Planning delays could prompt IKEA to reverse its decision to base one of Europe’s largest distribution centres in the UK.
The Swedish retailer had selected Parlison Properties’ A1M1 Link park at Thrapston in Northamptonshire for the 56,270 sq m (605,700 sq ft) shed. But on Wednesday East Northamptonshire Council resolved to postpone making a decision until it had commissioned a visual impact study into the scheme. The council has yet to set a timescale and appoint experts to do the investigation.
Paul Jacobs, Ikea’s property manager, said: “We wanted to be on site in summer with a view to opening the scheme by the end of the year. If the application is referred back to the next planning committee we can hang in there. If a decision is delayed by more than four weeks, it will push the scheme back six months and we will have to rethink our global strategy.”
He went on to warn that the scheme is crucial to IKEA’s Europe-wide distribution newtwork. “If we can’t do it in the UK in a decent time-frame on a site we feel comfortable with we will have to look elsewhere in Europe,” he said.
IKEA had originally shortlisted Gazeley’s Latimer Park in Kettering and Kingspark’s Eurohub in Corby. But Jacobs said: “Latimer is not an option.”
EGi News 14/07/97
