Peterborough United: Petitions for and against stadium plans

London Road has been home Peterborough Unite since the club was formed in 1934

Rival petitions have been set up for and against a football club's plan for a new 20,000 all-seater stadium.

Peterborough United wants to build a new ground, with the city's Embankment the preferred site, across the river from its existing London Road ground.

Supporters of the development said it would allow the club to stay in the city centre "where it belongs".

But opponents said the stadium and the new university would leave "very little public green space left".

The petition to the city council to "save Peterborough Embankment" has been signed by 874 people, and the associated Facebook group has 1,700 members.

David Turnock, chairman of the Peterborough Civic Society, said the group was not opposed to a new stadium in the city centre but it should be elsewhere.

He said: "Unfortunately the Embankment is the green lung which we don't make enough of in the city.

"We haven't been using that open space enough as we should, it's a great opportunity [to use the space] and it would be a crying shame to lose it now."

Peterborough United secured promotion to the Championship - England's second tier - last season

A petition in support of the new stadium plans has more than 3,300 signatures on an e-petition website.

Davide Broccoli, a Posh season ticket holder, supports the new stadium plans, saying "it would be great for everybody and it would bring income into the city".

"If that piece of land was so important why hasn't anybody done anything with it?" he added.

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London Road has been home to the Championship side since the club was formed in 1934, and has a capacity of 15,314.

A so-called "memorandum of understanding" has been agreed with Peterborough City Council to find suitable land for a new ground.

Conservative leader of the council, Wayne Fitzgerald, said: "Any proposition that is put to the council that sees a commercial return to the council, that is fully secured and guaranteed, we would be stupid not to take advantage of making money for the council for our budget."

In an open letter to the protesting group, the football club's co-owner R Stewart Thompson said he respected their position but the club would be using "leading edge of green technologies" when building on the open space and he saw the "Embankment as the embodiment of Peterborough's heart".

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