Multi-million pound plans unveiled for transformation of Peterborough's historic Whitworth Mill

Multi-million pound plans have been drawn up to convert an historic mill in Peterborough into a luxury apartments complex.

The Whitworth Mill close to the River Nene at Fletton Quays, will be transformed into 18 apartments with the ground floor for commercial uses such as cafe or restaurants.

There will also be three new blocks constructed on surrounding land containing 44 apartments along with a public area.

The plans have been drawn up by developers Lioncross Properties which bought the site from Peterborough City Council two years ago.

Michael Craddock, director of Lioncross Properties, said: “Our changes will modernise the mill in sympathetic way and make it functional.

“There are things that need tweaking but we’ve settled on a scheme that will involve 44 apartments in three new build blocks and 18 apartments on the upper floors of the mill with a commercial use on the ground floor which we hope will be some sort of cafe/restaurant use –plus there will be other space there for a D1 or D2 use (public buildings/leisure use) – not sure exactly what that will be.”

He said there had been many issues to tackle which had increased the time it took to get the plans drawn up from the need to get approval to shore up the bank near the river, a shortage and change over of staff at various organisations, the need to update all reports every time a change was made and the need to do a number of bat surveys – the last two showed there were not any bats on the site.

Mr Craddock said: “”One of the biggest headaches for the developers has been the extent of vandalism at the site.

He said: “We have spent £50,000 on security and one of our staff has even been threatened by vandals.”

The Mill site and an adjoining plot were nearly sold to another developer, which had planned for the transformation of the Mill into a boutique hotel. The developer pulled out of the sale during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Craddock said: “There will not be a boutique hotel on the site. We did look into this but decided it just would not be viable.”