Major industrial park scheme is rejected

Plans for a major new business park in Stanground have been rejected by Peterborough City Council (PCC).

If approved, the development would have been built at Horsey Bridge on Whittlesey Road in the residential neighbourhood and comprised around 20 buildings.

But the council’s planning committee agreed it would harm the character of the local area and contravene Peterborough’s Local Plan (LP).

This is a document that lays out the planning policies ofanareaincludingacceptable spots for new developments.

“If we agree to this, we effectively throw our Local Plan in the bin,” planning committee chair Cllr Chris Harper (Independent) said, adding that it would set a “precedent” for the future.

The argument in favour of sidesteppingtheLPmadebyits supportersisthatthelanddesignated for business development in the document, which was adopted in 2019, has almostbeenexhaustedandmore is clearly needed.

InfactareviewoftheLPwill begin next month with identifyingnewdevelopmentsitesat the top of the agenda.

Cllr Ishfaq Hussain (Conservatives), a supporter, said: “Having come from a small business background myself, I can see there is a real demand forSME(smallandmediumenterprise) units in and around Peterborough.”

But there were hundreds of public objections and issues raised at the meeting from the possible increase in traffic on theA605nearwherethedevelopment would be built to it being planned on greenbelt land.

The development would also erase the boundary between Peterborough and the Fens,criticsargued,asitwould engulf King’s Delph as well as dominating the landscape near Horsey Hill – a Civil Warera fort.

Particular concern was raised, too, over the area’s archaeology which includes a Mid-Bronze Age ditch and woodenpostsdatingtotheLate Bronze Age and Late Iron Age.

“Archaeologically, this is an extremelyimportantarea,”Cllr Harper said. “This is Peterborough’s

history. Do we concrete over it, effectively?”

Developers Barnack EstatesUKLtdaddressedsomeof these concerns in their plans, spending more than £100,000 toinvestigatethearea’sarchaeology and planning to spend halfamillionmoreonpreservingit.Theywouldalsohaveimplemented height restrictions ontheirbuildingsandensured a new priority junction on the A605wouldallowcarstoeasily access the site.