Freeing up Fengate gets starter cash from Combined Authority

Freeing up Fengate gets starter cash from Combined Authority

To help get Peterborough traffic moving and continue to unleash the city’s potential, the Board of the Combined Authority today approved £270,000 to push forward detailed design of the Fengate Phase 1 development.

Thousands of jobs and better traffic flow will result, as the work will open up the Red Farm site as a major employment area, with a planned mixture of storage and distribution, general industry, and office units.

The Board unanimously signed off Fengate’s strategic outline business case, agreed the commencement of the Full Business Case, approving a drawdown of £270k from budget – allocated in the Combined Authority’s Medium-Term Financial Plan – to move into the design stage next month, immediately followed by public and stakeholder consultation.

Design consideration will include tree planting and landscaping, use of sustainable materials in construction, compliance with the Combined Authority’s policies on doubling nature and net zero carbon, and delivering digital infrastructure.

The primary purpose of the Fengate work is to tackle traffic congestion and reduce delay for Peterborough residents, businesses and visitors, supporting the City’s growth ambitions, and making development of the Red Brick Farm site possible.

The work will also have an added-value effect in improving traffic conditions in the wider network – reducing jams in local routes and clogging in and around Fengate. It also promises to improve road safety, reduce accidents and injury, and ease impact on the local environment, improving biodiversity.

James Palmer, Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough:

“Peterborough’s growth aspirations have been held back by peak-hour congestion in Fengate and today’s decision is great news, moving forward this exciting scheme to open up thousands of jobs at a time of uncertainty. We’ll have detailed design by the end of the year, move straight to public consultation, and onward to construction of a free-flowing layout that’s greener, cleaner, and is worthy of a future-facing city like Peterborough.”

The improvements within Package 1 consist of the following:

• Creation of a roundabout at the junction of Oxney Road / Edgerley Drain Road;
• Traffic Signal Improvements (including an initial Smart Junctions Trial) at the junction of Edgerley Drain Road / Storey’s Bar Road / Vicarage Farm Road;
• Traffic Signal Improvements at Junction 7 of the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway (A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway / Oxney Road / Eastfield Road);
• Creation of a third lane southbound on the A15 Paston Parkway approach to Junction 8 (A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway / A15 Paston Parkway / A1139 Eye Road / Parnwell Way).

A planning decision is expected shortly. It is anticipated that the package of schemes will be jointly funded by the mayoral Combined Authority and potentially, by Section 106 Developer Contributions, depending on the outcome of discussions.    Peterborough City Council will manage the Fengate project.