City centre car park redevelopment 'unacceptable'

The council said redevelopment of Brook Street car park would lead to the loss of city centre parking

A plan to convert a city centre car park into flats have been refused over fears that too many parking spaces would be lost.

The Unex Group submitted plans to build 48 flats over six floors at the Brook Street NCP car park in Peterborough city centre, with provision for 73 car parking spaces.

The outline application provoked objections from several bodies including the local Highway Authority, Peterborough Civic Society and the council's pollution teams.

The development was described as "unacceptable" by Peterborough City Council's (PCC) planning officers, who said it would lead to a loss of parking spaces and would have an "adverse overbearing impact" on neighbouring buildings.

The developers, Unex Group, said they planned to create "a positive urban environment" and "create high quality city centre homes".

The redevelopment plans also included a commercial unit on site described as "an essential goods shop", with a frontage on to Brook Street.

The council's pollution team objected to the scheme and said there was not enough information to show how future occupiers would be protected from noise and smells associated with the development's commercial unit and other businesses nearby.

Peterborough Civic Society highlighted concerns that the development would spoil views of the city's Cathedral

Peterborough Civic Society also raised objections, saying the proposed block, which could be higher than 72ft (22m), might have appeared to be out of scale with neighbouring buildings and there was no analysis of the impact on views of the cathedral.

PCC's planning officers said they were aware that the scheme would promote redevelopment of the city centre, but concluded that the benefits of the project would not have outweighed the harm it would have caused.