Silverstone F1 warehouse scheme in wrong place, campaigners say

A proposed business park near a Formula One racetrack is the "wrong development in the wrong place", campaigners have said.

Plans for Podium Business Park between the villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury included 15m-high (49ft) warehouses.

West Northamptonshire Council said no date has been set for this application to go before the planning committee.

The developer, Clowes Developments, has not responded to requests for comment.

Campaigners said hundreds of separate objections had been made against the planned development.

Karen Lockton, who lives in Silverstone, about one mile (1.6km) from the proposed site, said: "We absolutely understand that small/medium enterprise and technology-driven employment is a great thing for this region and we would encourage it 100%.

"What we don't want is high-volume warehousing, low skill, bussing people in from different parts of the country in order to fill employment gaps that cannot be filled by our local economic workforce, because it's a skilled workforce in this area."

Brenda Stewart, who lives in Whittlebury, also about a mile from the proposed development, said: "There are two main concerns.

"One is obviously this is a ridge with far-reaching views, probably easily five or six miles all the way round, and it really will actually blot a rural landscape.

"The other one quite clearly is the traffic issue because the 16-bay warehouse is capable of turning around three lorries per bay per hour.

"That is a huge number of lorries and the local roads are simply not suitable for it."

National Highways has recently asked local developers, including those behind these plans site, to submit cumulative traffic impact assessments for their developments' impact on the A5/A43 Tove roundabout near Towcester.

A number of separate campaigns in the north and south of Northamptonshire have also been organised against "inappropriate" rural warehousing.

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