By Liza Helps, Property Editor, Logistics Matters

THE SCHEME, on a 98.8 acre site off Old Cosgrove Road in Old Stratford, would have provided some 1,000 jobs for the area and was recommended for approval by the Council’s own planning officers.

As well as the 3,500 objections from the public  there were concerns raised from 11 nearby parish councils and the Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust. Regarding traffic, flooding, pollution, loss of green space, and damage to habitats.

The planning committee met on Tuesday and after a four hour meeting decided to  go against its planning officer’s  advice on the grounds that the development would ‘result in the loss of an area of Open Mosaic Habitat on Previously Developed Land (OMHPDL), a Habitat of Principle Importance, and associated priority species, and the loss of the designated Furtho Pit Local Wildlife Site, a site of local significance’. It said that mitigation proposals were not enough to outweigh the harm arising.

In addition, the committee noted: the ‘siting, scale and height of Units 5 to 8 will result in unacceptable significant adverse impacts on the visual amenity of the occupiers of properties to the north of the site on Stratford Road’. There was also an absence of a Section 106 agreement to offset any mitigations.

Objections has been received from

Frontier Estates first submitted its application nearly four years ago on 5 September 2022. It is unknown yet whether Frontier Estates will appeal.