New twist in the Magna Park saga

Two rival developers of the Magna Park area may face each other in court over the best way to expand the vast logistics centre near Lutterworth.
How the landscaped Magna Park extension might lookHow the landscaped Magna Park extension might look
How the landscaped Magna Park extension might look

Harborough District Council gave the final go-ahead to a huge new warehouse on the site in July.

The controversial warehouse, almost one-and-a-half kilometres in circumference and potentially providing 1,200 jobs, was the brainchild of the original Magna Park developer IDI Gazeley.

It would be built for the world’s largest logistics company, DHL.

But now a second developer, db symmetry, is to challenge its rival’s warehouse plan in the courts.

Db symmetry, the firm behind proposals for a new logistics scheme to the south of Magna Park, has requested that the DHL scheme, submitted by IDI Gazeley, be subject to a judicial review.

Db symmetry says the proposed IDI Gazeley development will cause harm to a heritage asset - a deserted medieval village at Bittesby.

It claims: “The council should have first considered whether that harm could have been avoided by the provision of new logistics floor space elsewhere.”

By “elsewhere”, they mean their own proposed site to the south of Magna Park.

A db symmetry statement claims: “The council was required to consider db symmetry’s scheme as an alternative to IDI Gazeley’s.

“They erroneously declined to consider db symmetry’s scheme as an alternative based on an incorrect planning policy basis.”

Db symmetry argues that its own Symmetry Park could accommodate DHL’s huge warehouse at a superior location “where there is no harm to a designated heritage 
asset”.

Jonathan Dawes, planning director at db symmetry, said: “We are extremely concerned that the decision taken to approve the DHL application in the summer was legally flawed.”

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