Stanton Cross: Compulsory purchase order made for road

The project could take up to 15 years to build and increase the size of the town by a third

A compulsory purchase order has been made to ensure a new road will be built for a planned residential and business district in a Northamptonshire town.

The road will pass through land on the east side of Wellingborough to serve the Stanton Cross development which has been planned since the late 1990s.

The borough council is to build 3,200 new homes, shops, schools and offices.

Councillors prefer to negotiate land sales but now have the order at their disposal if they face opposition.

The project would create 2,000 jobs and David Cross, president of Wellingborough's Chamber of Commerce, said the town had been waiting a long time for Stanton Cross.

"Wellingborough has been the Cinderella of the county. Other towns have expanded but we have been quiet here.

"We now need to enhance our economic development so we are catching up.

"This is a development existing businesses will welcome by giving the town a boost and also bringing in other businesses."

Council leader Paul Bell said the road would go from the town's railway station over a new bridge eastwards to the Finedon Road.

"The new route is the final part of a major stage in the development of Stanton Cross.

"We would prefer to negotiate with landowners, lease holders and organisations who I hope will agree to sell land to the council or the developers Bovis before the compulsory purchase order."

The compulsory purchase order will ensure that the main road through Stanton Cross will be built