Looking over the site for Magna Park, Dry Sides, a natural flood plain
After a consultation process in which more than 3,000 comments were made by city residents, Peterborough City Council has published a revised version of its Site Allocations Document. It's not good news for Stanground as Magna Park is still on the agenda, as our absentee Stanground councillor Janet Wilkinson voted FOR THE INCLUSION OF MAGNA PARK! Although mercifully the Arab development company is owned by near bankrupt Dubai World and the Magna Park rail/warehouse park is linked to Felixstowe Docks also owned by Dubai World, now possibly being sold off to reduce the Dubai World debt. A fact which has escaped the PCC!
The other good news is simply this whole exercise was hatched in the days before the recession and well before the bankers taxpayer bailouts. The problem for Peterborough City Council is that to scrap the whole scheme will pop a number of pet projects and ensure that any legacy attached to current members of the cabinet will also evaporate.
The document claims that 5,000 jobs will be created by Magna Park but what the document does not say is that the jobs will not be for Peterborough residents but for transit workers such as drivers and container handlers, many of the warehouses proposed will be automatic with the minimum of local unskilled personnel required. The noise and light nuisance will be 24 hours a day seven days a week.
The document sets out where 20,185 of the 25,500 new homes set out in the council’s Core Strategy 2009-2026 will be placed as well as employment land to help create [pre-recession] 20,000 jobs.
Sites for the remaining 5,000 or so homes will be in the city centre and will form part of a separate document.
Chief among the developments is the Great Haddon urban extension to the south of the city which has been kept on the document and is earmarked for 5,350 new homes and a 40-hectare business park.
Also in the blueprint are plans for a massive rail-freight interchange at Magna Park, east of Stanground, which could potentially create 5,000 jobs. If given the go-ahead, the rail-freight centre will cover an area the size of 135 football pitches and would see major cargo transported by rail from the port of Felixstowe.
Major changes from the original document, which was released for a six-week consultation in March this year, include new plans to build 460 homes on the former Freeman’s site, in Ivatt Way.
Controversial plans to build permanent gypsy and traveller sites in Eye and Stanground, for ten and four pitches respectively, have also been removed after the Government announced earlier this year that it was no longer a legal requirement to provide them.
The council is also keeping an eye on future growth as well, safeguarding land in Hampton for a possible passenger railway station while earmarking the old Wansford to Wisbech railway line, through Peterborough, for a cycleway and public footpath.
The document is the next stage of the council’s Core Strategy, which sets out the aim to build 25,500 new homes and create 20,000 jobs by 2026. It is currently waiting the approval of the planning inspectorate and the Government.
The revised Site Allocations Document will be discussed by the council’s Environment and Planning committee on Tuesday, October 26 before the full council decides in December whether to put it out to another consultation in 2011.
It has become the source of a major disagreement between council leader Marco Cereste and city MP Stewart Jackson of MP's expenses fame . Mr Jackson has promised to lobby housing minister Grant Shapps to reject or amend the proposals if the planning inspectorate approves the Core Strategy, after criticising the council’s insistence on building 25,500 homes.
He also questioned the area set aside for business development saying it would be pointless unless the city can attract skilled companies.
He said: “I don’t understand why the council did not avail itself when the Government scrapped Rural Spatial Strategies and take the chance to look at the changes in the housing market, the economy and public sector finances over the past few years.
“It would have given them the opportunity to look again at the balance between large-scale housing and quality of life.
“I’m not unambitious for Peterborough but I don’t think sufficient thought has been given to where jobs will come from and whether we have the right community infrastructure or transport links.
“I’d like to know what the nature of the employment is as well. Is it going to be good quality, skilled jobs or is it going to be warehousing, logistics and food processing?”
But Cllr Cereste was critical of Mr Jackson’s stance on jobs however, stating that it is not just the skilled sector the city has to provide for.
He said: “We have got 5,000 people in this city who are not employed and not all highly-trained, what are we supposed to do? Throw them on the scrapheap?
“What happens to the people who don’t have the training or the experience for a highly-skilled job? I think it’s about time someone started talking some sense.
“What we need at the moment is jobs which match the skills and the training of people in the city.
“If Mr Jackson plans to damage the Core Strategy and if he plans on taking away the jobs of this city, he needs to think very, very carefully before he does anything.”
Peterborough City Council’s Planning and Environmental Protection Committee meets on Tuesday 26th October, 2010 at 1.30pm at the Town Hall, on the agenda is the Peterborough Local Development Framework: Peterborough Site Allocations. More information from the City Council website: http://bit.ly/bMZYqP
Revised Site Allocations Document includes:
- A 135 hectare rail-freight interchange at Magna Park, east of Stanground.
- More than 5,000 new homes and 65 hectares of employment land as part of the Great Haddon urban extension to the south of Peterborough.
- New proposals to build 460 homes on the former Freeman’s site, in Ivatt Way, by the A47 Soke Parkway.
- The safeguarding of land in Hampton for the possible building of a railway station in the future.
- Scrapping of permanent gypsy and traveller sites originally earmarked for Eye and land west of Stanground.
- Houses planned in Oundle Road, Alwalton, increased from 122 to 210.
- Provision for a cycle and walkway between Wansford and Wisbech via Peterborough.
- 65 new homes off Sandpit Road, Thorney, which had been previously rejected by the council are now back on the agenda.
- Building of a 30-hectare business park at Red Brick Farm, south of Oxney Road, Eastfield; a 40-hectare business park at Alwalton Hill; and two extra hectares at Lynch Wood.
- Number of homes earmarked off Thorney Road, Eye, cut from 250 to just 60, with a small space for employment land.
(C) Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch Peterborough UK Tel: 01733 345581 Broadcasters direct call ISDN 'down the line' 01733 555319 Codecs G722 & APT All Press Enquiries Julian Bray 01733 345581
So Magna Park could still technically go ahead. I hope it doesn't and if what is written about it being sold by Dubai World, that could benefit. But let's not be complacent. How can we campaign so that it becomes as unpalatable to the council as it will be for the residents of Park Farm and Stanground?
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