Controversial Corby development goes through after another planning botch

The proposal for 150 flats on prominent town centre site was previously refused, but a re-run after voting irregularities saw it approved last night

By Sarah Ward

The former Coop store has been derelict for years and will now be developed.

A previously refused Corby housing development has now been granted planning permission after a council botch up meant that it had to be heard again.

The skyscape of Corby’s town centre will change once more as Glenrowan Homes were granted permission last night for the 150 mainly one and two bed flats on the former Coop site on Alexandra Road.

The six-storey development will be the most densely populated in the town centre, with about 230 people expected to make the new scheme their home.

The plans.

The plans had been fiercely fought by residents of Richmond Road - one of Corby’s most expensive streets - and in October they thought they had won their battle after councillors voted to refuse the development.

The new scheme will be close to premier address Richmond Road.

But mysteriously last week the application appeared again on the planning committee agenda again without explanation, with the unitary council refusing to answer NN Journal’s questions about why and last night the authority’s senior planning lawyer Sara Fayaz explained there had been ‘voting irregularities’ in the previous planning meeting. The officer said it had not been clear what votes had been cast - with one councillor voting both for and against the application - and so the application needed to be heard again.

At the meeting three Richmond Road residents spoke out against the application, citing issues concerning the height of the development, the impact on their properties, the lack of parking and the dense population of the development.

Corby Cllr Lyn Buckingham, who represents the ward, also spoke against the development, saying that work recommended for the nearby flood defence culverts in the 2000s had not been done and part of the site was in a valley. In the recent floods the nearby Cottingham Road area was badly affected.

Cllr Buckingham said objections raised by the town council’s planning committee had not been included in the planning officer’s report as it should have done. Instead the report said the town council had no comment to make.

NN Journal understands leader of the town council Cllr Mark Pengelly, worked for the developer’s parent company MPB structures several years ago and told Richmond Road residents when he visited them with Corby MP Lee Barron this summer that he could not speak on their behalf due to the conflict of interest. The MP wrote a letter of objection against the scheme.

Committee member Cllr Alison Dalziel raised concerns about the lack of disabled parking spaces on site and Cllr Jean Addison also had concerns about vehicle access. The proposal will be accessed only via nearby Wood Street.

The developer’s agent told the committee the development was ‘an important part of the modern regeneration for Corby’ and that one and two bedroom flats were needed in the town. The site had also been designated in the local plan, which sets out what development can happen and where.

In the vote, six councillors voted to approve the site and five voted against (including all three Corby councillors on the committee).

None of the homes will be affordable - the authority has a 30 per cent affordable housing policy - as the developer successfully argued with planners that the demand would make the scheme unviable. Instead Glenrowan Homes will pay £210,000 towards affordable homes off site as well as £150,000 towards education and £162,000 towards health costs.

Speaking after the meeting Glenrowan Homes director Patrick Boyle said he would be happy to have the housing scheme close to his own back garden and the homes were needed for Corby.

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This is the second planning mistake made by the authority this year, after it failed to notify residents of Hooke Close in Corby about plans for a large warehouse.
A request for a judicial review was refused last week by the high court. The authority was also taken to the high court earlier this year over the Wellingborough Walks tree debacle, in which a developer was allowed to cut down historic trees without permission.

A planning peer review by the Local Government Association in October 2022 was critical of the council’s planning service and made a number of recommendations including better management, cutting back on agency staff and creating one overarching planning team.

A progress report published this month said improvements had been made but despite the unitary council being almost four years old, staff still refer to the former councils and work with different software.