Seven new suggested development sites for Peterborough’s Draft Local Plan

A public consultation took place in April and May for the council’s Draft Local Plan, which will replace the current one and set out how the city and surrounding villages will grow and change over the next 20 years.

More than 4,500 comments were received by the council on the draft plan from just under 3,000 individuals and organisations.

As part of the consultation, there was also an opportunity for landowners, developers and agents to submit sites they wished to be considered for inclusion at the next stage of the plan, in addition to those put forward at previous calls for sites in 2023 and 2024.

A total of seven new sites were suggested in the recent consultation, with five being potential housing sites, one being a proposed village hall and another being a country park.

The council assured that the sites identified were “not in any way approved or supported” by the authority but would simply be taken forward for assessment.

The proposed sites include:

Housing development on land at Helpston Road, Glinton (205 homes)

Housing development on land west of Splash Lane, Castor (120 homes)

Housing development on land south of Beeby’s East Lake, Hampton Vale (50 homes)

Housing development on land west of Ailsworth (250 homes)

Housing development on land east of Station Road, Ailsworth (370 homes)

Country park on land east of Eye Green

Village hall and green space on land east of Heath Road, Helpston

These suggested sites were included in the council’s Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) report.

The SHELAA will inform the preparation of the new Local Plan and provide the council with evidence of each site’s suitability, availability and deliverability.

The latest report stated: “An updated Stage 2 SHELAA report will be published alongside the submission version of the Local Plan.

“As with the first version of this report, this will show the scoring for all sites against each of the assessment criteria and will provide the full justification for the inclusion, or not, of each site.”

All comments received during the public consultation will be reviewed by the city council and any changes arising from the consultation will be made to the Draft Local Plan.

The council will then look to publish a proposed submission version in 2026, which will then go out for a further public consultation.

This version of the plan will then be submitted to central government who will appoint an independent planning inspector to carry out a public examination into the document.

It was hoped that the finalised Local Plan would be adopted by December 2026.