Extension plan for Peterborough Museum is dropped from Towns Fund wish list

A multi-million pound extension of the museum in Priestgate had been planned as one of 10 projects to benefit from £22.9 million of government funding through its levelling up Towns Fund initiative.

It was hoped the extension would turn Peterborough into a ‘Bronze Age’ York displaying famous finds from Flag Fen and the Must Farm quarry.

However, the government funding is dependent on Peterborough City Council providing so called matching finance.

But the council’s struggle to bridge a £27 million gulf in its budget has left the local authority unable to stump up its full share of the funding for the Towns Fund.

Now the Towns Fund Board has decided to drop the museum extension plus an initiative to improve public amenities along the River Nene from its list of projects to accommodate a £8.1 million shortfall in match funding.

It means only eight projects will benefit from the Towns Fund, which will now be made up of £22.9 million of Government funding plus £19.7 million of match funding.

Cash from the two dropped projects will instead be put into the proposed Vine library, community and culture hub venture, which itself will be scaled down.

Matthew Bradbury, independent chair of the Peterborough Towns Fund Board, said: “Board members felt that it was better to reduce the number of projects down from 10 to eight, which would make sure those eight projects were robust and highly likely to secure Government funding.”

He said it meant that while the museum extension and Riverside public realm projects will no longer be going ahead through the Towns Fund programme, the museum project remained a priority.

The council will continue to work with the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England to secure the necessary funding to deliver it.

The Towns Fund board has also agreed that the Riverside public realm works would be best completed after the Embankment Masterplan and Pedestrian Bridge projects had progressed and after scheduled utilities works have been completed.

The Vine project now operate solely from the former TK Maxx building with little impact on its planned aims and the next door former New Look site will be leased or sold with any proceeds being reinvested into The Vine project.

Councillor Peter Hiller, the council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and commercial strategy and investments, said: “It is regrettable that we don’t have as much money as originally planned to match fund the Government’s Towns Fund.

“However, the city, through various other funding streams is still investing £19.6 million, not an insignificant amount by any means.

“You only have to walk around our city centre to see what an exciting time it is to live in our city.

“The new University, Government Hub and Hilton Garden Inn Hotel will be opening later this year and in the years to come we have these Towns Fund projects set to transform our city even further.

“All these changes benefit residents and visitors and make the city an even more attractive place for further external investment.”

A council spokesperson has also said that following the decision to reduce funding, discussions have taken place with ward councillors who are responsible for Lincoln Road who have decided to go ahead with a scheme that covers the same area with £2.5 million of funding, instead of a smaller area.

The Towns Fund projects still need to be approved by Government before the funding is secured. This will be happen in two phases, through the submission of project business cases to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in April and July 2022.

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