Archive for category: News

The Council is pleased to welcome a new Councilor, Mrs Liz Palmer. A vacancy arose through the resignation of Chanelle Wilkinson and following proper consultation East Northants District Council confirmed that a by-election was not required. Liz, who is also Acting Churchwarden of All Saints Church was formally voted onto the Council in December 2015 and attended her first meeting in January. We hope she will enjoy serving for the remainder of the Council’s term which ends in May 2019.

There’s still time to switch, save and smile

 

Home owners and tenants have until 1 February to save money on their energy bills with the latest collective switching scheme.

 

East Northamptonshire Council (ENC) has teamed up with leading collective switching expert, iChoosr, to take part in the Big Community Switch in a bid to help you get a better deal on your gas and electricity.

 

ENC’s free scheme, known as ‘Switch Save Smile,’ invites you to join forces and pay less for your gas and electricity. The more people who register, the greater the chance of getting a competitive energy deal.

 

In February, energy suppliers will be invited to take part in the auction to bid against each other to offer the best deal.

 

The cheapest tariff offered will win, and everyone registered for the scheme will then be sent details of how much money they could save, together with a no-obligation offer to switch. An average of £300 was saved per household in iChoosr’s last auction.

 

The process is very simple:

 

1. Register – Anyone who pays a household energy bill can register for the scheme, even if you don’t live in East Northamptonshire. The quickest and easiest way to register is online. You need your annual energy statement (or any other gas/electricity bill) for information about your existing tariff and consumption. Registration must be completed by 1 February.

 

1. Consider the offer – The supplier who puts forward the cheapest tariffs gets to offer you a new contract. You will receive a personal offer, tailored to your household, which will show you how much money you might save.

 

1. Make a decision – You have plenty of time to decide whether you want to switch or not. You do not have to accept the offer. If you do accept, iChoosr will take care of the entire switching process.

 

ENC Leader, Steven North, said: “The Big Community Switch is a hassle-free way of making sure you’re getting a good deal from your energy supplier. Lots of people haven’t got time to compare tariffs or find the whole process quite daunting. But with iChoosr all you need to do is register, which takes less than 10 minutes, and then let them do all the hard work for you.”

 

Karen Pell, Interim Environmental Protection Manager at ENC, added: “130 households have registered so far and I’d like to see even more people making the most of this opportunity. The greater the sign up, the greater the savings could be. I’ve registered and I’m excited to find out just how much we could all save!”

 

For more information and/or to register, please visit www.east-northamptonshire.gov.uk/smile or call 01832 742121.

 

Sign up sessions will be held in Thrapston, Oundle and Irthlingborough for people who would like face-to-face help. Anyone can drop in to register at:

 

• Thrapston Library, 19 January, 10am – 12pm
• Oundle Library, 20 January, 10am – 12pm
• Irthlingborough Library, 20 January, 1 – 3pm

 

Don’t forget your annual energy statement or latest gas/electricity bill.

Great Addington Parish Council

 

Proposed cold store unit at Kettering energy Park, Burton Wold

The Council held an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 10^th November 2015 to consider its response to KET/2015/0811 environmental statement scoping opinion application to Kettering Borough Council in respect of a proposed cold store unit at Kettering Energy Park, Burton Wold, Burton Latimer. The meeting was called because the deadline for responses (Thursday 12^th November) was before the next scheduled Council meeting.

 

35 members of the public were in attendance and were unanimous in their opposition to the proposed cold store unit. They also complained at the lack of consultation with the local community given the scale of the development and its potential impact on the surrounding area.

 

The Council resolved unanimously to object to KET/2015/0811 and further resolved to comment with particular reference to scale, residential amenity, highway safety and proximity to a site of historical importance. The full text of this submission is available on the Council’s website and further information is on the Facebook page.

 

Streetlight improvements

The Council tabled its draft budget for the year ending 31 March 2017 at the November meeting and will finalise the details in December before requesting the precept in early January. Capital expenditure over the next four years to upgrade the streetlights to LED (light-emitting diode) was considered at an indicative cost of just over £7,000 plus VAT because it could provide up to a 70% saving on energy costs. LED is proven to have a low power requirement, high efficiency, a long life and it is easy to maintain. The Council plans to fund this proposed expenditure by reserves, grants and/or a loan.

 

Superfast Northamptonshire

Superfast Northamptonshire has finally arrived in Great Addington and residents now have the option to take up this new fibre broadband service for an additional cost. Please contact your current service provider for details of the cost to upgrade. Most broadband contracts run for one to two years so you may not be able to switch to another provider without paying a cancellation fee. If you wish to stay with your existing service provider, most will allow you to upgrade your contract to take up a fibre service. If you would like more general information about Superfast Northamptonshire, please visit http://www.superfastnorthamptonshire.net/Pages/home.aspx

 

Date of the next meeting

The next meeting of the Council will be held in the Memorial Hall, Great Addington on Wednesday 16^th December 2015 at 7:45 pm. and the agenda will be available (on the website and the notice board) 3 clear days before this date. Please note that members of the public have the right to attend any meeting of the Council.

 

Clerk’s contact details

Please write to the Clerk at 10 Rushwell Close, Great Addington, Kettering, Northamptonshire NN14 4BP, call 01536 330858, send an e-mail to clerk@greataddingtonparishcouncil.gov.uk or visit the website at www.greataddingtonpc.co.uk

 

If you would like to receive e-mail news updates, please subscribe on the website (and check that e-mails are not going to your junk mail folder).

 

As Kettering Borough Council are not publishing all objections the Parish Council felt it would be useful if residents could see what was submitted. Below is the full text of the submission from the clerk.

On behalf of Great Addington Parish Council (GAPC) I am authorised to submit
the following response to KET/2015/0811 environmental statement scoping
opinion application to Kettering Borough Council in respect of a proposed
cold store unit at Kettering Energy Park, Burton Wold, Burton Latimer: –

At a meeting of GAPC held on Tuesday 11 November 2015 (with 35 members of
the public in attendance) the Council resolved unanimously to object to
KET/2015/0811.  Those in attendance complained at the lack of consultation
with the local community regarding the proposed cold store unit given its
significant size and potential impact on the surrounding area.  The Council
further resolved to comment as follows: –

1. GAPC believes the application to be contrary to North Northamptonshire
Core Spatial Strategy in terms of its size and location with particular
reference to paragraphs 3.96, 3.97 and 3.98.
Paragraph 3.96 calls for a modal switch away from road freight transport
towards rail and water based distribution.  This application does not
further that aim.

Paragraph 3.97 refers to the East Midlands Strategic Distribution Study
which defines buildings greater than 25,000 square metres floor space as
‘large scale strategic distribution’ and recommends that such developments
should be focused in locations that are attractive to the logistics
industry.  The Burton Wold proposal has a floor area of over 26,000 square
metres.  The NNCSS goes on to state that within North Northamptonshire only
Eurohub at Corby is a suitable location for strategic distribution activity
of this scale.

Paragraph 3.98 states that smaller distribution developments should be in
‘locations and of a scale where buildings are not visually prominent’ and
should be ‘sensitively designed to reduce the impact on the local
landscape’.  Paragraph 4.1.18 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
scoping document admits that this is not achievable.

2. There would be a significant adverse effect on the residential amenity of
neighbours by virtue of increased traffic noise and overshadowing due to the
scale of the buildings.  The proposed site plan indicates that the main hall
of the store will be within 500 metres from The Round House.  It may safely
be assumed that the cold store will operate over a 24 hour/7 day cycle and
in hours of darkness the approaches and vehicle movement areas as well as
the site perimeter will be lit for security and safety.  This noise and
light pollution will impact significantly on neighbours.

3. The visual impact of the development will affect not only the immediate
surroundings but a wide area across North Northamptonshire and possibly even
further afield.  The site is on prominent land in open countryside and can
be seen from many points across the Ise and Nene valleys.  With a height of
45 metres the roof of the proposed structure will be higher than any ground
point in North Northamptonshire.  A structure of the shape and size proposed
will be alien to the nature of rural Northamptonshire.  The indicative
visualisation provided pretends that a rectangular block nearly 200 metres x
45 metres can be screened by three saplings of some 3 to 4 metres height and
the wider visual impact from other viewpoints is conveniently ignored.

4. The proposed development is over-bearing, out-of-scale and out of
character in terms of its appearance compared with existing development in
the vicinity.  Its bulk will dominate the residential buildings along the
A510 which are typically built of brick and stone.  Agricultural buildings
in the vicinity are of modest proportions, sitting below the skyline.

5. The proximity (within 500 metres) of Grade II Listed The Round House will
be detrimental to the setting of a building constructed to commemorate the
Duke of Wellington.  Wellington himself commented that the surrounding
countryside reminded him of the field of Waterloo.  This proposed
development would therefore cause substantial harm to the significance of a
heritage asset and its setting which is contrary to Policy 26 of the North
Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy 2011-2031 June 2015 Focused Changes to
the Pre-Submission Plan.

6. Paragraph 1.1.5 of the EIA scoping document refers to 4 megawatts being
supplied by Kettering Energy Park.  The original aim of the energy park was
to supply 25% of Kettering Borough’s existing energy needs however this
target has not yet been achieved.  The cold store unit will therefore add to
the deficit.

The intermittent nature of wind and solar energy means the cold store will
need a back-up source of power which the Council assumes will be the
National Grid.  The energy cycles of wind power with high production in
winter months and of a cold store having high demand in summer are out of
synchronisation.
Whilst the distribution sector can offer a broad range of jobs, many are
relatively low skilled and therefore not ‘high quality’ as described in
paragraph 1.1.5.

7. The proposed cold store would result in in a higher volume of traffic,
particularly articulated lorries.  The stretch of road between The Round
House and Junction 11 of the A14 is already a dangerous road because
according to crashmap.co.uk there have been eleven accidents, three serious
and one fatal since 2005.  GAPC considers one fatality is one too many.

The roundabout does not have a large enough radius for articulated lorries
and the road undulates at various points reducing visibility when
overtaking.

8. Paragraphs 1.1.6 and 3.1.2 of the EOA scoping document refer to future
potential developments.  GAPC understands that future developments are not
material considerations in deciding planning matters.  It is therefore
requested that these paragraphs are disregarded