Review for Peterborough Towns Fund projects over funding concerns
A review of the financing of key regeneration projects across Peterborough is to be carried out in just weeks.
A meeting of the business and civic leaders who sit on the Peterborough Regeneration Fund board is to be held early next month to assess the impacts of rising costs and other challenges on some of the key projects.
Peterborough received £22.9 million under the previous government’s Towns Fund initiative.
It also secured £48 million Levelling Up funds which together have now gone into the newly created Regeneration Fund.
The review follows the £2 million loss from the sale of the former TK Maxx store in Bridge Street, which cost the council £4 million taken from the Towns Fund.
Members of the Regeneration Fund board will meet on July 2 to decide on measures to change the funding for some of the projects.
The Vine: The board will be told that the £13 million plan for The Vine community and cultural hub has been revised and that instead of operating from three sites it will be delivered from two.
These will be a refurbished Central Library community hub, offering spaces for education, community and business and a fully refurbished Peterscourt building to accommodate start-up businesses and provide maker spaces
It had been hoped to use the former Goods Shed at Fletton Quays to create a food and beverage hall as part of The Vine.
The Vine was originally earmarked for the TK Maxx building but that plan was dropped after it was found repairing the premises would be too expensive.
But the collapse of a partnership deal has led the council to sell the site to a private buyer with preference being given to buyers that propose to deliver the sales of food and beverages once the building is redeveloped.
Lakeside Activity Centre at Ferry Meadows:. This project to create a climbing wall has been reduced in scale after construction prices soared. A new planning application is expected to submitted to Peterborough City Council
Train Station to city link project: Work is expected to start next month.
Work is under way to prepare for the construction of Cygnet Bridge that will link the Embankment and University with Fletton Quays and existing riverside paths. It will provide an alternative pedestrian route into the Embankment and city centre area.
Upgrading Lincoln Road, between Searjeant Street and Windmill Street, has been completed.
Enterprise hub feasibility study - to deliver a feasibility study for an enterprise incubation and training hub in the city, to help support small digital businesses and grow the city’s digital economy has been completed.
A Green Technology Centre at Peterborough College has been completed.
Minutes of the Towns Funds board in December last year suggest there are concerns about some of the projects, particularly the Centre for Green Technology at Peterborough College and the proposed Lakeside Activity Centre at Nene Park’s Ferry Meadows.