The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Posh prepared to help athletics club relocate on Embankment
Peterborough United would contribute towards the costs of helping the city’s athletics club relocate as part of the club’s desire to obtain their preferred site on the embankment.
The club produced a feasibility study for their plans in 2021 but for the last few months, the planning process has been stalled with the club unwilling to commit any further funds to the project without knowing if they would be included in the masterplan.
Now they have at least been included, the club is ready to kickstart the process of gaining the right permissions and permits.
One of the main hurdles is the fact that the plan specifies that all other possible sites for an arena must be fully scrutinised and that any development on the site of the current athletics track, just off Bishop’s Road, must involve alternative facilities for the track being both identified and provided; in discussion with the club, Sport England, Peterborough City Council and England Athletics.
Mr Thompson said that the club is committed to moving to the embankment over any other sites and that the club can even see a future in which it works closely with a relocated athletics club.
“The requirement of an athletics track within any plans is exciting and aligns with the greater opportunities identified by the club and the university”.
“We would commit to some of the costs to help move the track because we think it should stay in the neighbourhood; maybe we can use it and one of the things that is super exciting is what we are planning to do with the university. If they are going into the sports and rehab industry, we would love to see all three of us closely aligned. The track with an indoor fitness facility, that we could provide, would be a real winner for everybody.
“I like to move things quickly, I’m not a patient person. I think the best thing to do right now is signal that okay, we told you we’d wait for the masterplan, we will fire things up again and get ready to go.
“We are going to do all the right things and get community engagement behind our plans, the support for a community arena in the heart of Peterborough is overwhelming.”
The club has always been committed to moving to the Embankment but that the one put forward by the masterplan was not the club’s preferred choice.
He added: “We see there as being four options on the Embankment. The first is 50m from the riverside, creating a river walk, with pubs, restaurants and green space behind it. The second is taking up about 50 percent of the current running track area. Our preferred option is somewhere between option one and two; creating positive green space in front of the river and nudging comfortably up against the university so we can do things with campus housing and student union facilities without impeding either party.
“The third is the one provided in the masterplan and the fourth is right up on Bishop’s Road but everyone realises that is a really bad idea unless we want to let the neighbourhood be dammed every time a major entertainment act is in town.”