Explainer: Why mystery over disappearing jobs land is so important to Peterborough's future

Some councillors were stunned when it became apparent the Drysides employment site in Stanground had been taken out of the draft Local plan by Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet on August 25.

They were amazed that after officers had spent more than three years preparing the draft plan, which will guide the city’s 20,000 homes and employment development for the next two decades, a handful of councillors had decided to remove the site from the document.

This was despite a tight deadline for the draft plan which has to go out to public consultation for six weeks and be ready for government approval by the end of the year.

There was more amazement when it became clear at a scrutiny committee on September 15, called to review the Drysides’ decision, that a meeting of the full council to fully debate the local plan was no longer in the timetable.

Members of the scrutiny committee voted that the cabinet should look again at the decision to exclude the Drysides site and recommended the Mayor of Peterborough should call a special full council so all councillors can have a say on the final version of the Local Plan.

But after the meeting Councillor Shabina Qayyum, the council leader, warned that councils that failed to hit the deadline would have to start all over again on the Local Plan.

She said this would be a waste of the £1 million of taxpayers’ money already spent preparing the current Local Plan.

She explained : “The government officially introduced England's new local plan-making system in March this year.

"All Local Plans already underway at that time - including Peterborough's - were told to carry on with the old system, with the proviso that they must be submitted by 31 December.

She said: “If the deadline is missed, new regulations require councils to start from scratch immediately on preparation of a new Local Plan under the new system.

"Previously there were no restrictions on timescales or the number of iterations the plan could go through.

And she added: "Although alternative governance routes may have been used previously in the Local Plan process in relation to member involvement, a different approach was taken this year owing to a particularly tight government deadline.”

Cllr Qayyum said that the Drysides site had been removed after a review of the background evidence and concerns raised by the local community.

She said: “Cabinet members shared these concerns, concluding that on balance the site was unsuitable for allocation.

“Around 700 responses against this site being included were received during the consultation. It is the prerogative of Cabinet to determine what sites may or may not go into the plan at consultation stage, taking relevant considerations into account.”

However, a spokesperson for the Drysides prospective developer told the scrutiny committee that its plans could create 5,000 jobs and generate £15 million in annual business rates for the city.

Without the Drysides site, the Local Plan has a 21 per cent shortage of earmarked employment land, which could attract criticism from the government.

But councillors might reconsider the issue again soon.

Cllr Qayyum said the Mayor was considering the request for an extraordinary full council meeting.;