Extra toilet facilities is key demand in consultation on vision for Peterborough city centre

The need for extra and easily accessible loos and baby changing facilities is one of the top demands to emerge from a special public survey that aims to shape the city centre for the next two decades.

The consultation is being carried out by Peterborough City as part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Strategic Place Partnership with Homes England and looks to create a vision to drive the heart of the city forward.

The finding is in accord with numerous complaints recently from the public who say there is a shortage of easily accessible public conveniences in the city centre.

The call for new toilets has come through the consultation for the Peterborough Visioning Project that aims to create an inclusive city centre which attracts residents, visitors and new businesses to invest.

A spokesperson for the council said that more than 600 people, plus pupils at a number of schools, had taken part in an online consultation, which closes later today. (March 12)..

The top demands included more clean accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities, cleaner and well-maintained public spaces, a focus on addressing pockets of anti-social behaviour plus a great emphasis on culture and heritage and a greater mix of shops, including more independents.

During a number of workshops held in schools, pupils said they would like to see cleaner and greener spaces that support wildlife by adding more water features, bird feeders and bug hotels, a safer city centre with more surveillance, more colour and art, seasonal entertainment such as water play areas in summer and ice skating in the winter plus a variety of shops and food stalls that represent different cultures.

Just six weeks ago, Councillor Raja Sabeel Ahmed (Conservative) called for new public toilets to be installed in Peterborough city centre in the wake of an overwhelming response from residents.

He said: ““Residents from my ward and across the city have been in contact with me and they’ve raised one question; ‘Whenever we go to the city centre there are no toilet facilities.’”

The shortage of toilets was compounded late last year when it was announced that plans for Changing Places Toilets to be installed at Peterborough Cathedral had been scrapped due to a lack of funding.

Responding to the impact of the survey, Cllr Mohammed Farooq, the council’s Cabinet Member for Growth and Regeneration, said: "Over the past six weeks we have been into schools to speak to children and young people about what they like about the city centre and what else they would like to see there in the future.

"We have also spoken to businesses and other communities and have had more than 600 responses through our online survey.

"We are really pleased that so many people want to get involved in this process because we want a city centre vision to be embraced by all who choose to live, work, visit and spend their time here.

"Once the survey closes we will spend time analysing the results to see how they can feed into the wider development plan for the heart of our city which will be progressed through the new Growth Board and Mayoral Development Corporation.

"It is an exciting time for Peterborough and we would like to thank everyone who has responded so far for getting involved."