Confusion over Peterborough community centre

There has been what I can only describe as a breakdown in communication between the East of England Development Agency (Eeda) and Peterborough Council over plans for a new community centre.

I initially attempted to do a news story on the subject but had to abandon it in the end because I couldn’t find an angle and it was too difficult to describe.

A blog, however, would allow me greater flexibility to tell this slightly bizarre tale.

So here I go…

It all started last year when Eeda awarded £1.35m from its Investing in Communities scheme to the proposed John Mansfield Centre in the Dogsthorpe area of Peterborough.

The building, previously a school that closed in 2007, was to include a hub for community enterprise, vocational training opportunities, a ‘sustainable centre’ to improve public services, and facilities for local police.

This is where it starts getting complicated.

Despite being promised the funding, Peterborough Council is claiming that budget reductions at Eeda, along with the ‘complex nature’ of the project, means that the full amount of funding may not now be available.

As a result, the authority is putting together alternative and probably cheaper arrangements for the community.

How the council decided the cash has dried up remains a bit of a mystery, however.

Eeda said it hadn’t even received a completed business case or an application for funding for the centre.

Many local residents, like myself, must be scratching their heads over why the council thinks the regional development agency is short of cash when Eeda has said nothing of the sort.

One councillor was especially upset that the centre may now be shelved.

Bella Saltmarsh, who represents Dogsthorpe, was quoted in the local media as saying she felt sick with disappointment, adding that some locals were in tears.