A coalition for Peterborough's riverside
The Embankment is Peterborough's front garden. Keep it green.
We are a partnership of local organisations and residents who believe Peterborough's largest city centre greenspace should be protected, improved and enjoyed by everyone. Not concreted over for a stadium that belongs somewhere else.
Who we are
Organisations pulling in the same direction
The Peterborough Embankment Partnership brings together private, public and voluntary sector organisations. We do not all agree on everything. We agree on this: the Embankment's future should be greener, more useable and more loved, and its open space should stay open.
Why it matters
What one field does for a whole city
The Embankment is around 70 acres of open riverside at the heart of Peterborough. It works quietly for the city every single day.
Health and wellbeing
City centre residents, many in flats with no garden, rely on the Embankment to walk, run, play and breathe. Access to green space is consistently linked to better physical and mental health.
A living wildlife corridor
The riverside meadow, mature trees and the Nene itself form a wildlife corridor through the city centre. Habitat lost to concrete is not recovered by planters on a concourse.
Future flood defence
The Embankment is a future river floodplain. When the Nene rises, this land absorbs the water. That protection matters more every year as the climate changes, not less.
The city's events field
The Beer Festival, funfairs, concerts and community events fill the Embankment because it is a large, flexible, open space. Build on it and that flexibility is gone for good.
The setting of the Cathedral
Views of Peterborough Cathedral across open ground are part of the city's identity. A structure of stadium scale on the Embankment would permanently change that historic setting.
Cooler, cleaner air
Trees and grass cool the city centre in heatwaves, capture carbon and filter air pollution. Every acre of green ground works harder for Peterborough than an acre of tarmac.
UK’s Largest Beer Festival 2024. Picture by Terry Harris.
The stadium question
Right idea. Wrong place.
We are not against Peterborough United, and we are not against a new stadium for the city. Many of us would cheer one on. But the proposal championed by Mayor Paul Bristow puts it on the Embankment, and the practical problems with that site have never been answered.
It simply doesn't fit
Previous proposals describe a structure of roughly 140 by 160 metres and over 23 metres tall, needing at least 11.5 acres. That is most of the main field, plus access roads, servicing and hard standing. Peterborough Civic Society warned the arena would overwhelm the new university campus beside it and dominate the riverside.
Thousands of cars, nowhere to go
A venue for more than 19,000 people generates matchday and event traffic on a scale the surrounding streets were never built for. Bishop's Road is a residential road that is already congested. Concentrating that traffic, noise and exhaust at the quietest green edge of the city centre moves pollution to exactly the wrong place.
Building on tomorrow's floodplain
The Environment Agency identifies this land as a future floodplain, and its own climate change projections for 2070 to 2125 show the area the Nene will need growing, not shrinking. This is exactly the ground the city will rely on to absorb rising river levels over the lifetime of any building put on it. Hard surfaces shed water instead of soaking it up, so building here means betting against the EA's own map of where the water is expected to go.
Alternatives were never exhausted
Redevelopment of the existing London Road ground and brownfield sites around the city have never been examined with the same energy as the Embankment. A stadium can be built on land that needs regenerating. A city centre park, once lost, cannot be built anywhere.
A Boat owner is forced to wade to their boat after the river nene bursts its banks in Peterborough City Centre 2024. Picture by Terry Harris.
Our vision
Yes to a better Embankment
Protecting the Embankment does not mean leaving it alone. The space has been neglected for years, and we back sensitive investment that makes it more useable, more beautiful and more visited. The city's own Embankment Masterplan already sketched much of this out.
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Cafes, toilets and shelter
Small, well designed buildings at the park's edges: a riverside cafe, decent public toilets, covered seating. The basics that turn a field people cross into a place people stay.
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Better paths, lighting and safety
Accessible routes along the river, lighting that makes evening use feel safe, and stronger walking and cycling connections to the city centre, Fletton Quays and the university.
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Richer nature, managed for people
Wildflower meadow areas, new native tree planting, riverbank habitat restoration and interpretation that helps families discover what lives here. A greener park, not just a mown one.
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A proper home for events
Power, water and level ground for the Beer Festival, concerts and community events, so the Embankment can host more of what people love without permanent structures swallowing the space.
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A working riverfront
Moorings, a river taxi, boat hire and better links across the Nene. The river should be part of daily life in Peterborough, and none of it requires building on the green.
Get involved
This space belongs to all of us. Help keep it that way.
Decisions about the Embankment will be made in the next few years. The more of Peterborough that speaks up, the harder it becomes to sign the green away.
Write to your representatives
Tell your city councillors, your MP and the Mayor's office what the Embankment means to you and what you want for its future.
Find your representativesJoin the partnership
Community groups, businesses and organisations of every kind are welcome. Add your organisation's voice to the coalition.
Get in touch