Council rejects plans for 650 homes on showground

More than 100 people attended the meeting at council office in Fletton Quays on Tuesday

Plans to build 650 homes on a disused showground have been rejected by a council after it received 900 objections to the proposals.

Peterborough City Council's planning committee voted on two applications for the East Of England Showground on Tuesday. It approved plans for 850 homes and leisure facilities, but rejected a second proposal for 650 homes over fears of overdevelopment.

Developers Asset Earning Power Group (AEPG) intended to create 1,500 homes.

About 100 people attended the meeting, including residents who "welcomed the development" and others who feared it would be "detrimental" to the neighbouring areas.

AEPG planned to build 1,500 homes and a leisure village at the East of England Showground

What was approved and rejected

The £50m development attracted controversy after it excluded Peterborough Panthers Speedway team from its plans.

The committee members first discussed the proposal for 850 homes, which included a new primary school, hotel, places to eat and drink, a care village for older people and sports facilities, followed by the second proposal for 650 homes.

Julie Stevenson, an Independent councillor, and Nicola Day, a Green Party councillor, who both represent the Orton Waterville ward called for the plans to be refused.

Day said: "Dwellings of three, four storey, a six-storey hotel [are] predominant in this application which is out of keeping with the character for the area."

Stevenson said: "This has to be fought for. People's hearts are broken over it."

Concerns were raised over there being only one access and entrance point to the development, which could cause congestion.

Mike Fowler, a resident of Orton, Peterborough, said the approval of the plans will be "determinantal to the local areas spreading from the Ortons to Chesterton and Alwalton to the wider city".

"The city is losing an existing legacy, which is the East of England Showground," he said.

Brian Connolly, who is part of the Peterborough Panthers Speedway Consortium, said: "This is the wrong scheme for this site. The irony is that Peterborough can have both a development and a speedway site.

"Our door is open and we invite the applicant to work with us for a complaint application to be made."

Dilraj Kaur from Peterborough Citizens Alliance supported both the plans and said there was a need for housing

Kirsty Knight, an Independent councillor, supported the plans.

"The plans you have in front of you are the best plans - good quality homes with infrastructure and a leisure village that will serve the city and further afield," she said.

Dave Poulton, from Up the Garden Bath initiative, which works to reduce waste and landfill, said he would be working on the city's biggest community garden as part of the development. He added: "The leisure faculties will be transformative for Peterborough."

Ashley Butterfield from AEPG said the project would "serve as a blueprint of future projects".

Prior to the meeting, supporters of the speedway team gathered outside the venue to renew calls for Peterborough Panthers to be incorporated within the plans.

Mr Butterfield told the meeting that a speedway track would not be part of the development.

The plan for 850 homes was approved by eight votes to two. The second application for 650 homes was refused by six votes to three, with one abstention.

Chris Harper, a Peterborough First councillor who chaired the meeting, said the project was "overdevelopment as a whole".

"We should not lose the showground. It has been given up far too easily," he added.

Speedway fans gathered outside the council's office ahead of the meeting to continue their fight against the showground plans