Council will not fight warehouse planning appeal

The business zone has been planned for land next to Bell Plantation garden centre in Towcester

A council said it would not defend its decision to reject a warehousing scheme at an upcoming appeal hearing.

West Northamptonshire Council refused permission for an 11-acre (4.4-hectare) business and logistics zone on the edge of Towcester, Northamptonshire, last November.

The developer launched an appeal, leaving the application in the hands of a government inspector.

However, council planning officers said the result of a similar appeal on an adjacent site would make it difficult for the local authority to win the case.

The developer Alban Mann LLP said its project near the Bell Plantation garden centre would include more than a dozen small to medium-sized buildings and generate about 500 full-time jobs.

West Northamptonshire Council's planning committee threw the plans out, saying there would be too much extra traffic and the buildings would spoil the local area.

Alban Mann launched an appeal, but the council has since decided to withdraw its objections.

It followed the result of an appeal that found in favour of a DHL development proposed nearby.

DHL was told by the council it would not be able to build a 79-acre (32-hectare) logistics hub, but a planning inspector quashed that decision after a public inquiry earlier this month.

The Alban Mann LLP site would be to the north and west of the garden centre

At a recent meeting of the council's strategic planning committee, planning officer Daniel Callis told members that the DHL and Alban Mann sites formed part of the same employment zone allocation and had "very significant crossover" regarding reasons for refusal.

The committee was told that following the decision on the DHL appeal, the authority's objections regarding visual impacts and highways matters were "no longer sustainable".

The council lost a previous appeal after a planning meeting threw out proposals for a DHL logistics hub

All members voted unanimously for the authority to withdraw its reasons for refusal from the appeal and make no submissions against the plans.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, it was anticipated that the public inquiry would still proceed but with a greatly reduced timetable.

It would likely focus on hearing from members of the public and discussing conditions for the development.