£6 million plus funding package agreed for road improvements near employment hub on edge of Peterborough

More than £6 million is to be spent improving road access to an employment hub on the edge of Peterborough.

The cash will be used to carry out an array of improvement works to roads near the 12.6 acre Red Brick Farm development, in Edgerley Drain Road, north of Fengate.

Developers secured approval from Peterborough City Council two years ago to construct a mix of storage, distribution, and general industrial units and offices at the site.

It is hoped that once completed the development, where site preparation work is currently under way, will create between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs.

The roads spending was approved by members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority's transport and infrastructure committee after a study revealed the impact of the development on traffic around junctions seven and eight of the A1139 Fletton Parkway with routes into Fengate on Parnwell Way and Oxney Road and roads within Fengate such as Edgerley Drain Road and Storey’s Bar Road.

In total, £6,665,696 will be spent on traffic signal improvements at the junction of Edgerley Drain Road, Storey’s Bar Road and Vicarage Farm Road, on the Vicarage Farm Road and Storey’s Bar Road northbound approaches plus traffic signal improvements at Junction 7 of the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway to Oxney Road and Eastfield Road.

A mini roundabout will be built at Oxney Road and Newark Road along with improvements to Newark Road footpath.

There will also be a new pedestrian crossing over Oxney Road, between Junction 7 and the Oxney Road and Sainsbury’s roundabout.

Members were told that Red Brick Farm is the largest development and employment sector in Fengate.

Under a Section 106 agreement with the council, the land owners, the Church Commissioners, agreed to contribute £513,000 towards highway improvements.

The scheme has planning approval for the demolition of existing buildings with employment development comprising up to 166,440 square metres of light industrial, general industrial use and storage and distribution with a maximum building height of 21 metres plus car parking space for 1,762 vehicles.