Council objects to Rushden Lakes Planning Application

At its Planning Committee last night, Kettering Borough Council voted unanimously to object "in the strongest possible terms" to the Rushden Lakes planning application for a commercial and retail park, which is to be considered by East Northamptonshire District Council next month.

The Planning Committee were concerned that the retail element of the Rushden Lakes application would be larger than Fosse Park in Leicestershire, and that it would cause irreparable harm to other town centres in the area, resulting in job losses of a scale which cancels out the jobs created.

At a previous Planning Policy Committee meeting, which met this month, concern was expressed that the application was contrary to the national ‘town centres first’ planning policy and the Local Development Plan. Its deviation from plans would make it impossible to renew the existing Local Development Plan, which also includes plans for housing; without an up to date plan, that would open up the whole area to speculative applications for housing developments, which the Council would be powerless to resist.

Councillors also concluded that the application was seriously flawed and, if approved in its current state, would be open to legal challenge.

The Chair of the Planning Committee, Councillor Shirley Lynch, confirmed that the Borough Council “would do everything it can to protect its town centres”.

Tom Shields, Development Manager, said: “The consequence of permitting the Rushden Lakes application would be to absorb all the identified future expenditure capacity in the town centres in North Northamptonshire for the next ten years”.