Cost of major Peterborough city centre works set to rise by £1.6m following discovery of 61 skeletons under Queensgate roundabout

Tombs and burial chambers have been uncovered since works on the City Link project began in July and excavations began at the site close to Peterborough Railway Station, which used to be a burial ground.

This has meant that the completion of the 40 week long project is set to be delayed by a total of 11 weeks.

Along with the delays to the building work, Peterborough City Council papers now reveal that the total costs of the project are set to rise by £1.6m.

Council papers state that: “Good progress is being made on this package, although the discovery of numerous human remains will inevitably lead to a delay in this part of the overall programme.

"A combination of international events and the discovery of these remains have impacted on the cost of this package, which is currently forecast to increase by around £1,600,000.”

In order to meet this shortfall, members of the council’s ruling cabinet have been asked to approve the reallocation of Towns Fund money.

The so-called Towns Fund cash was set aside for Peterborough five years ago under the previous Conservative government’s Levelling Up agenda. A deadline of March 2028 was set for the cash to be spent with the money shared out by members of the Peterborough Towns Fund board between eight projects that are seen as making a difference to the city’s economy and community health and wellbeing.

Th report adds: “Work package 1 (City Link) of the Peterborough Station Quarter programme received an original contribution of £1,455,000 from the Towns Fund programme. The City Link package will deliver a direct, level access pedestrian and cycle route from the station into Cowgate, avoiding two of the underpasses and creating a more obvious route into the city centre.

"It is therefore recommended that £1,500,000 from the funds available for reallocation are allocated to the Peterborough Station Quarter City Link project. The contingency could be applied if other funding avenues are unsuccessful.”

The meeting to discuss the reallocation of the Towns Fund will take place at 2pm on Thursday (October 1).

It’s believed that the remains date from a cemetery which existed on the Queensgate Roundabout site during the Medieval period and later developed in the Victorian period.

The council has obtained an archaeological licence and appointed an archaeologist to ensure the skeletons are reburied in line with national guidelines.

Each of the skeletons will be reinterred at a Church of England burial ground elsewhere in the city.

According to the Peterborough Civic History Society, the first person buried at the site was Elizabeth Money in March 1805.

Councillor Angus Ellis, cabinet member for transport at the council, said: "We have now discovered 61 skeletons, however, we only have a small area left to clear.

For this reason, we, together with archaeologists, anticipate a further three-week delay to the project, which will be 11 weeks in total.

"We have a duty to exhume the skeletons carefully, ensuring we abide by the burial licence as instructed by the Ministry of Justice.

”Therefore, we are being led by archaeologists, including those from Oxford Archaeology."