The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Firm almost left city overland shortage:
Concern grows at dwindling supply of business development sites
A shortage of development land for employment use in Peterborough has nearly forced a leading company to leave the city.
The triple Queen’s Award winning 3D printing experts Photocentric, in Oxney Road, faced a tough search to find a suitable city site to build a state-of-the-art facility to create a new digital manufacturing concept to 3D print parts in the millions.
Managing director Paul Holt said at one stage he had considered a move out of Peterborough for the business which was created in the city 19 years ago.
His dilemma highlights an issue that is causing alarm among some business leaders who fear a lack of suitable sites for job creating companies could halt the city’s growth.
Mr Holt said: “We had been looking for about a year and found a few old warehouses that weren’t suitable and a handful of sites we could potentially build upon around the outskirts of the city.
“The process of getting land with building approval was unbelievably tortuous and we were close to looking further afield. We were fortunate to find develpers Barnack Estates. We have now been able to build a large building on a very small site in Titan Drive, Fengate, that was previously waste land.”
A new study of available development sites in Peterborough, states: “Peterborough has become a victim of its own success and employment land supply is not sufficient to meet demand.
The Peterborough Employment Land Review, it warns: “There is a real danger that investment will be lost to adjacent districts unless a more flexible approach is adopted.”