East of England Showground developer urged to pay £500,000 towards ambulance stations to serve 1 ,500 new homes
Emergency chiefs say two stations are required
Emergency services chiefs are calling for £510,000 to be made available to create two ambulance stations to cover a planned 1,500 homes development at the East of England Showground.
East of England Ambulance Service bosses say the funds should be provided by the Showground through a section 106 agreement as part of conditions attached to any planning approval for the developments.
The ambulance service has responded to each of the two housing applications for the Showground drawn up the site promoters AEPG and submitted to Peterborough City Council
The main outline application involves the construction of 850 homes as well as a £50 million leisure village, hotel and school.
A second outline application is for 650 homes that have already been earmarked for the site in the Peterborough Local Plan.
Commenting on the plans, the ambulance service’s Zoë May, head of business relationships, states that both housing developments would ‘impact on the services of the three ambulance stations currently operating within the vicinity’.
She states that for each development ‘Section 106 funding would be used to support the establishment of a new ambulance station post with capacity for two ambulances in the development area to meet the population growth.’
She states that the development of 850 dwellings and a care village would see an increase in patient pressure of about 2,040 residents generating about 469 emergency incidents each year.
"This development combined with other developments in Peterborough places significant pressure on Peterborough ambulance stations to maintain mandated response times.
“A developer contribution will be required to mitigate the impacts of this proposal and is calculated at £289,000.”
For the 650 homes plan, she states: “This development would see an increase in patient pressure of about 1,560 residents generating about 359 emergency incidents per year.
"A developer contribution will be required to mitigate the impacts of this proposal and is calculated at £221,000.”
She says that the additional funds would be allocated, in agreement with the council, to support the establishment of additional ambulance station response posts, the development of a Peterborough Hub, for instance with electric vehicle charging and additional power supply for the use of EV ambulances, the purchase of additional ambulances and rapid response vehicles to meet the demand from the new developments and the purchase of extra equipment for community responders in Peterborough.
How does the ambulance service calculate its costs?
The formula used by the ambulance service to work out the cost of additional emergency ambulance health services arising from a development proposal is that each home is assumed to be used by an average 2.2 people and the cost of cover per home is £340.
So the total cost is worked out by multiplying the number of homes by £340 cost per home.
So for 850 homes, the cost is £289,000.
For 650 homes, the cost is £221,000
Why is the Showground being developed?
The charity the East of England Agricultural Society has owned the Showground since 1966 but says it no longer has any use for the land.
It says the number of people attending its agricultural show has substantially declined from 2012.
In 2020 the society announced its intention to leave and promote the land for development. It hired AEPG to find alternative uses for the land.