Peterborough's Stuart House warns it faces closure as businesses will be 'driven out' of the city centre if car parks are lost

Up to 1,000 staff of businesses based at Stuart House have warned that that will be driven out of the city centre if plans to proceed with the removal of the Wellington Street car park are approved.

On Monday (October 16), the council’s cabinet will discuss the proposed sale of the Wellington street car park, along with the nearby Dickens Street, to supermarket giants Lidl and its consortium.

Council documents indicate that a “complete regeneration” of the two sites are planned with residential, food and drink, electrical car charging and retail uses.

Local businesses based at Stuart House- which is located on St John’s Street- has, however, warned of the implications of removing two large car parks right on the entrance to the city and of the “massive impact” it would have on its own operations, forcing them to move out of the city.

The building, which has over 90 different companies and over 1000 people working there, is is one of very few office buildings remaining in the city centre following the conversion of roughly 600,000 sqft of office into flats and relies on the use of Wellington street.

The building has a small car park of around 200 spaces but holds two separate leases on the car park which is just over the road that allows its tenants to park there.

Stuart House’s letting agents Savills and Eddison’s said: “Now more than ever, companies are taking into consideration what amenities they can offer their employees so they can retain talent and motivate people to return to the office - and suitable parking is one of the highest-ranking criteria for people to return to the office.

"The huge reduction in city centre office space, has taken valuable jobs and crucial retail/leisure spend from Peterborough.

"There has been a large number of businesses leaving the city centre as they are forced to choose office spaces out of town because they offer large amounts of parking - there is such a big number of residential developments being brought to the town centre, but businesses are being driven out.

"Peterborough wants to attract companies to make their base here but the image being put out is completely different.

"We want small businesses to have the ability to get an office space that allows them to grow and become thriving companies that attract people and more business to our city.

"The loss of Wellington Street will mean our building will see a major decline in the number of tenants and can potentially cause it to close for lack of interest.”

Concerns about increased emissions and congestion have also been raised as if companies were to move out of the city centre, a large number of employees may have to start driving again rather that using public transport.

Stuart House Properties Limited has also said that it has been disappointed not to have been consulted or informed of plans and described it is a “missed opportunity” to engage with the companies that chose to have a base in Peterborough.

A number of the building’s tenants have also expressed their concerns at plans. One company stated: "One of the main reasons we chose Stuart House was because of Wellington Street car park, its location within the city centre and its ease of access from the the A1139.

"We also took into account a number of other factors, including the safety of staff and the cost of staff parking. The potential closure of the Wellington Street car park therefore raises a number of serious concerns."

Another added: "Parking is a major consideration for new and existing members of staff. We have regularly enquired about increasing the number of spaces at Wellington Street but have been declined each time.

"We currently have approximately 70 people who park there. If this was to be the case, we would have to seriously re-consider the merits of remaining in the city centre.“Redevelopment has already resulted in the loss of other available parking nearby, namely the Market car park at Northminster leaving the two closest ones to be Brook Street (which is full on most days) and Dickens Street (the only one in Peterborough city centre that has not been awarded the Park Mark) and we cannot as a diligent PLC recommend staff use this."