IN PICTURES: Signs of activity at Peterborough's partly built Hilton Garden Inn?

A glance at the building site surrounding Peterborough’s £30 million Hilton Garden Inn suggests some work – however slowly – might be taking place.

While the site at Fletton Quays is a mess of sand, soil, broken stone and rubble, there is a hint that works of some kind might be taking place.

The entrance gates to the site are open and a van and at least one workman could be seen on the site. Fresh materials seem to have been delivered.

But a spokesperson for Peterborough City Council said that any works were taking place is on the adjoining apartments and not on the hotel.

While the nine-storey building looks largely complete, at ground level the planned glazed entrance is still covered in scaffolding with exposed pipe work that goes nowhere.

The 160-bedroom hotel is now in the ownership of Peterborough City Council. Officials are drawing up a business case about the best way to complete the hotel, where work stopped in the spring of last year.

The council, which had provided a £15 million loan for the development seven years ago, took the developer into administration last October.

The spokesperson said that officers were drawing up a report setting out the next steps for the hotel and which could go before the ruling cabinet in the autumn detailing how the council could complete the hotel by itself or if it should be sold on for completion.

A ‘soft-marketing’ exercise is currently being carried out over six weeks to assess market interest in the building.