Second council vote on car storage facility at East of England Showground will be held next week

Peterborough councillors will vote again on a planning application seeking to formally establish a temporary car storage facility at the East of England Showground next week.

On Tuesday, 23rd January, the council’s planning committee will discuss whether to grant permission for the DHL depot for a second time, having previously refused it last October.

Developers East of England Showground Services Ltd say they’ve addressed the committee’s reasons for refusal by removing Dunblane Drive as the point of access from their plans and replacing it with Joseph Odam Way.

A Peterborough City Council (PCC) report says that the committee’s previous decision was “held back” to allow the applicant time to carry out necessary highway modelling work to determine whether the development could be made acceptable.

The only point of access would be gate 5 on Joseph Odam Way, the application now states, which is as far away as possible from residential properties while still serving the wider Showground area.

PCC planning officers have recommended the proposal for approval, although their suggested conditions include granting permission for three years rather than the requested five.

They have also suggested limiting developers to a maximum of 16 HGV movements per day between 6am and 5:30pm on weekdays (contrary to the developers’ request of 5:30am to 6pm).

Plans have been submitted to redevelop the entirety of the Showground site on East of England Way in Alwalton, with applicants hoping to build around 1,500 new homes on the site as well as a “leisure village” and care home.

But the plans will require the approval of multiple planning applications and the approval of one does not guarantee the approval of all.

The wider unpopularity of the plans among some residents are, however, reflected among the 46 public objections received since the most recent application was updated, with residents complaining about the loss of a major leisure facility.

Some also suggested that traffic to and from the car storage facility would continue to disturb residents despite the change in access point, while others expressed their disappointment that it has continued to operate despite the previous planning application’s refusal.

Council documents suggest that it has been in operation for almost a year and the application is part-retrospective.

The members of the planning committee which will vote on the application on Tuesday are different from those who previously refused it.

A change in council leadership has led to a change in the makeup of PCC’s various committees and a new set of councillors will be tasked with approving or refusing the application.