City car parks considered for home to £13 million Peterborough Youth Zone before Embankment chosen
A number of city centre car parks were considered as the location for a Peterborough Youth Zone before the Embankment was finally chosen as its home.
The proposed new facility, which will cost £13 million, will be designed to give youngsters a range of opportunities, and will be modelled on other successful models elsewhere in the country.
In Peterborough, it is planned to be built next to the Key Theatre on Peterborough’s Embankment – with the hope that the Youth Zone, new Leisure Centre and Swimming Pool – and the Cygnet Bridge linking green area to Fletton Quays – will breathe new life into what has been described as ‘The City’s Green Lung.’
It will be operated by OnSide, a national youth charity.
The plans for the Youth Zone took a step forward in July, when Peterborough City Council’s Cabinet met and approved the next stage of the scheme, which saw £410,000 worth of council funding set aside to help progress designs.
It has now been revealed that alongside The Embankment, other locations were examined – Wellington Street Car Park, Dickens Street Car Park, Stanley Park, Bishops Road Car Park, Riverside Car Park, Fletton Quays and Pleasure Fair Car Park – but all were rejected.
The councillors heard that the intention is that Onside will build the building and upon completion of the build the Council will grant a lease of the property to Onside for a term of 125 years at a peppercorn rent.
When the proposals were first mentioned, concerns were raised about how much space the zone would take up on the Embankment.
However, Chris Pike, principal development surveyor said: “It is really important to recognise and understand that although we are looking at delivering the Youth Zone on the Embankment, there is still a lot of space, I think in the region of about 62 acres of public open space, and we are probably going to take about an acre of that with the Youth Zone.”
Council leader Shabina Qayyum, added: “We have organisations like 'Save the Embankment' who quite rightly talk about the Embankment being the green lung of the city. I hope that it can be acknowledged that we are talking about sensitive development, that leads to a thriving, bustling embankment area, that is in use throughout the year.”