For years, members of the Eco Art Projects (EAP) have been toiling away on a tiny area of land in Dogsthorpe Road, Peterborough, trying to teach people about the benefit of providing for themselves.

The quarter-acre patch has been transformed into a veritable feast of flowers, fruit trees, ponds, works of art and ornamental shrubs, with a wide range of lovingly nurtured vegetable and salad crops.

The project has seen the creation of an ingenious system which collects and filters rain water. While co-founder Renny Antonelli uses his craft skills to carve beautiful sculptures and furniture out of lumps of wood.

Now the project could be given an even bigger platform after Peterborough City Council identified a plot of land which could be used to take it to the next level.

A public consultation is currently under way on the 2.3-acre former allotment site on the corner of London Road and Oundle Road.

And if it is given the green light, the council will hand over the land on a three-year lease for a rent of just £500 a year for them to carry on their good work.

Environment and community partnership officer for the city council Charlotte Palmer said: "The EAP was doing some really worthwhile work, but it should be done in the right context and right location, so we have been searching for a piece of land in the city where they could develop it further.

"We want to become an environment capital. This will be a physical change on the ground which will be something special. It will be something different which doesn't happen in any other city."

One of the founders of EAP, green-fingered Gerry Warren, said: "This is the next step in what we're aiming to achieve.

"We hope to construct a school of sustainability which will be known as the Green Back Yard, which will be operated by seeding future social enterprise. The idea is that it will be an opportunity for people to come and learn about sustainability, bring ideas which we can help develop and experiment with them. People will come here to learn to grow their own food, and harvest their own energy and water.

"We want to be the faculty of sustainable development in a fully operational university setting. That's always been our aim. This city needs a university for a good economic future, and everyone needs a unique selling point.

"In three years' time, we hope to have reached every school in the city. Within the next three years, we want to be handing out environmental science and carpentry degrees."

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