New £7m food hall, Key Theatre to close for works, special school to be extended among decisions approved by Peterborough's cabinet
A number of key projects, already reported on by the Peterborough Telegraph, have been given approval by Peterborough City Council’s cabinet.
The cabinet met on Tuesday evening (December 17) and made and gave its approval to a number of important decisions previously recommended for it to support.
These include the sale of the Rail Shed at Fletton Quays, a new Key Theatre roof, an extension of Nenegate special school and a roadmap to net zero.
The decisions and links to further information are linked below.
Rail shed to become new £7m food hall venture
A derelict Victorian goods shed at Fletton Quays is to be sold to secure a £7 million plus venture to convert it into a high quality food hall.
The listed railway building will become part of The Vine cultural and community centre, which is a major Towns Fund project.
The sale of the building for £250,000 to Farholt Goods Shed Ltd, of Kettering has now been approved.
A timetable for the project envisages construction starting in February 2026 and completing a year later.
The development is the subject to the granting of planning permission.
Key Theatre works to close building
Work to install a replacement roof at the Key Theatre in Peterborough after Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) was discovered is set to get under way next year.
RAAC was identified in the roof of the theatre's auditorium back in October 2023 and interim measures were put in place to enable the venue's continued operation.
a permanent solution was always required and work to install a new roof is now planned to start in June 2025. As a result, the theatre will be closed for around 16 weeks.
A capital allocation of £1,540,000 is already covered in the council's 2024/25 budget. This includes designer fees and the necessary work to the roof. An additional budget of £650,000 has been requested in the 2025/26 budget to deliver heating and cooling systems, as well as mechanical ventilation/extract and fresh air system replacements.
Following completion of the work, it is planned that the auditorium will re-open in early October 2025.
Nenegate school extension approved
An extension of Nenegate special school comprising of five new teaching buildings and a new teaching block has been approved.
The school is currently at capacity and can’t accept anymore pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) identified as their primary need.
At present, the council pays to school 24 SEMH pupils in out of county independent schools and the council projects this to cost in excess of £1.5m per year.
Based upon 2023/2024 figures, it is forecast that 46 additional children may be determined to require specialist SEMH placement over the next 12 months. The cost of placing 40 additional children who could be accommodated at Nenegate School’s expansion out of county is estimated to exceed £28m in ten years, with additional transport costs.
Therefore, the upping to the school’s capacity of 96 has been approved.
Opportunity Peterborough wound up
The city’s economic development company has been wound up. Its mission has been to support sustainable economic growth across the Greater Peterborough area, improving prosperity, job opportunities, and life chances for those who live and work in the city.
It has achieved that by supporting Peterborough’s businesses to grow, Attracting new companies to the city, Making sure students and workers have the skills they need to have power in the jobs market and working with partners to create an enabling environment by addressing barriers to growth in areas such as infrastructure and skills.
Since COVID, Opportunity Peterborough has reduced in size as a result of reduced levels of income and funding. Additionally, a number of neighbouring authorities which were previously supported by Opportunity Peterborough have established their own economic development teams, and a number of European-funded projects also came to a natural end. This resulted in the staff team reducing in size. No one is currently employed by the company.
It will now be wound up and integrated into the Council’s new Economic Growth and Development team.
Roadmap to net Zero endorsed
Plans to help Peterborough City Council become a net zero carbon authority have been supported by cabinet members.
It details several actions that will help the council lower its carbon emissions such as by installing low carbon heating in buildings, switching vehicles to hydrotreated vegetable oil, and continuing to train staff on carbon literacy.
If implemented in full, actions laid out in the roadmap are estimated to reduce the council’s Carbon Footprint to 2,344 tonnes CO2e annually. This would amount to a 78% reduction in emissions compared to the 2018-19 baseline year and a 70% reduction in emissions compared to the most recently measured emissions in 2022-23.