North Westgate developer pleas to Peterborough City Council chiefs to 'speak to me'

The developer behind multi-million pounds plans to transform Peterborough’s North Westgate has made a new approach to secure the backing of planning chiefs.

Peter Breach, chairman of Hawksworth Securities, says he is trying to organise a meeting with Peterborough City Council officials ahead of submitting a planning application for the derelict seven hectare site.

Mr Breach said: “I want to work with the council on this development. I don’t want to do it in isolation, we ought to be co-operating, working alongside each other. I want them to speak to me.

He added: “I want to be sure that we are on the right lines with our proposals and if not where do they need tweaking.”

And Mr Breach, who is the largest single landowner in North Westgate and has been working on the development of the site for 22 years, vowed that he would not just walk away.

"I shall not be walking away. I think one meeting with the council could do it and then we could get the plans submitted.”

Mr Breach said it was a shame the site had not yet been developed.

"I know the council is struggling with its budget but there are millions of pounds in business rates that have been lost because the site has remained undeveloped.

He said: “At one point it was estimated that developing North Westgate would generate the council about £2 million a year.”

The new plans for North Westgate are set to include a boutique hotel, and a large offering of residential accommodation with a mix of activities from retail to bars and restaurants on the ground floor levels.

Mr Breach first submitted plans for North Westgate in 2003.

He dropped a 2015 approval for plans that included a cinema after the neighbouring Queensgate Shopping Centre also gained permission for a cinema.

His plans for a hotel, commercial and residential development and a cinema were approved by the city council in 2018.

But that permission elapsed a couple of years later after the company failed to submit details about so-called ‘reserved matters’.

In the same year, the council published its own regeneration masterplan for the site and set a timescale of five years to get development under way.

Last year, council officers spoke of ‘getting the site away’ in 24 months.