Northampton Borough due to have say on Buckton Fields planning application

Northampton Borough Council planning committee is due to give their opinion to Daventry District Council as statutory consultees, so to will the WNDC.

Councillors have been advised to make their views known about the potential development at Buckton Fields before the end of February, although currently there is no date scheduled for the planning committee to rule on this.

Residents are strongly urged to let the Council Planning Policy Section know their views, as well as the planning department at the WNDC. This need not mean writing a completly new letter, if you have already written to Daventry, amend the address and re-submit this using Northampton's own application planning number N/2007/1583. WNDC will keep Daventry's application number. Details of where to submit these can be found at the bottom of the page.

I have been advised by some councillors that it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of lobbying of the planning committee either, so here is a web link to the NBC site detailing members of that committee with e-mail links!

Remember to Quote the application number on all correspondence!
For the NBC this will be N/2007/1583. If you want to submit letters to DDC or WNDC then use the DDC planning number DA/2007/1400. For details on who to send your comments click here.

Developer pulls out at Sixfields

So what? I hear you say. Well as we have pointed out to both the DDC and the developer, we strongly believe that this identifies a very real cause for concern over the current Ensign development plans at Buckton Fields, as well as the many other developments currently under consideration ib the area.

The issue is seen all too often in phased developments submitted by large building firms, just like the one here. What they tend to do is push through a bulk of the houses plus minor infrastructure improvements which would be required to support them anyway in the initial phases, subsequent phases tend to contain the promised infrastructural elements to support the entire development, such as schools, shops etc. These are termed 'Section 106 Agreements'. Come the time to build these many builders all of a sudden seem interest in the project feining 'run out of funds' and as we can see at Sixfields, residents are left isolated and having to travel further away for these amenities.

What we have subsequently learned is that the WNDC, whose juristition as planning authorty Upton falls into, are powerless to prevent developers from preventing developers from this sort of behavior. We feel that it would be a disaster to the local area to allow Ensign to build any houses until adequate infrastructural improvements have been put in place first, this would include the complete implementation of the North West Link road which would provide releif to the already swamped roads in and around this part of Northampton.