The recommendation from WNC to grant planning permission for the DHL site at Towcester is crazy, flying in the face of residents, reason and reality.
The WNC policy, left over from the SNC days calls for small and medium size units. There is additional planning guidance to aid applicants that small is up to 2000 sq metres, medium is 2000 to 8000 sq metres and large is greater than 8000 sq metres.
In what universe is 100,000 sq metres in any way appropriate for this site.
The application is taking the mickey out of the policy from the outset. There is bound to be traffic chaos in and around Towcester yet WNC Highways and Highways England are either too stupid to understand, or too indifferent to care as they raise no objections.
The policy calls for a mix of uses on the site small industrial units (b1), warehouses (b8) and office units (b2). This application is exclusively warehouses, in no way being policy compliant. Yet WNC planning are ignoring that, inventing new excuses and recommending this approval.
I note they have accompanied the recommendation with a long list of conditions. One of which is that before any unit is occupied the Towcester Relief Road must be open. That road should have been opened in January 2024 when Persimmon Homes sold 1016 homes. Persimmon are in breach of this condition and WNC refuses to take any action. We can have no confidence that any such conditions on DHL will be enforced or are in any way worth the paper they are written on.
It is a sad feature of WNC planning enforcement that if you have an in house legal team and deep pockets they will let you do whatever you wish, but a small householder or group then they will show you who is boss. No one can take comfort that there is anything resembling planning control from the inadequate and useless WNC Planning Department.
WNC Planning Department is one of the worst performing in the country according to the MHCLG figures placing WNC at position 309 from 329. They did improve as previously they were 316, but going from awful to dreadful is not a major step change forward. With such a poor council performance it is hardly a surprise that they make such truly horrific recommendations
I hope the councillors on the Strategic Planning Committee will put this recommendation and plan where it belongs, in the bin.
WNC Report is available here