Plans for car storage depot at East of England Showground are recommended for refusal by planning chiefs

Plans to operate a car storage and maintenance depot at the East of England Showground look to have been dealt a blow.

A retrospective planning application for the DHL-operated depot on 19 hectares of the Showground, and which has meant eight car transporter movements a day on nearby roads, has been recommended for refusal by city planning officers.

The application has been submitted to Peterborough City Council by the Showground promoter AEPG and is due to be considered by the local authority’s planning committee on October 17.

But documents to go before councillors show that planning officers are recommending the application be refused due to a lack of information to prove that extra traffic from the DHL operation would not impair safety on nearby roads.

Planning officers state: “Insufficient information has been provided to demonstrate that the proposed development would not result in an adverse level of impact on public highway safety.

“The proposal would retain Showground uses from the remainder of the application site whilst introducing a car storage and distribution use for which they have failed to provide sufficient details to demonstrate that it would have an acceptable impact on the public highway network.”

Officers state the lack of information means the council cannot fully assess the impact of local roads and so is contrary to the Peterborough Local Plan and should be rejected.

The application seeks a five year temporary approval for a car storage and distribution use that, states the council, has been operating since at least February 2023.

It includes the conversion of the exhibition hall (Arena) for car repair and preparation with the provision of paint booths inside the Arena building, open fields and the car park area would be used for as the car storage and distribution area and a marquee would be put up to cover two paint booths and two portacabins.

It is expected that the operation will employ 160 people and there would be a total of eight HGV movements involving four car transporters plus 160 delivery vehicle movements per day.

It is also proposed to use the Orton Southgate access off Dunblane Drive with the existing Showground use operating from 35 hectares of remaining land to the north of the site and accessed from Joseph Odam Way.

There have been a total of 152 public responses to the plans with 151 being objections.

The objections range from road dangers and obstructions to the intrusive nature of the operations and dust.

AEPG has previously said that the DHL car storage operation is a means for the venue to secure an income until two outline planning applications to build 1,500 homes and a leisure village on the Showground, which is owned by the East of England Agricultural Society, are considered by the council.

However, officers will tell councillors next week that a decision is not expected to be made on these applications in the near future.

An AEPG spokesperson said further details had been sent to the council and there would be no further comment until after the meeting.