Pen Green Lakes
Pen Green: the green space Corby keeps saving and never protects
What has changed
In July, Homes England confirmed that the fields and balancing lakes at Pen Green were being prepared for market, with industrial development among the uses reported. In August, following a worked proposition rather than a request, it confirmed in writing that it agrees in principle to the land becoming a community asset for Corby.
That distinction is the whole story, and it is worth being precise about it.
Why four years of letters achieved nothing
Homes England is a public body. When it disposes of land it is bound by best consideration obligations, which in ordinary language means it cannot simply give land away, however deserving the cause. Every previous approach to this site asked it to do exactly that, and every previous approach failed for the same reason.
None of that is a criticism of the people who made those approaches. Mark Pengelly beat the 272-home scheme in 2022 and got Network Rail consulted when nobody else had. Kevin Watt spent two years pressing the council and Homes England on the wildlife case and had to chase senior officers to get a reply. They were right about the site. What was missing was a mechanism the agency could lawfully say yes to.
This time it was offered one. That is the only thing that changed.
What the agreement does not do
A campaign that overclaims loses the argument it was winning, so here is the honest position.
- It is not a transfer, a contract, or a commitment to any particular structure of disposal.
- Metropolitan Housing Trust holds an interest in part of the land and has not yet responded. Nothing completes without them.
- The site still has no planning designation, no wildlife designation, no village green registration, no Asset of Community Value listing, and not one recorded public right of way.
- An agreement in principle binds nobody. A designation in an adopted Local Plan binds everybody, including whoever owns the land in ten years' time.
Pen Green has been saved from development three times, in 2007, in 2009 and in 2022. After every one of those wins it went straight back to having nothing. The lesson of this site is that stopping something is not the same as protecting it.
The four things that still have to happen
| Step | Who | Cost | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designate as Local Green Space in the emerging Local Plan | The local planning authority | £0–3k | October–November 2026 consultation |
| Nominate as an Asset of Community Value | A town or parish council, s.89 Localism Act 2011 | £0 | Before any sale is agreed |
| Make Tree Preservation Orders | The local planning authority, s.198 TCPA 1990 | £0 | Weeks; no landowner consent needed |
| Secure Metropolitan Housing Trust's position | Both authorities and the campaign | £0 | Outstanding |
Local Green Space designation confers protection comparable to Green Belt, and it can only be made while a plan is being prepared or updated. That is why the October date matters more than the volume of the campaigning.
What we want to build there
The agreement is only worth having if there is a plan behind it. Ours has four goals.
- A surfaced walking and cycling route from Lloyds to Earlstrees across a cleared Pen Green Bridge, linking one of the East Midlands' largest industrial estates to one of Corby's most car-dependent estates.
- Circular paths around both lakes, with safe edges and lawful public access secured in perpetuity.
- The western field used as designed flood storage, holding back Willow Brook North and ending the bank erosion behind Stephenson Way.
- A managed habitat mosaic, measurable and capable of funding its own upkeep through biodiversity net gain.
| Phase | Timing | Cost | Funding route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 0–12 months | £45,000 – £80,000* | Town council precept, officer time |
| Phase 2 | 12–30 months | £175,000 – £265,000* | Council capital, Lottery, Anglian Water, s.106 |
| Phase 3 | 30–60 months | £1.27m – £2.98m* | Active Travel England, EA flood grant, BNG income |
| Total | 5 years | £1.49m – £3.33m* | Phased, each stage conditional on the last |
*All ranges are indicative and benchmarked from published unit rates. None is a quotation. No ecological survey, land valuation or hydraulic modelling has been carried out, and Phase 1 is what buys those three things.
Why this ground matters beyond the paths
Willow Brook North drains surface water off a large part of northern Corby, including Studfall Avenue, Welland Vale Road, Occupation Road and Stephenson Way. Most of it runs in a culvert, out of sight, until it surfaces at Pen Green. The open ground acts as a soakaway and the lakes hold water back through a sluice.
In June 2019 that system failed badly enough to send water down the railway embankment, derail a train and trap over 450 passengers for seven hours. The official investigation found flooding records at this location going back to 1968, and concluded that no single body was managing it.
Land held for the community can be engineered to hold water on purpose. Land sold for development cannot. If Willow Brook North has taken part of your garden, please get in touch, because funding bids are won on evidence.
One thing we would rather tell you plainly Where a watercourse runs along the boundary of a private garden, maintenance of that bank is the homeowner's responsibility in law, not the council's. We would rather you heard that from us than from a solicitor. It is also precisely why designed flood storage upstream is worth fighting for. |
What you can do
The single most useful thing is five minutes in the Local Plan consultation this October. A letter to a landowner can be filed, as done by local champion Alex Lock. A consultation response has to be considered, and it goes in front of a government inspector.
Sign up to follow our campaign below!
Sign up
for email updates
