Peterborough City Council seeks further legal advice on fence plans which have divided the community

Following the latest consultation held by Peterborough City Council, on the planned two metre fencing around open land in Werrington adjacent to Staniland Way, the council has announced they are seeking further legal advice.

The fencing plan was put forward by Ken Stimpson School to help safeguard pupils that use the green space.

This is the second time the council has sought further legal advice in the proceedings.

More than 80 responses were submitted in a public consultation in October after a meeting was held to inform residents about the latest developments in September.

A Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: “Following careful consideration of all the representations received, we have taken the decision to seek further legal advice in order to ensure that we are able to provide full and factually accurate responses to the various questions and statements contained in those representations.

“We will need to thoroughly review the advice once received and at that stage we will be able to advise of the next steps and timetable with respect to the final stages of the decision-making process.”
Peterborough City Council submitted the initial application back in November 2019 which was approved in March 2020 despite opposition from residents.

The Save Werrington Fields campaign group has protested against the planned fencing that will surround the playing fields near Ken Stimpson Community School. The group are pushing for the proposal to be scrapped but have submitted alternative fencing plans that would fence off a different area of the land.

Nyree Ambarchian on behalf of Save Werrington Fields group said: “The latest delay in a decision from the council to seek further legal advice is welcome. We’d rather that than an uniformed, rash decision was made - as has been the case in the past.

“It does have to be said that this whole process continues to be a mess.

“Since day one our position has been the same - this fence would be a huge blot, spoiling a beautiful area, shutting residents out, and all without any evidence of a problem in the first place. We’re still reeling from the council’s previous admission that it knew about the covenant protecting the area and chose to ignore it.

“We hope that with the delay in decision along with the many representations made by local people, reason will finally prevail and the proposals will be either scrapped or seriously revised.”