Essential to build the bridge

The tremendous news that the Arts Council has awarded Peterborough City Council £490,000 to help transform Whitworth Mill on Fletton Quays merely reinforces the need for a pedestrian/cycle bridge to be built spanning the areas between this exciting new development and the Key Theatre embankment.

Potential landing areas have already been identified on both sides of the river but currently prohibitive cost is given as a reason for the project not to go ahead.

Surely this scheme, one that would command overwhelming support from both existing and prospective residents, is ripe for joint working between the City Council, new Cambridgeshire Mayor’s office and the Fletton Quays developers.

A bridge would provide a physical manifestation of joined-up thinking and the city’s commitment to innovation, soon to be reinforced by the establishment of a new university for the city.

The new bridge would tie in well with the new Bishops Road improvements and provide residents and visitors alike with an attractive way from the south of the river into the city centre.

It would provide a safe alternative route to the already congested existing town bridge.

The sooner a new bridge is agreed, funded and erected the better, thus saving the great deal of time and effort which might go into the production of ‘Build The Bridge’ banners, badges and t-shirts.

If the bridge were to be agreed and started in 2018, then it could incidentally be a permanent, fitting reminder of the centenary of the end of The Great War in 1918 and could be called the Armistice or Peace Bridge.

To all concerned the message is clear and simple, a new bridge is no longer desirable, it is essential: Build The Bridge! Toby Wood

Vice Chair Peterborough Civic

Society