The final ruling on MPRU Development's proposal to build on land near the Eye Roundabout, at the junction of the Paston Parkway and Frank Perkins Parkway, is now in the hands of the members of Peterborough City
Council's planning and environmental protection committee, which meets on Tuesday.

However, in a report to the committee, planning officers say the three-storey hotel – earmarked for land north of Peterborough Road, Eye – should not be permitted because of the proposed building's proximity to the Dogsthorpe landfill site.

According to planning officers, granting permission for a hotel would be "fraught with difficulties", while the hotel's future employees and customers could not be expected to put up with "dust, smell, flies and vermin" emanating from the landfill site.

The news will be welcomed by Welland Residents' Association, whose members collected a 231-name petition opposing the application, and Eye parish councillors, who had reservations regarding the height of the hotel and access.

Meanwhile, residents living nearby said the proposal was "premature" until a safe crossing point for pedestrians was
provided.

The developers of a new garden centre nearby had offered to put a crossing in for pedestrians to cross the Paston parkway.

However, a number of residents said they would prefer to see a footbridge. Residents near to the site will be hoping that history does not repeat itself after a KFC restaurant on a plot adjacent to the proposed hotel was given the green light at a public inquiry – even though the scheme was dismissed by the city council on three separate occasions.

Eye and Thorney councillor John Bartlett said he was not opposed to the development of the site – but believes it should only happen after the landfill site had been shut and capped.

That would mean putting any further developments on hold until 2013, when the landfill site's licence comes to an end.

Cllr Bartlett said: "At the present time it isn't right to build a hotel when the site is still operational."

An application to build an 80-bed hotel was first submitted in June 2007, before being subsequently withdrawn in September, with a revised 78-bed scheme put forward a month later.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the planning and environmental protection committee meeting, in the Bourges and Viersen rooms, in Peterborough Town Hall, at 1.30pm.