I was pleased to recently host a well-attended meeting in my office between community representatives, including members of Great Addington Parish Council, and North Northamptonshire Council officers, to hear very valid local concerns regarding the proposed Kettering Energy Park, including around sustainability, the environment, and the extent of community engagement, as well as the need for any proposal to be in keeping with the adopted local plan. In essence, local people are understandably supportive of the principle of an 'energy park' and renewable generation as a concept, but are alarmed about suggestions of intrusive B8 warehouses being incorporated into the scheme and all the knock-on impacts of them on various fronts.
So I'm glad that local views were heard on this by the officers, and it was a particularly timely discussion, in that later that day, I met with the promoters of the scheme at their request and was able to put many of the probing questions that we had discussed to them.
Ultimately, I will always ensure that the views and concerns of my constituents are heard on these matters - as I am similarly doing in relation to the STAUNCH campaign elsewhere in the constituency at the moment - and I look forward to continuing to support them in this planning matter going forward. Ultimately, development must be appropriate to its surroundings, properly thought through with the right infrastructure, and have minimal impact on the environment and existing residents. Those will be the tests against which any proposed scheme is judged, and rightly so.