Peterborough Civic Society says current stadium plans would have ‘hugely negative impact on city

Peterborough’s Civic Society has called for an alternative solution to be found after seeing the new proposals for a stadium on The Embankment in the city.
What the arena could look likeWhat the arena could look like
What the arena could look like

The proposals were revealed last week - and have had a mixed reaction, with some welcoming the plans, and others calling for them to be looked at again.

The plan made provision for the creation of a roughly 20,000 capacity multi-purpose ‘Peterborough Arena’ that Posh would use to play its home matches in, as well as hosting other events such as concerts.

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It has been labelled as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity for the city.

But today David Turnock, chairman of the Civic Society, called for the plans to be looked at again.

He said; “The long-awaited Embankment Masterplan has at long last been revealed to public gaze. Is it “a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a new city riverside...” or a curate’s egg, some of it good and some of it bad?

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The Masterplan includes exciting developments of the area with an attractive Embankment Park and enhanced Riverside, a new ‘cultural hub’ around the Key Theatre and attractive plans for an open parkland style university campus. However,

the Masterplan does contain an elephant in the room, an option for an Arena, a new home for POSH.

“Inevitably media attention has centred on this element of the plan, which in the Masterplan is referred to as the flexibility to include an Arena “should it come forward”.

“The Masterplan rightly accepts from the outset that an Arena cannot be sited near the south-east corner of the Embankment because the major loss of green space and the blocking of important views of the Cathedral and negative impact on the heritage setting of the cathedral which would be totally unacceptable and attract national opposition. The Masterplan option pushes the Arena to the north, away from the river, and this location clearly has very major problems.”

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Mr Turnock said that the new University would be ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘swamped’ by the new stadium.

He added: “The Arena would also block high quality views of the cathedral and the huge bulk of the Arena would be a major detraction from the cathedral setting and remaining views of the cathedral from the Embankment. In the Masterplan document itself it is acknowledged that “the design, massing and scale of the arena has the potential to compete with the cathedral in these views”.

“A new Arena for Peterborough would be a great asset and is supported by the Civic Society, but not at the cost of damaging the fledgling University, seriously degrading the outstanding historic views and setting of the cathedral and concreting over large areas of the riverside green space that will become increasingly important, particularly as City centre housing and the University expand.

“We understand why some favour a location on the Embankment, but the hugely negative impact on the City cannot be ignored and an alternative solution must be found.”

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