A number of notable planning applications and decisions were published by Peterborough City Council in April.
Plans were approved to begin work on repairing the roof of Peterborough's Key Theatre after RAAC was discovered.
Former pub The Cherry Tree could be restored as part of plans for a new care home development in the city.
Meanwhile, a former cash and carry destroyed by a fire may be replaced by a new housing development.
Key Theatre
A major set of works at the Key Theatre in Peterborough will soon get underway after planning permission was approved.
The theatre will close for a number of months in order to replace the roof on the main auditorium.
This comes after RAAC was identified in the building’s roof in October 2023.
Work will begin later this spring and will be completed by early winter 2025.
The Cherry Tree
Plans were submitted to Peterborough City Council to restore a derelict pub as part of proposals for a large care home.
The Cherry Tree on Oundle Road, Woodston, was once a thriving pub and a favourite of Peterborough United fans.
However, the pub is now derelict having closed in 2016 and, despite a campaign being launched to save it in 2020, it was sold to developers for more than £400,000 in the same year.
Synergy Care Developments and Muller Property Group have now submitted a full planning application to Peterborough City Council for an 80-bed care home, with the pub building to be reinstated for residents.
The care home entrance would sit behind the pub on Oundle Road, which would become a café/bistro.
Cash and carry
Plans have been submitted for the construction of a small housing development on the site of a former cash and carry destroyed by a fire.
Dozens of fire crews battled the large blaze at the former Europe Cash & Carry on Padholme Road, Peterborough, in December 2023.
A planning application has now been submitted to Peterborough City Council by the site owner Mr Dungarwalla to build three affordable and sustainable homes in its place.
Mr Dungarwalla believes the new homes would make a "positive enhancement" to the area while remaining sympathetic to the surroundings.
Werrington refusals
Two applications at the Werrington District Centre, submitted by the same company, were refused in April.
Plans for a new taxi office, next to the vacant Ploughman pub on Staniland Way, were refused by Peterborough City Council following a number of noise and traffic concerns.
The same applicant, Gujjar Investments Ltd, also applied to Peterborough City Council for permission to transform the vacant Ploughman pub building.
They hoped to subdivide the building into four commercial units, with three units to become shops while the fourth would have been a sports bar.
However, these plans were also refused following an objection from the council’s highways department which claimed there was “insufficient information” provided in the plans, and also from the council’s pollution control officer who raised noise concerns.
Gypsy caravan park
Plans were submitted to Peterborough City Council for a gypsy caravan park just outside a small village.
Applicant, Michael McDonagh, wants to change the use of a stretch of agricultural land known as The Orchard on Uffington Road, Barnack.
If approved by the council, the area would become a residential caravan site for four Irish gypsy/traveller households, with each household having two caravans, including no more than one static caravan/mobile home.
The proposals also include the laying of hard-standing and retention of a temporary house on the site as a communal dayroom.
Primary school expansion
Peterborough City Council’s cabinet authorised the expansion of the Duke of Bedford Primary School in Thorney.
Two new mobile classrooms will be built at the school, as well as an additional classroom in the existing school, to cater for an extra 15 pupils, raising its total admissions from 30 to 45.
The expansion was deemed necessary due to a new housing development in Thorney constructed by Allison Homes.
Construction of the classrooms will begin in May and is expected to be completed for September’s intake of pupils, with an aim to reduce the need for home to school transport for children in the area.
Derelict pub
A planning application was submitted to Peterborough City Council for the demolition of a derelict pub.
The former Golden Lion pub on Church Street, Stanground, has stood vacant for some time and become an anti-social hotspot in recent years.
The latest application from Morton & Hall Consulting Limited proposes to demolish the whole building and level the ground.
It is not clear what the future holds for the site if the building were to be demolished.
Community centre renovation
Plans to renovate a community centre in Peterborough were approved despite objections from members of the public.
The building, formerly known as The Lighthouse Centre, is one of three which make up Werrington Parish Village Centre, all owned by the parish church.
The renovation plans received 47 objections from the public, but many of these were in relation to the use of the site as a homeless shelter, which was not actually proposed in the application.
A case officer stated that it was “important to note” that the site had not been proposed to become a homeless shelter, despite what some members of the public thought.
External works will include improved access to the main entrance and garage, new windows and doors, timber-effect cladding, a new canopy at the front and solar panels on the roof.
Inside, the building would have a new accessible toilet, a new kitchen with store in place of the existing games room, new one-to-one spaces, refurbished main hall and rooms, a storage room, quiet area, and new unisex toilets with a baby changing room.
New homes
Plans were submitted to construct three new homes on the site of a funeral directors in Peterborough.
The applicant, building contractors and funeral directors John Lucas Peterborough Ltd, has occupied 31-33 Dogsthorpe Road since the formation of the company in the early 1900s.
The company’s application to Peterborough City Council seeks to gain outline planning consent for three new homes in the yard area with the creation of a new shared access to the side of number 33 Dogsthorpe Road, which would remain as a private house.
Café expansion refused
Plans to expand a café in Peterborough were refused due to design and highway safety issues.
Chaiiwala, located on Lincoln Road, is a breakfast and brunch eatery known for its unique blend of traditional and South Asian-inspired food.
Applicant, Mr Amjad, hoped to further extend the single-storey projection at the front of the shop to allow for more customers and additional seating.
However, Peterborough City Council planners refused the application and argued that the extension design would appear “out of place”.
The owner of Chaiiwala confirmed he would be appealing the decision.
