Plans approved for derelict Cherry Tree pub renovation

The Cherry Tree on Oundle Road, Woodston, was once a thriving pub and a favourite of Peterborough United fans.

It has remained vacant since it 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 received full planning permission from Peterborough City Council to build an 80-bed care home on the site, with the pub building to be reinstated for residents.

The care home entrance will sit behind the pub on Oundle Road, which will become a café/bistro.

A council case officer report stated: “The proposal is considered to represent a well-designed and contextually appropriate development that respects the character and setting of the locally listed building and surrounding heritage assets.”

The care home itself will provide higher dependency elderly residential, nursing and dementia care.

Planning documents noted that a two-storey timber link block will be in place from the care home to the Cherry Tree building to create visual separation, be respectful to the pub building and not be overbearing.

The development will create 25 full time and 15 part time jobs.

Fletton and Woodston ward councillor Nick Thulborn previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was delighted that the pub would be restored as part of the plans.

“It’s something that is needed and they are going to keep the pub look and feel so I’m quite happy with that,” he said.

Key elements of the plans include:

Conversion of the pub into a resident lounge/pub area

Construction of a new three to four storey care home block to the rear, arranged in an L-shape around landscaped gardens and surface parking

Provision of communal amenity space via gardens and balconies, with private amenity areas for some ground floor rooms screened by defensive planting

New vehicular access, relocation of the bus stop, and enhanced boundary treatments