Hopes for city centre revamp in Spending Review

A project to transform a city centre station and the area around it may be on the cusp of getting funds from the government for construction to begin.

On Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her Spending Review, which will confirm how much money the government plans to invest in infrastructure projects.

There are hopes that £48m of funding for a new Station Quarter in Peterborough will be approved, weeks after the government approved the project.

The city's MP, Andrew Pakes, said: "It shows what Peterborough can achieve when we work together."

Pakes said he was "one of the most regular commuters" at the station, but thought the building was "sad and tired".

He said: "It's not just about a new station building, it's about freeing up all this land around us so we can get some cafes, we can get some housing, we can get some business investment in the city as well."

Peterborough City Council, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, Network Rail and LNER have been working on the Station Quarter project for more than five years.

They estimate it will cost £65m to refurbish the existing station building and create new paths for pedestrians to get to the city centre more easily.

The £48m expected to come from the government, which approved a full business case for the project in May, is needed before works can begin.

Chris Skivington from Network Rail has been working on the plans for Station Quarter – and was hopeful about what could "really happen around this place".

He said: "You're confronted with a sea of surface car parks as soon as you come out of the station.

"It's difficult to find your way around the city [with] a maze of underpasses and dark and dimly lit avenues and small streets."

The plan is to refurbish the station by making it easier to navigate and building a new entrance to ease congestion around the building.

A surface car park outside the station will be turned into a pedestrianised public area, with cafes, benches and green spaces, and a path that takes people to the city centre.

Diane and Rod Walker were visiting Peterborough for the day and said they generally had a good impression of the city.

"I think it's nice," said Mrs Walker.

"It's clean, it's tidy you know," said Mr Walker.

They disagreed, however, over whether £65m should be spent on regenerating the station and its surroundings.

"There's so many other things needing attention in this country," said Mrs Walker.

Mr Walker said: "If it makes Peterborough, brings it up to date, I think it could be a good idea."

Commuter Victoria Procter said the area around the station was "overwhelming" and welcomed the idea of improving it.

"I don't really go into the city itself, I wouldn't know where to start.

"If there was some path that led you in that would be really helpful," she said.

Paul Bristow, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and a former Peterborough MP, said people had been talking about city centre regeneration since he was a schoolboy.

"These things do take time," he said.

"If we can get the Station Quarter going it's the real catalyst to generate North Westgate, something we've been talking about since I was a kid.

"This is the first step."

Works are set to begin in the autumn and construction is expected to take three years.

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