Council gives 'no comment' responses to concerns about construction chaos at new relief road in Northampton

West Northants Council (WNC) is refusing to publicly address concerns surrounding construction chaos at a relief road in Northampton, which is affecting thousands of people.

Sandy Lane, between Duston and Harpole, has been closed to thousands of motorists since June for reconstruction works as part of wider plans to build hundreds of new homes in the area.

Despite mounting concerns, WNC has chosen to remain publicly silent in response to questions from the Chronicle & Echo on matters such as the reopening of the Sandy Lane Relief Road (SLRR) and whether businesses in the area will be compensated for loss of earnings.

Here’s what we asked WNC, specifically councillor Adam Brown, deputy leader of WNC and representative of Bugbrooke, and councillor Phil Larratt, who is in charge of highways at WNC.

• Why did the council approve plans to build thousands of homes in this area without the completion of the Sandy Lane Relief Road in place? No comment.

• Why did WNC approve these plans which have seen both Sandy Lane Plants and Threadgold not included within the planning boundary, thus rendering them 'non existent' to developers? No comment.

• What is WNC now doing to help these family-run businesses survive this chaos approved by WNC and executed by the developers (Miller Homes)? No comment.

• WNC's highways board said Sandy Lane was going to be closed from June until March 31 – is this still the case? No comment. The Chron now knows, thanks to developers Miller Homes, that half of the road is set to open some time in April.

• If it is not reopening on the scheduled date as advertised by highways, why not? What has happened and when is it now expected to reopen? No comment. • When Sandy Lane does initially reopen, what will the road layout look like? No comment.

• Will the north of Sandy Lane be connected to the south Sandy Lane Relief Road aka ‘the road to nowhere’? If so, when will this be happening? No comment.

• Has WNC seen the driveway that has been installed at an existing residential property at the brow of a hill on a 60mph road? No comment.

• Would Councillor Larratt like to come down to the site with the Chronicle & Echo to talk to the businesses affected? No comment.

• What is Councillor Brown's latest update on the progress being made to get the South Sandy Lane Relief Road connected to the North of Sandy Lane and fully opened? No comment.

• What has Councillor Brown been doing to help Sandy Lane Plants, Threadgold and the residents of Sandy Lane who are extremely unhappy with how construction is unfolding on their doorsteps? No comment.

• Would Councillor Brown comment on the 'death trap' driveway mentioned above? No comment.

• Would Councillor Brown like to join councillor Larratt and come down to the site with the Chronicle & Echo to talk to the businesses affected? No comment.

However, in an email seen by Chronicle & Echo, it appears Councillor Brown has been putting pressure on the developers.

Councillor Adam Brown wrote the following email to Miller Homes earlier this week. He said: “I would urge Miller Homes to resolve this issue with the utmost urgency. The ongoing disruption to my constituents’ business is not acceptable, and it appears that key undertakings have not been delivered upon. Given that these failures appear to have resulted in a loss of trade I would encourage you to consider a goodwill payment to the affected businesses for the disruption they have faced.

“This is not the first time that signage and access have become an issue and I hope that Miller Homes can empathise with the disruptive nature of such issues. If our planning team feel that it’s appropriate to issue a written reminder of the developer’s obligations then I would encourage them to do so.”

Given that it was the local authority which approved the plans in the first place, questions are being asked as to who should be paying compensation, if any, to those affected.

A Miller Homes spokesman said: “We continue to work alongside West Northants Council (WNC) to complete the Norwood Farm section of the Sandy Lane Relief Road (SLRR) and are on track to open the first phase to traffic in April, via a temporary connection to Sandy Lane.

"The multi-million pound SLRR will provide a vastly improved transport infrastructure to the area and whilst we fully understand the short term challenges imposed by the road closures, these are necessary precautions to enable works to be completed safely and deliver long term benefits to the community.”

Here’s what the developers of the Western Gate housing estate, Vistry Group, told the Chron on Thursday (March 28).

A Vistry spokeswoman said: “Vistry is not involved in the construction of the Sandy Lane Relief Road through the wider Norwood Farm development.

“However, the second phase of our Western Gate development, which received planning permission last week, will create a new section of road. This will link the northern section of the relief road to Sandy Lane, just north of Larkhall Lane. We hope that this connection will be in place within the next couple of months, providing that outstanding legal agreements can be concluded imminently and the works by others are also complete.

“In order to facilitate the work to create this new junction, it will be necessary to introduce temporary two-way traffic control by means of traffic lights on Sandy Lane together with a full closure at times. We will endeavour to keep the duration of these works to a minimum and apologise in advance for any disruption or inconvenience this may cause.

“Vistry’s Senior Project Manager regularly meets with representatives of Harpole Parish Council in order to keep them updated on matters relating to the development at Western Gate.”

WNC said it was unable to comment at this time but said it would provide an update when there is further information to share.