New buyer negotiating to buy former Whitworth Mill site in Peterborough

Reassurances had been sought from Peterborough City Council that any future development of the Whitworth Mill site on Fletton Quays will include art and culture facilities.
The question arose from Cllr Chris Wiggin at this week’s online Full Council meeting.
Whitworth Mill and the surrounding land on the banks of the River Nene was set to be sold to Bedford-based property development company Samsons, and if the development had been completed would have ended a 30-year wait to regenerate that part of the Embankment.
But Samsons have since pulled out of the purchase, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on finances as the reason.
At the meeting Cllr Wiggin said: “It’s been reported that the plans to build a boutique hotel on the site are now off, and the council intends to re-sell plots 7 and 8.

“Can the Cabinet member give me any update on that and a reassurance that any future development will include facilities for arts and culture as they were in the previous plans?”

Cllr Peter Hiller, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Commercial Strategy and Investments, said: “The decision to dispose of the Fletton Quays site – plots 7 and 8 – would help the council realise a capital receipt and free it from further expense of maintaining a pretty dire building – the moribund Whitworth Mill site.

“It would’ve risked public money if we’d chosen to develop the site on our own, so selling those plots seemed a simple solution to ease pressure on the public purse and it would’ve completed the long-awaited regeneration of Fletton Quays.

“There was plenty of notice of this decision – there was no ‘call-in’ with regard to the original purchaser who, indeed, did pull out citing Covid-19 as the reason.

“However, I can reassure members that we have another firm interest in the site, and we are negotiating currently with this potential purchaser at a very acceptable figure.”

Whitworth Mill occupies approx. 22,600 sq. ft over four floors and sits on a 1.41-acre site that was originally put on the market by Peterborough City Council in October 2019.

Samsons had planned to use part of the mill building as a company office for up to 15 staff, with the remainder a boutique hotel on the upper floors.

They had also sought to pursue arts related uses on the ground floor with an area set aside as an external arts performance space.