City centre in line for new £1.2m anti-terror measures

Peterborough City Council plans to install "terror mitigation" measures in the city centre

Anti-terror measures costing £1.2m are set to be installed in a city centre.

Peterborough City Council plans to install the features to protect residents and businesses after an audit identified “areas of weakness in case of a terrorist attack on the city centre”.

The council gave no further details of the measures due to “the sensitive nature of the project”.

It is one of three projects set to benefit from £8.1m in approved funding for highways services in the council’s 2023-24 budget.

The council will spend £300,000 on carriageway surface dressing to upgrade roads including the A16 in Eye and A15 in Glinton

A total of £6m has been allocated to the largest of the three projects, which will see Cygnet Bridge built over the River Nene, connecting Fletton Quays and the Embankment for pedestrians and cyclists.

The smallest, allocated £1m, is for repairs to roads damaged by extreme weather, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

More than half of this will go towards potholes, while just under £1m will go towards street lighting.

A further £300,000 will be spent to resurface the A16 in Eye and A15 in Glinton, while £284,000 will go towards footway treatments in Glinton, Stanground and Westwood.

Traffic calming

Several small footbridges will be replaced in Werrington Park and Baron Court while the Westfield Road retaining wall will also benefit from £1.2m allocated to bridge improvements.

Finally, £1.235m will be spent on general improvements including city centre cycle storage lockers, electric vehicle charging points and enhancing the Queensgate bus station and its accessibility.

Several traffic calming measures will also be added to the city including speed cushions on Elmfield Road in Dogsthorpe, a traffic island on Buckland Close in Bretton, a one-way system on Millstone Lane in Barnack and widening the footway on the Mayor’s Walk in the city centre.

All of these projects are due to begin in the 2024/25 financial year and will be carried out by Milestone Infrastructure Limited, which has been contracted by the council.

Officers have recommended the council's cabinet sign the projects off at a meeting on 11 March.

It will also be asked to sign off plans for a separate £6.83m pot of funding for highways which has come via the Department for Transport.