Plans for more than 340 homes on edge of Kettering to be discussed

An application to build 340 houses on land west of Kettering is being recommended for approval.

North Northamptonshire Strategic Planning Committee is due to meet tonight (Monday) to consider the application for the site in Gipsy Lane.

The meeting is due to take place at the Council Chamber, Swanspool House, in Doddington Road in Wellingborough starting at 7pm.

A report to the committee states: ‘The 16.92-hectare site is located on the western edge of Kettering within the established settlement boundary and comprises three arable fields.

‘It is contiguous with existing areas of housing to the east, which front on to Gipsy Lane, and is adjacent to the approved West Hill development site to the south which has planning permission for housing together with a primary school, local centre and a care home and is currently a progressing development.

‘Public Right of Way footpath VD34 runs east to west across the southern edge of the site.’

It is proposed that 102 properties will be affordable housing with 238 for the open market both offering a mix of one to four bedroom homes and a number of bungalows.

The council received 12 letters of objection from nearby residents. The objections included concerns on whether Gipsy Lane could absorb the increase in traffic numbers, loss of green space and loss of trees.

The report goes on to state: ‘The land to the south has extant permission for housing together with associated services and facilities and is currently being built out and nearing the immediate site’s southern boundary.

‘To the north beyond Thorpe Lane is the progressing (Morris Homes) 75 dwelling housing development.

‘The proposal site therefore is between these two adjacent parcels of developing housing sites with the A14 effectively forming a barrier to development further west.’

Further on, the report states: ‘The site is also separated into character areas which shall run north-to-south. These are referred to as The Gipsy Land Frontage, The Avenue; and The Rural Edge and are described in the submission documents as follows:

‘The Gipsy Lane Frontage which is designed to complement (but not replicate) those dwellings elsewhere in the street that are influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement.

‘The dwellings contribute a robust frontage and interesting roof-scape reflecting the materials used in neighbouring buildings.

‘The Avenue which is designed to follow a suburban vernacular, providing a strong street frontage with verges and planting appropriate to the importance of the street and providing a visual link with the Gipsy Lane frontage.

‘The Rural Edge which responds to the soft edge to the linear park with references to the village vernacular exemplified by dwellings in Thorpe Malsor and Loddington.’

The development will provide one car parking space for the one-bed units, two spaces for the two-three bed units and three spaces for the larger units.