The plea comes from Peakirk Parish Council in the wake of concerns that the village's 9.6-acre Waterfowl Gardens site is about to be put up for sale.

The council hopes residents will band together to help find a new use for the gardens – a wildlife haven once among the city's top tourist attractions, but which closed seven years ago.

Parish councillor Mel Boustead said: "We have become aware that the site is going to be available again and we have a keen interest in it.

"However, we are not in a position to acquire the site by ourselves, therefore we want to generate some interest from local people and organisations and see how we can work together.

"From our point of view, we would like to see the site return to some sort of public amenity. The other side of Peterborough has spaces like Ferry Meadows, but we don't have anything more than a small green.

"It is a haven for wildlife and a tranquil oasis. Lots of people have good memories of it when it was open so we just hope that we can find a solution."

The parish council is looking a number of options including getting an outside agency involved to help save the gardens.

Councillors are keen for the gardens to belong to the public but, for this to happen, they say the purchase price has to be realistic.

A spokesman for estate agent Briggs Residential, in Market Deeping, said the firm had been in talks with the owners of the gardens, but no decision had yet been made about putting it on the market.

The owners of the site were not available to comment.

The gardens were once part of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), set up by conservationist Sir Peter Scott, son of Robert Scott, the Antarctic explorer, to save some of the world's most endangered species of birds in 1946.

There were fears that the site would close at the beginning of 1991, after the WWT revealed that it did not have the money to develop it.

However, following a six-month campaign by protesters and a 20,000-signature petition, it was decided that the centre would be kept open and leased to the East of England Agricultural Society.

The venue was then closed in 2001 after it proved not to be profitable and was bought by two local businessmen who planned to build houses on the site.

The parish council is now inviting any interested parties to an open meeting, at Peakirk Village Hall, in St Pegas Road, on Monday, at 7pm.