Warehouse goes up after wrong street consulted
WORK is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.
Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards away from their back doors.
Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away. North Northamptonshire Council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.
The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed later in the year. The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.
Town hall bosses have admitted the blunder but insisted they still acted legally. However, residents say they are “living in hell” after builders moved in.
Groundwork construction at the site began in November, but in the past month the structure has started to be erected which has left residents distressed by the banging of metal.
Another neighbour, Jose Cruz, 64, and his wife Olga, 59, moved into their £200,000 two-bedroom semi-detached home in 2011 and fear they will now be unable to sell it.
Mr Cruz, a supermarket worker, said: “There used to be a Weetabix factory on the site but that was half the size of this monstrosity and it had been dormant for a long time.”
Operations manager Kieran Joseph, 30, has lived in the street with hairdresser Megan Cowan, 28, and their two children, said “the vibrations have caused a crack in our roof so the kids’ bedroom leaks.”
Jason Smithers, the council’s Conservative leader, confirmed that “the permission remains lawful as a notice was placed at the site and a press advert was published – which fulfils the statutory part of the process.”