DHL car depot approved at East of England Showground by Peterborough council at second hearing

An application to officially establish a DHL car depot at the East of England Showground in Peterborough has been approved on its second hearing.

City councillors said that developers had sufficiently addressed the concerns they raised when it was initially refused by changing the spot where vehicles will enter the site.

Rather than Dunblane Drive, near residential properties, car transporters and other traffic bound for the storage facility will now exclusively enter through gate five on Joseph Odam Way, planning documents say.

Developers, the East of England Showground Services Ltd, said they plan to spend around £1,000 to ensure proper signage pointing drivers to the correct gate and that they have already widened it.

Planning permission, granted unanimously by councillors, lasts for three years, although the facility has already been in operation for almost a year.

Larger changes are planned at the Showground, which developers want to convert from an entertainment complex into a housing development with more than 1,000 new homes alongside a “leisure village” and a care home.

But multiple planning applications must be passed before these plans can get underway: the DHL storage facility occupies less than a third of the site on East of England Way in Alwalton and is intended to be temporary.

Facilitator AEPG has been tasked with promoting the new developments and its CEO, Ashley Butterfield, said at the Peterborough City Council (PCC) meeting where the depot was discussed that the changes requested to its running are “practical and easily managed”.

Meeting chair Cllr Amjad Iqbal (Labour, Central) meanwhile said that councillors should be “proud” they’ve made “good decisions” by rejecting the initial planning application and helping bring about a more amenable one.

Cllr Christian Hogg (Liberal Democrats, Fletton and Stanground) added that he hopes “this is a corner turned” between the council and developers as they’ve listened to councillors’ and residents’ concerns and adapted their plans accordingly.

Having perhaps previously “expected things to sail through”, they’ve gone away and “licked their wounds”, he continued, before coming forward with an application that’s “slightly more humble” and less impactful on residents.

Traffic will only be allowed to enter and leave the site from Joseph Odam Way between 6am and 5:30pm.

Planning conditions also state that there mustn’t be more than 16 HGV movements in or out per day.