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Fight to save Thornton House must go on, says local Lib Dem candidate
March 31, 2010 1:11 AM
The approval of a planning application must not stop local people's fight to turn a former care home into a community centre - Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Kettering Chris Nelson has said - despite the approval of proposals to build 30 homes on the site.
A coalition of local residents and community groups have been campaigning to take over and refurbish the former care home on Churchill Way in Kettering - which closed in early 2009 - to provide both a Surestart children's centre and much needed community meeting rooms on the Ise Lodge estate.
This campaign took a blow when plans to build 30 new homes on the site were approved this evening by a Kettering Borough Council planning committee - despite criticisms about the loss of local amenity and the insufficient size proposed for the children's centre. Nonetheless, the proposals to build homes on the land will only take place if Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council agrees to sell the land to the developer.
"Our County Council still has one last chance to stand up for the people of the Ise Lodge - by giving local people the chance to prove that they can make a community centre work rather than simply selling this land off to the highest bidder," said Chris Nelson, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Kettering constituency.
"For the Conservative County Hall bosses to give in to the temptation to make a quick buck on this land would leave local people without a valuable community space - and a children's centre that simply isn't fit for purpose," he continued.
"Local Conservatives have claimed to be supporting a new community centre," he added, "but without real action to support the from their County Hall bosses, these plans will be nothing but a pipe dream. It's time for them to put the health of the community first - by giving these groups a chance!"
ENDS
Notes:
1.The decision to approve the application was made at a Planning Meeting of Kettering
Borough Council, held on Tuesday 30th March 2010: http://www.kettering.gov.uk/downloads/5.5_KET.2010.0001.pdf
2.Full details of the planning application can be viewed at the following link, under the reference "KET/2010/0001": http://www.kettering.gov.uk/site/scripts/planning.php
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