acre, and secure a minimum biodiversity net gain of 10 per cent.

Mr Watkins added: “North Northamptonshire has seen a lot of development in the last five years, and people are concerned about the cumulative development that’s occurred, and we are now another development that is coming forward.

“We were hoping for a good response in terms of engagement, and we’ve certainly got that.”

Cllr Adrian Watts, of Burton Latimer Town Council, believes that the consultation has been ‘very poor’.

He said: “We were told it’s an energy park, Kettering Energy Park. Firstly, it’s not in Kettering, and secondly it’s not an energy park in the way you would expect.

"I would expect an energy park to be producing clean, green energy, and putting that in the grid to be of benefit to local people.

"This is only going to provide power for warehousing, and that was never really mentioned on the initial proposal.

"Northamptonshire has done its fair share of providing warehousing.”

It is estimated that the final project will bring 5,500 jobs and £167m in wages per annum into the local economy, with 302,000 sq m of employment space.

The proposal claims that SEMLEP has identified a shortage of high quality infrastructure and employment land in north Northamptonshire, however Cllr Adrian Watts believes ‘there is no genuine need for warehouse employment in this area.’

The vision is to add to the existing wind farm at Burton Wold, but so far over 3,300 people have signed a change.org petition opposing the plans.

Shelley Lawrence-Harris, who attended the consultation, said: “There’s no long-term plan, there’s no concern for future generations.

“Why do you need to put it on arable land when there’s a war? We need to feed people who won’t be able to, there’s a food crisis.”