Council-backed house building company Medesham Homes that owns Pleasure Fair Meadow car park is 'not really fit for purpose' and could close

Medesham Homes, a house building company run by Cross Keys Homes and Peterborough City Council (PCC), is “not really fit-for-purpose” and may be wound up, a council executive has said.

Cecilie Booth, PCC’s executive director of corporate services, said that closing down the company, which owns the Pleasure Fair Meadow car park, is an option the council is currently considering.

“There’s no way we’re going to give [more] land to Medesham; that just won’t happen,” she told councillors at a meeting this week.

“There is a recommendation that we close it down,” Ms Booth continued. “It isn’t really fit-for-purpose anymore, so we’re not really looking to do any new developments with Medesham.”

Despite having been sold to the company, Pleasure Fair Meadow will not necessarily be replaced by housing if it is built on – although that is one option, the council has previously said.

Student accommodation and leisure facilities are also among the options being considered.

Medesham Homes has so far built 94 homes since its inception in 2016 with projects completed at Midland Road, Belle Vue and Fishpool Drive and Crowland Road.

An ongoing project seeks to convert a former office block and disused pub, the Roundhead, at Bretton Court into flats.

When exactly Pleasure Fair Meadow was added to the company’s assets is unclear; Adrian Chapman, executive director for place and economy, said at the meeting that he “can’t recall” the timescale of the transaction but would provide a response to the committee in future.

Whether Medesham Homes will continue to operate, albeit with increased council oversight, or whether it has come to the end of the road will be decided in future; councillors currently feel that they don’t have enough information, particularly in relation to the company’s accounts provided to the committee.

“I can’t quite work out where the money goes and who gets it,” Cllr Lynne Ayres (Conservative, West) said of the accounts, while Cllr Marco Cereste (Conservatives, Hampton Vale) added that he’d want to see “a balance sheet that contains the assets, not just the cash”.

Medesham Homes accounts show that, in the year to March 2022, the company made a profit of £434k, up from £323k in the previous year, and has assets of £16.5m – although this isn’t broken down into individual assets.

“We’re not content with the accounts that have been presented,” Cllr Andy Coles (Conservatives, Fletton and Woodston) said in summary of councillors’ current position, and as such a decision is not yet possible.

Medesham Homes, which was established to “deliver quality affordable homes throughout Peterborough”, currently has just one member of staff, who works at the company part-time.

A report on PCC’s joint ventures from CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy), begun in 2022, suggested that “Medesham’s contribution should be able to be accelerated with the right level of support from both partners”, which would likely mean more staff and an overall expansion.

However, it appears the council is now strongly considering moving in the opposite direction.

The future of Pleasure Fair Meadow car park, meanwhile, remains unclear.