Locations evaluated for new Peterborough Youth Zone in bid to reduce crime and poor mental health

A number of potential locations for a new Youth Zone in Peterborough have been evaluated by the city council, which hopes to deliver the new space by March 2025.

The council has been working closely with charity OnSide Youth Zones to create a zone for offering a wide range of positive activities, personal development opportunities and support for young people.

Youth Zones are purpose built, state-of-the-art places for young people (including those most at risk) with trained youth workers running activities, mentoring sessions and advice and guidance with targeted support.

A typical Youth Zone runs seven evenings a week and has around 4,000 members with 100-250 young people visiting each evening. In Peterborough, it would help to tie in community youth provision which has become fragmented over recent years due to a shortage of government funding.

The council has now narrowed down its shortlist to two potential sites to create one in Peterborough but will not be making the sites public at this stage.

The sites the council was evaluating were: “Bishop’s Road car park, Stanley Park, between the Key Theatre and Lido, Wellington Street car park, Dickens Street car park, Embankment East, Fletton Quays, Riverside car park, Gladstone Park Community Centre, East Community Park, Vineyard Road Roundabout green space.

The council has stipulated that the ideal site must be prominent enough to encourage young people to walk straight off the street to use the services and to be a visual asset to the city, be away from estates so that young people using the facilities have to barriers accessing them and have good pedestrian and cycle links to allow young people to reach the site with minimal expense.

Detailed design work will now be carried out ahead of the anticipated decision of the Youth Investment Fund decision panel, which is due at the beginning of February.

The total cost of the Youth Zone is expected to be around £10.9m.

A pre-application for £8.7m towards the cost was submitted to the Department of Culture Media and Sport in November.

The council is required to make a minimum capital contribution of £950,000, which it intends to do through the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) in its aspiration to mitigate as much of the capital costs as possible through external grant funding.

The SPF funding plan has been approved and the total the fund has contributed to the project now stands at £1.255m

The council is also committed to contributing £200k a year for seven years (commencing April 2025) towards the £1.4m cost of running the Youth Zone. Public Health has committed to a £50k per year contribution for seven years from 2025.

OnSide will raise 85 percent of the running costs through private-sector funding.

A schools survey carried out by the Peterborough Youth Council found that 80 percent of the over 900 respondents would use a Youth Zone.

The young council has highlighted the benefits of similar zones including: helping young people feel more engaged in their communities, learn new skills and improve their mental health.

A spokesperson said: “We believe the positive impact of such a space would be priceless and would bring brighter presents, brighter futures and greater joy for young people across Peterborough.”