THESE are exciting times for Peterborough as the city's programme of growth and regeneration makes significant progress towards becoming a reality.

In February we promised that 2008 was going to be the year which starts the delivery, and we have not shied away from that promise. We have already seen the launch of the Eco Innovation Centre last month, less than a year after the environmental based businesses in the city made a plea for such a centre to support young and start-up businesses, and OP is now gearing up for work to start on many of its key projects in and around the city centre, including the transformation of Cathedral Square, which we aim to start later this year.

Read more from our feature:
Future Peterborough: Regeneration special in association with Opportunity Peterborough - peterboroughtoday.co.uk/futurepeterborough.
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But what makes this exciting for me is the sheer range of companies and organisations that engage with and support the growth and regeneration agenda in Peterborough and their ongoing commitment and belief in the city. Behind this is the dynamic partnership between OP and its main funding partners, particularly Peterborough City Council who we are working with closely to ensure that Peterborough realises its true potential to become a vibrant and attractive city in which to live, work or visit.

This common agenda is embedded deeply within the Integrated Growth Study, the emerging Core Strategy, the Sustainable Community Strategy, the emerging City centre Area Action Plan and Public Realm Strategy and the Local Area Agreement – all important strategic documents that plan for sustainable and deliverable growth of the city.

One key aspiration for our city is realising its UK Environment Capital status. We are already well on the way after being placed as the country's second greenest city and there are lots of exciting projects that are being brought forward to ensure we achieve this goal.

These include the Carbon Challenge on the South Bank, which will be the largest zero-carbon development in the UK and provides a fantastic opportunity for our cluster of more than 350 environmental businesses to grow and develop by showcasing its innovations locally under the national spotlight.

We recognise that there are major challenges up ahead, especially in light of the credit crunch and the current market conditions, but this means that as the urban regeneration company for the city OP has to work that much harder and more creatively to make sure our schemes are not only attractive to potential investors, but both credible and viable while maintaining the need to be high quality and sustainable.

Supporting this will be the City Marketing Campaign, which we are launching in the autumn. As a city, Peterborough does not have a bad image, instead it seems to have no image at all. Peterborough has huge potential and OP is here to lead the city forward in realising this.

However, we also need to make sure that the rest of the world knows how the city is changing, what it has to offer and what is still to come in.