Plans to increase the amount of living space available at Peterborough’s Whitworth Mill development have been given the green light.

Developers MJS Construction, of March, had sought permission to increase the number of apartments by 18 and to cut the proposed commercial units from three to just one.

Now Peterborough City Council’s planning chiefs have approved the application

It will mean that the Whitworth Mill plus three new-built blocks will offer a total of 80 apartments with a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bed apartments.

Construction work under way at the Whitworth Mill site at Fletton Quays in Peterborough

placeholder image — Construction work under way at the Whitworth Mill site at Fletton Quays in Peterborough

Twenty-three of the apartments will be created in the former flour mill itself.

There will also be 63 car parking spaces..

The original plans that were approved by Peterborough City Council 25 months ago involved building a total of 67 apartments with 18 apartments in the former mill.

MJS is the third company to be involved in the development of the site, which is a key part of Peterborough’s £120 million regeneration flagship site, Fletton Quays.

The original buyer had planned for the transformation of the Mill into a boutique hotel but pulled out of the sale during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The land was previously occupied by buildings that supported the original mill building and formed part of the Whitworth flour production and distribution plant.

One issue that caused challenges for a previous owner of the site, Lioncross Properties, was a planning condition that involved replacing a former right of way across a timber public walkway that ran over the water in front of the mill.

Mike Craddock, director of Lioncross Properties, told the Peterborough Telegraph last year: “That structure completely disappeared years ago. It is a right of way that doesn’t really exist. It is absurd but we’ve been told there is a requirement for the right of way to be replaced.”