Decision due on Harworth’s ‘off the scale’ Nunnery Farm I&L
A 1.8m sq ft industrial park earmarked for Northamptonshire farmland has been recommended for approval at a planning committee meeting this week.
Harworth submitted a hybrid planning application in December 2024 for its 160-acre development, proposing an industrial and logistics park that would cover an area equivalent to more than a third of the nearby town of Rothwell.
An indicative masterplan submitted with the application identified up to eight units ranging up to 350,000 sq ft in size, four of which would be to the north of Harrington Road, with the remaining four to the south.
But, in line with a rising national tide of objections to large-scale industrial developments, the scheme has attracted local opposition, with all seven town and parish councils lodging objections to the proposals.
A submission from Rothwell Town Council summed up objections to the scheme, describing the size of the application as “off the scale”, and “entirely inappropriate”, while Anglian Water’s objection expressed concern over capacity and supply issues.
An indicative masterplan supplied with the proposals shows eight units which could be developed if the plans are approved. Credit: UMC via planning portal
However, planning officers have recommended the scheme for approval ahead of a meeting on 11 November, blaming the region’s ageing existing local plan, which they say is now in conflict with updated government NPPF guidelines.
They added that the planning authority’s ability to resist the scheme had been compromised by an earlier 185-acre development at Thrapston, which was approved on appeal by government inspectors in October 2025.
“The application proposals conflict with the adopted Development Plan insofar as they propose strategic employment development within the open countryside outside a defined settlement boundary and the site is not located at a growth town,” they said.
“The relevant development plan policies principally relied upon to resist strategic logistics development in an open countryside location not within a growth town are afforded significantly reduced weight owing to their conflict with the current NPPF and the conclusions of the recent Thrapston appeal decision specifically regarding the overriding need for B8 logistics space.”
North Northamptonshire’s emerging local plan has identified a need for around 1,500 acres of strategic logistics space over the period to 2045, but is in the early stages of development.
In a Housing and Economic Needs Assessment prepared this year as evidence for the emerging local plan, Rothwell is considered a ‘fall back’ logistics growth location, intended to be considered after other options have been exhausted at secondary locations.
But with the plan in its infancy, no decisions have yet been made through the process regarding the selection or allocation of strategic employment sites in the area.
“The evidence base supporting the emerging local plan identifies a clear need for a substantial amount of logistics floorspace within North Northamptonshire that cannot be solely accommodated by existing Development Plan allocations located in Growth Towns,” added the report.
“Whilst, as a Market Town, Rothwell was not identified as a preferred location for such development through extant plan policy and is not considered a primary location within the Council’s emerging evidence base, it remains a location capable of accommodating logistics growth… due to its positive relationship with the strategic highway network – the A14 junction 3.”
UMC Architects and provided designs for the proposals, with Pegasus providing planning consultancy, economic reporting, flood reports and illustrative masterplans. The wider project team includes Hydrock, Hopkins Coates, Gerald Eve, and MPC.
North Northamptonshire’s planning committee will meet on 11 November to decide the application.
Documents and plans relating to the proposals can be viewed on North Northamptonshire’s planning portal using reference: NK/2024/0717
