Councillor fears early start for key East of England Showground planning appeal will stop residents attending

A councillor fears many residents near the East of England Showground will be denied the chance to attend a key planning appeals meeting because of its early afternoon start time.

Orton Waterville Councillor Julie Stevenson has requested that Peterborough City Council’s appeals and planning review committee, which will reconsider the rejection of an outline planning application for 650 homes on the Showground, be moved to the early evening on January 13.

At the moment the council has scheduled the meeting to begin at 1.30pm.

Cllr Stevenson has asked for the meeting to start at 5.30pm.

But she says that so far the council has denied her request.

She said: “While all the residents are not allowed to speak, at planning meetings the chair very frequently comments on the number of people who turn up plus it gives residents the opportunity to be present as a decision that will affect their lives very dramatically is made, which is right and proper in a democracy.

"If the council wants to combat the commonly held idea that decisions are made 'in secret' then this is one way it can show that it makes every effort to include as many of the public who want to be there in person as possible.

She said: “The reasons the council has given me is that due to the interest in the meeting, it can't be held in the Town Hall due to limited space, so it must be held in Sand Martin House.

"However, Sand Martin House isn't open in the evenings, so there would be a cost to the council to keep it open for the meeting.

"The council is also saying that people have plenty of time to arrange an afternoon off work to attend, which I feel is unrealistic given the demographic, which is mainly young families.

“It is also saying that if the meeting is held in the evening, the meeting is likely to run until very late.

She added: “Residents of Ortons Northgate and Southgate, most of whom work during the day should also have the opportunity to attend as this application really does affect them.

"The site of the 650 houses is directly opposite homes in Oban Drive and Kilbride Way in Orton Northgate and Fraserburgh Way and Rosyth Ave in Orton Southgate and ward councillors would like as many of those residents as want to to be able to attend.”

The appeals and planning review committee is meeting because four councillors – Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald (Con), Cllr Asim Mahmood (Lab), Cllr Jason McNally (Lab) and Cllr Scott Warren (Con) – called in a decision by the planning committee on October 15 to reject plans to build 650 homes on land that included the former Peterborough Panthers speedway track.

The rejection came during a six-hour-long meeting in which the committee also approved outline plans to build 850 homes plus a leisure village, school, hotel and care village on an adjoining part of the Showground.

The plans have been drawn up by the Showground promoter AEPG on behalf of the 164-acre venue owners, the East of England Agricultural Society.

The council has been asked for a response to the timing of the appeal meeting.