'Sell up' letters to landowners are being drafted as Peterborough City Council seeks to end 30 year wait for North Westgate transformation

Officials at Peterborough City Council are at work drafting letters to landowners in North Westgate demanding they sell up to allow a multi-million regeneration of the area to take place.

The communications are expected to go out in the next few days as the council attempts to end a 30 year wait for the transformation to get off the ground.

The action comes days after local authority leader Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald issued a ‘sell up’ challenge to landowners in North Westgate.

He wants the landowners, which include Hawksworth Securities, owner of 50 per cent of the site, Invesco and other private owners to ‘get round the table’ to agree a fair price for their land holdings or face Compulsory Purchase Orders.

Cllr Fitzgerald said: "In the past year we've successfully bid for over £80 million of Government funding in Peterborough, including the redevelopment of our Station Quarter which is a stone's throw away from North Westgate.

"North Westgate is a prime investment site in the city centre which has been calling out for redevelopment for almost 30 years.

"We simply can't afford to have this site sat undeveloped for any longer - it is clear that previous plans for this site are not working and so a different approach is needed."

He said “I’m hoping in five years’ time we will have a stunning regeneration of North Westgate.”

An outline application for a £150 million hotel, retail and offices development by Hawksworth Securities was approved by the council in 2018 but that elapsed in 2021.