‘Pool can be built on car park’

Historic charter would not stop development, claims council

Peterborough City Council has said there is no ruling in place to prevent a new Regional Pool being built on a city car park.

Last week the Peterborough Telegraph revealed plans to demolish the current Regional Pool building, with a preferred site being named as the Pleasure Fair Meadow car park on Oundle Road.

A number of readers contacted the PT, saying they had heard there was an order in place, dating back hundreds of years, which would prevent the site being built on so it could hold a fair.

However, a Peterborough City Council spokeswoman said: “In looking at the potential for building a new pool

and leisure centre on the Fair MeadowssiteboththeCouncil and PIP have taken extensive legal advice including using academic researchers to es

tablish howthecharterrights hadevolved betweenthe time of their grant (which is many centuries ago) and today.

“This is a complex area. A

fair charter is vested in a body (often historically a church body like an Abbey, but now in modern times more often a council). Thesecharterrights allowthatbodytohavecontrol overhowfairsandmarketsare run in an area, often naming specificdatesthattheyshould take place on. Generally, they are not location-specific, and they grant the holder of the charter (now the council) the right to hold the events widely within the city.

“We are satisfied that the charters in question do not prevent the council choosing to support other locations for fairsotherthanFairMeadows, and this then allows us to develop on the Fair Meadows location.

“It should be noted that Fair Meadows has now been a long-allocated development site in the council’s adopted local plan, so progressing for developmentisnotanewconcept.

“To ensure the continuation of a fair in Peterborough we are committed to providing a suitable area of hard standing ontheEmbankment and this is being addressed through the work we have commissioned for the master planning of that area.”

The existing regional pool and (right) the car park where a newone could be built