Well – not only is the parish of Pytchley being blighted by the widening of the A14 and the new Orlingbury by-pass, there is another threat on the horizon. It comes under the name of the Minerals and Waste Development Framework or MWDF.
No – I hadn’t heard of it before this week. The MWDF has two parts to it:
Locations for Minerals Development, which will identify the criteria for sites and allocate specific sites for minerals-related development; and
Locations for Waste Development, which will identify the criteria for sites and allocate specific sites for waste-related development
The part that concerns Pytchley is the Waste Development – to the man in the street this means a re-cycling plant (or rubbish tip as it used to be called). There was a consultation document produced last year where a number of sites were identified and assessed. There is now a supplementary options document, issued 28th August that identifies 3 areas around Kettering where the facility can be sited.
The three options were:
Pytchley Lodge Industrial Estate, Telford Way Industrial Estate, and ‘Kettering South’. Kettering South, I must explain, is an open area of fields located in a triangle between the golf centre, Isham Road, and the A14 – in other words, just outside the village.
It was decided to select one option for further investigation. You may notice that two of the options are on existing industrial areas with fully established infrastructure (roads, services etc.) and that one is open farmland on an elevated location above the A14. So there are no prizes for guessing which option was chosen for further investigation…
I know that I could be accused of NIMBY-ism, but it seems to me that the site chosen is totally unsuited to the purpose. The waste management will be a covered facility (i.e. like a large warehouse) and I suspect will be visited many time per hour by heavy lorries and trucks to off-load or on-load re-cycled items. Is this really the right place for a recycling centre? there is also the question, does this open up the area on the south side of the A14 for further industrial development? and how does this integrate with the A14 widening?
The Northamptonshire web site has a feed back form on their web site, but I do feel that this has been kept very low-key so that objections are kept to a minimum. If you feel strongly about a rubbish tip next to the village, I suggest you make your voice heard – either through the Parish Council, Kettering Council or Northampton Council.
I understand that the Parish Council has only just received the information, and I’m sure they will be interested in our thoughts.
Because the reports have been produced by a government body, there is an enormous amount of documentation but some useful links are listed. If you have a few hours to spare, you could always read and/or down load all the files – in the mean time:
http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/policy/Minerals/MWDF.htmhttp://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/policy/Minerals/SPO.htmhttp://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C5E89739-875F-4CB2-84E3-74AA19E97283/0/TAparta.pdfBy the way, if you travel westward along the A14 to the next junction, you will see a large open area that was once a quarry, and more recently a car breakers yard – I wonder why that area was not chosen…
