The Peterborough Evening Telegraph

Guild House to be converted into new housing scheme

Peterborou­gh’s Guild House will be converted into a major new housing scheme.

The building in Oundle Road, which formerly belonged to Anglia Ruskin University, will be incorporat­ed into a developmen­t of 138 new apartments after final planning approval was granted on September 3.

The final vote on the city’s planning and environmen­tal protection committee was unanimous to approve the applicatio­n.

The university has now sold the building to be converted into 90 apartments by MJS/Lynchwood Developmen­ts Ltd.

Further new apartments will also be provided by four new build apartment blocks. Two blocks would consist of nine two bedroom apartments split across three floors, one of 12 one and two bedroom apartments across three floors and a block of 18 one and two bedroom across three floors.

Speaking at the meeting, representa­tives for the applicant stated: “The new build blocks have been reduced in footprint and moved away from neighbours and the view of the cathedral from Oundle Road has been preserved.

The developmen­t will help the council to meet its housing supply and will achieve the long-term preservati­on and beneficial reuse of the currently vacant Guild House, a locally listed building.

“At the moment, it is a tired building in a car park.

“It will get a significan­t overhaul.

“The ugly ramps will be removed, it will get a greener setting, the windows will be replaced, the cladding will be thoroughly cleaned.

“When we finish, it will look like a new building not an old one.”

Councillor­s had raised concerns about the fact that there is no affordable housing provision in the scheme, which developers suggested was due to the need for the scheme to be viable in the face of high costs to convert the building.

The developmen­t will provide a total of 162 parking spaces; one for each unit as well as 24 visitor spaces, a recognised shortfall but the officers said that the scheme had been designed to encourage sustainabl­e transport and a much larger than required number of cycle spaces would be provided (212).

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