200 objections raised to £15 million industrial park plan for countryside site at Peterborough

Multi-million pound plans to build an industrial park on the edge of Peterborough are being recommended for approval even though the site is outside the city’s development boundaries.

The outline application is for the construction of a £15.7 million business park on a 6.25 hectares site of up to a maximum floorspace of 15,263 square metres featuring offices, industrial, storage and distribution units at Horsey Bridge, in Whittlesey Road, Stanground.

The site is not included in Peterborough City Council’s Local Plan, which defines which plots of land can be used for housing or industrial development.

But developers Barnack Estates UK, which hopes to eventually construct 20 individual buildings ranging in size from 265 square metres to 2,000 square metres for small and medium sized businesses on the site and creating 412 jobs, have been warning for some time that Peterborough is running out of development land.

Rob Facer, chairman of Barnack Estates said the application would be the first test for the planning committee to recognise the need to identify more employment land.

But the proposals, which will be considered by the council’s planning committee next Wednesday (March 21) have already triggered a wave of objections from nearby residents and politicians concerned at the impact of the development on the surrounding area.

Some 200 objections have been received from nearby residents concerned about noise and disturbance from the site and the impact of extra traffic on local roads.

Councillor Brian Rush, one of the area’s representatives on the city council, has also voiced objections to the proposed developments.

He says that as the site is not allocated for development in the Local Plan and because it is on agricultural land not allocated in the local plan, permission should not be granted.

He also points out that a proposed access will bring extra traffic onto an already busy road and will nullify the millions of pounds spent on the Pondersbridge project to ease the build up of traffic on to the Cardea by-pass and into Stanground.

Concerns have also been raised at the proximity of the development site to the English Civil War Horsey Hill Fort earthworks and to Bronze Age earthworks.

Fenland District Council has objected on the grounds the development will reduce the separation between Peterborough and Whittlesey.

It adds: “This is contrary to good planning practice and policies of both the Peterborough Local Plan and the Fenland Local Plan.”

But in a report to the committee, planning officers state: “The absence of sufficient employment development opportunities can justify the release of additional (unallocated) sites for employment

development ahead of the next Local Plan review, and in such instances the Local Planning Authority must consider each application that comes forward on its own merits.

It adds: “In light of the compelling justification provided by the applicant, employment development on this unallocated site is considered capable of being an acceptable departure from the adopted Local Plan.

"A rounded judgement considering all the material considerations in the planning balance will therefore be required.”