Historic building in Peterborough given protected status as owner says he feels 'punished' by council

The owner of a 200-year-old house in Peterborough says he feels “punished” by the council after it stopped him from being able to make alterations to it without planning permission.

Peterborough City Council (PCC) officers triggered an emergency planning policy direction limiting the alterations that can be made to 1073 Lincoln Road in May this year after learning it could be demolished.

They then requested that the council’s planning committee make the direction permanent so that any future changes to the building, believed to date back to the 1820s, would have to go through them.

But at a committee meeting at which this request was discussed, the building’s owner said that he felt “punished” by the council and that he doesn’t want his hands tied while trying to to repair it after “years of neglect”.

The owner continued that he bought the building earlier this year with the intention to restore it and turn it into a family home while respecting the “importance of its historical character”.

He also said that he has no issue with the part of the direction that stops it from being demolished completely; while he had initially been given professional advice that knocking it down and starting it again would be the best course of action, this is not his intention now, he said.

But council officers said that repairs to the building wouldn’t need planning permission – just larger changes, which may be approved by their team – under the direction.

They also said, in planning documents, that the stone manor is an “important heritage asset” and “one of the most significant locally listed buildings”.

Buildings which are locally listed are considered important to a particular area but are not included on the national database of listed buildings – which carries even greater restrictions on the types of works that can be carried out.

Councillors on PCC’s planning committee considered delaying a decision about permanently applying the planning policy direction to 1073 Lincoln Road to allow for further conversations between its owner and officers, but ultimately voted in favour of passing it at a meeting this week.

The decision was unanimous.