Fengate gets £6m+ go-ahead from influential Combined Authority committee

Fengate gets £6m+ go-ahead from influential Combined Authority committee

In the latest move towards helping Peterborough fulfil its aspirations for growth, at today’s meeting of the Combined Authority’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee, members voted to recommend that the Board approve drawdown of £6,665,696 to heft the Fengate Access Study Improvement Schemes from paper to construction.

Members welcomed the completed Fengate Phase 1 Full Business Case and put their weight behind a recommendation to the Board to rocket the transformational Fengate project from necessary planning into eagerly-awaited construction.

The study area focusses north of Fengate where the 12.6 acre Red Brick Farm site is located. Red Brick Farm is the largest development and employment sector within Fengate and likely to become a vibrant and busy mix of storage, distribution, and general industrial units with ancillary office space.

The study considers Jct 7 and Jct 8 of the A1139 Fletton Parkway, which provides key access to the whole Parkway system, and ingress routes into Fengate such as Parnwell Way and Oxney Road, plus local roads within Fengate such as Edgerley Drain Road and Storey’s Bar Road.

Since the development of the schemes from Strategic Outline Business Case to Full Business Case there have been valuable active travel schemes added into the package, which aims to encourage more walking and cycling in the area and reduce unnecessary short-trip or commuter traffic.

The Fengate Access Study Improvement Schemes include:

• Traffic signal improvements at the junction of Edgerley Drain Road / Storey’s Bar Road / Vicarage Farm Road, on the Vicarage Farm Road and Storey’s Bar Road northbound approaches.
• Traffic signal improvements at Junction 7 of the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway (A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway / Oxney Road / Eastfield Road).
• Creation of a mini roundabout at Oxney Road / Newark Road.
• Improvements to Newark Road footpath.
• Creation of a new pedestrian crossing over Oxney Road, between Junction 7 and the Oxney Road / Sainsburys Roundabout.