Northampton Gateway Rail Freight Interchange gains approval

An application for the development of a Northampton Gateway Rail Freight Interchange project has been approved by the Secretary of State for Transport, together with associated landscaping and infrastructure works.

Specifically, the Northampton Gateway project will entail the construction of an intermodal freight terminal, complete with container storage, HGV parking, new road infrastructure, a new bypass to the village of Roade, and upgrades to the existing road infrastructure near the proposed site, such as new access to the A508 and improvements to Junction 15 of the M1.

The proposed site for the project is on a patch of land to the West of the A508, to the South-West of Junction 15 of the M1, and to the East of Northampton Loop Line.

The aforementioned application was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by the company Roxhill Developments Limited in May 2018 and was accepted to undergo the examination process in the following June.

After this a series of public, business, and statutory consultations were carried out before the Examining Authority submitted a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport in the July of this year.

This application was the 79^th Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project to be examined by the Planning Inspectorate and is the 24^th projects to fall under the label of a transport project.

The Planning Inspectorate’s Chief Executive, Sarah Richards stated: “The Planning Inspectorate is committed to giving local communities the opportunity of being involved in the examination of projects that may affect them. Local people, the local authority and other interested parties were able to participate in the six month long examination. The Examining Authority listened and gave full consideration to those local views.

“The Planning Inspectorate has again demonstrated its ability to examine Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) within timescales laid down in the Planning Act 2008 which provides developers and investors with the confidence to build and improve the infrastructure this country needs to secure future economic growth.”

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