Friday brief: North unitary ordered to pay NHS trust’s legal costs over development dispute
Our usual Friday round up of some news from across Northants
The North Northants unitary council has been ordered to pay legal costs to an NHS trust over a planning appeal for housing at a former Northamptonshire hospital site.
The planning inspectorate ruled that North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) lack of action on plans for homes at the former Rushden Hospital site was ‘unreasonable’ and caused the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) ‘wasted expense’.
The Trust lodged an appeal in July last year after the council failed to make a decision on its plans for 22 homes on vacant land off Catlin Way. Though NHFT won its claim for costs, the planning inspector turned down the housing plans.
The site was initially allocated for an NHS resource centre, open space and parking in 2012 but was never brought forward. The surrounding area is made up of residential homes, the Parklands Surgery and other NHS healthcare buildings. Revised plans were submitted by the Northants NHS Trust in 2022 to repurpose the empty land for further homes.
According to NNC’s website, 81 objections to the plans were submitted by members of the public over potential overdevelopment of the area, the proximity of the development to South End Infant School and loss of green space.
The planning inspector noted that, though NNC did not make a formal decision on the plans prior to the appeal, it later confirmed in writing that it was supportive of the physical proposals. However, the authority deemed the section 106 agreements, which detail the developer’s contributions to the area, insufficient and could not approve the project.
Some of the pitfalls, according to the planning inspector, included a lack of clarity on how many affordable homes would be delivered and concerns about the biodiversity net gain for the area. They concluded that the housing plans were in conflict with the council’s requirements and should be refused.
The inspector did allow the NHS Trust’s application for costs, stating there were delays in the council processing the planning application. NNC originally told the applicant a decision on the homes would be made at a committee meeting in February last year, but never issued one.
“There is no substantive evidence before me to indicate why the planning application was either not determined or discussed at the committee,” the appeal document stated.
It concluded that the applicant suffered “unnecessary expense” on taking the plans to appeal due to “unreasonable behaviour” from NNC.
A spokesperson for NNC said:
“The appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate on the grounds that there wasn’t an appropriate mechanism by which to secure an adequate provision of affordable housing, an appropriate contribution towards measures to reduce car use, and a biodiversity net gain as part of the proposed development.
“These matters are complex and required careful consideration and consultation with a number of different parties, and regrettably, the Council was unable to satisfactorily conclude on these matters prior to the submission of the appeal.”
Report by Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
News in brief:
A call for a new police station in Corby has grown to a call for more stations across North Northants.
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) will ask to meet with chief constable Ivan Balhatchet to discuss the potential of reviewing police resources and the feasibility of setting up new police stations and response units across the breadth of the authority. The unified message was agreed at a full council meeting held at Corby Cube yesterday after the council’s Conservative administration asked to change Labour’s motion which was focused solely on a new station in Corby.
Speaking yesterday at a county police, fire and crime meeting held in Northampton, commissioner Danielle Stone said she was “shocked” to find out how little policing resource had been left in Corby. She previously stated that the force is ‘urgently’ considering a variety of different options to provide a new base in Corby.
However talk appears to be about hubs rather than new stations.
The commissioner told the panel that her office had a plan for 16 different policing hubs to be introduced across the county to boost visible and neighbourhood policing. She warned that it would “take time” but assured that there was a strategy in place to meet the county’s needs.
By Nadia Lincoln
Connected Together CIC has been awarded the Healthwatch West Northamptonshire contract for a further two years.
NN Journal understands Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire had also bid for the contract, but lost out to Connected Together, which has held the contract for several years. This time the contract has been split between the North and West unitaries and the winner of the North contract is yet to be announced.
CEO Kate Holt, said ‘It’s fantastic news for us and a huge relief for staff and our amazing volunteers that we can continue the good work they do listening to people’s views about health and care services in West Northamptonshire and (indeed across the county) and feeding that back to NHS health and social care providers to improve services'.
The West unitary has declared the rise in fly-tipping in West Northamptonshire over the last year, as ‘abominable and astonishing’.
In the last quarter, between October and December 2024, West Northants Council (WNC) reported it had cleared 4,579 fly-tips, down from 5,248 in the previous three months. There has been an increase of more than 1,000 fly-tips cleared by the authority compared to the same three-month area the year before.
Despite the high numbers of fly-tips, WNC issued just 202 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for environmental crime, which would include the fines issued for illegally dumping waste. This is a significant reduction from last year when 601 FPNs were issued in the same quarter.
When waste is illegally dumped on public land, the responsibility falls on the local authority to clear the rubbish and pay for all associated costs. Cabinet member for environment, recycling and waste, Cllr Rebecca Breese, said it was “abominable and astonishing” that the council’s waste teams had to clear out some 4,000 fly tips.
She added that there was a particular trend of fly-tipping within Northampton and told other members at the WNC cabinet meeting that she was “absolutely focused” on reducing the number
Starting on April 1 the authority will open all of its recycling centres seven days a week from 10am to 4pm.
Report by Nadia Lincoln
Since the release of Toxic Town on Netflix and the BBC podcast, there has been an explosion of people who think their health condition may have been caused by contact with toxic waste dust in Corby. We have been conducting dozens of interviews this week, with many more lined up and will have a first report in the next couple of weeks.
Read our recent article and if anyone does have any concerns and wants to get in touch please do so. Details at the end of this post.
Westminster Watch
Kettering MP Rosie Wrighting spoke in the House of Commons this week about online abuse she has received since standing for Parliament.
The Labour MP gave a speech during an International Women’s Day debate yesterday and said more needs to be done to improve safety for women.
Rosie, 27, the first woman to represent Kettering in Westminster and the youngest female
She said:
“Being a young woman in this place has its pitfalls, and I know that women MPs bear the brunt of online abuse, making ourselves read daily online comments that criticise our appearance, question our intelligence and threaten our safety.“In a post when the election was called last year, more people asked me if I had an OnlyFans account than about our manifesto pledges. Online, I am called ‘Barbie’, I am a ‘stupid girl’, and a ‘child playing politics’ and many more creative things that I cannot say in this House.
“I know many great women who have not stood for Parliament because of online abuse or worries about their safety, and this House is worse off because of it.
“My message for women who are thinking about getting into politics is that there is a place for you here, and we need you.”
More council planning incompetence will cost tax payers once again and no reprecusions!