The current planning permission:

Magna Park Corby was granted outline planning permission in December 2020 for logistics-led employment use. The plan was to bring the site forward in a phased manner, consisting of four individual phases. The first phase of development included MPC2 and MPC3 which have already been built out, together with MPC4a, which has been leased to Nike.

Whilst approvals have also been gained for other units, MPC 1, MPC 5 and MPC 6, these were to form part of subsequent phases 2, 3 and 4. As part of this outline planning permission, each phase is required to be supported by a specific Transport Assessment, which has to be approved by the Council prior to the occupation of the buildings constructed in that phase.

Issues with the current approach:

This approach is known as ‘Monitor and Management’, which alongside requirements for each assessment to be informed by real time trip and traffic generation monitoring of the previous phase(s), includes restrictions on the occupation of phases until the assessments are approved.

This approach involves significant uncertainty as to the cumulative highway implications of the overall scheme. Conditions attached to the outline planning permission require each development phase to be supported by a tailored Transport Assessment, which would be based on traffic evidence from the previous phase and subject to approval by the Council prior to the occupation of the buildings constructed in that phase.

Whilst such a ‘Monitor and Manage’ approach will ultimately provide greater certainty on development trip rates and cumulative highway impact, it delays site development and has the potential to prolong periods of off-site mitigation works.

The new approach:

It is proposed that a fresh outline planning application is submitted for the remaining phases of the Magna Park Corby site, to facilitate a more condensed development programme by looking at the potential highway implications of the scheme as a whole. This is a more typical ‘Predict and Provide’ based assessment, with a new and comprehensive Transport Assessment that considers all of the potential highways matters arising from the proposal. This approach would include consideration of robust trip generation and trip distribution information to confirm the existing package mitigation works along with any additional requirements for such works arising.

Greater certainty for the community:

The new assessment would allow the highway impacts to be predicted and mitigation measures agreed with the Council and key stakeholders, with greater ‘early’ confidence and assurance. In simple terms the highway implications would be fully predicted, and mitigation measures provided, all of which would be known at the time of granting the new application.