Ashfield Land has put forward plans for a 60ha Strategic Rail Freight Interchange near Northampton which will have up to 8 million sq ft of both rail-linked and rail-served warehousing, rail infrastructure and additional infrastructure.
In a Scoping Report, presented to the Planning Inspectorate last month, Ashfield set out plans for the scheme, named Rail Central, next to the West Coast Main Line near the village of Blisworth.
The site is in the fork of the railway line – the WCML goes on to Birmingham and the northwest, while the other fork goes to Northampton.
In the report, Ashfield said the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange would provide up to 743,200 sq m (8,000,000 sq ft) of storage and distribution buildings with ancillary office accommodation, rail infrastructure (to include new sidings), service depot, HGV facilities, hotel and public house/restaurant, associated access, ground works, highways, landscaping and other accompanying infrastructure works.”
“Owing to the nature of the proposed development and the way in which SRFIs are developed and operated, the application for the Development Consent Order will need to retain some flexibility for design and layout options,” it said in the Scoping Report.
The application is expected to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in the first quarter of 2017.
