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Community green space no longer part of local plan

Dotty McCleodand
Shariqua Ahmed,Peterborough
Shariqua Ahmed/BBC A wall with a large mural of a young girl holding up her hand to a yellow bulldozer. The child has brown eyes and blonde hair. The mural has a green background and there is a patch of grass at its front. Shariqua Ahmed/BBC
Nathan Murdoch, from Street Arts Hire, backed the campaign to stop the site from being developed by painting a mural on one of its walls

Campaigners fighting to save a community garden said they have "breathed a sigh of relief" after the council dropped plans to build homes on the site.

Forty-eight homes were earmarked for a plot that included the Green Backyard on London Road, Peterborough, under Peterborough City Council's draft local plan to help meet housing targets.

The local plan, a statutory blueprint for future development in the city, is due to go before the cabinet on Tuesday and no longer includes the site.

Lewis Vernum, a trustee of charity the Green Backyard, said: "We've had a huge amount of support and the Green Backyard has become something of an icon for the city. It would have been silly to lose it to housing."

The Green Backyard was set up in 2009 and runs several community gardening projects for adults and young people, such as the Men Shed and the community payback scheme to help people on probation.

Vernum told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire "it was amazing" to have the space back.

"It's something that the community was pushing for, trying to keep going despite the thick black cloud over our head," he added.

"We had an inclination it would be removed [from the local plan] but it is nice to have that finalised."

City oasis

Shariqua Ahmed/BBC Julie Danby and Lewis Vernum stand beside one another looking at the camera and smiling. Danby is wearing sunglasses, a black cardigan and blue-patterned dress. Vernum is standing with his hands behind his back and is wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and has a beard. They are both standing in front of greenery and photographed on a sunny day. Shariqua Ahmed/BBC
Previously Julie Danby and Lewis Vernum from the Green Backyard acknowledged a need for housing in the city but said other locations should be considered

Julie Danby, who runs the shop Refill Revolution at the site, described it as an "oasis in the middle of the city centre".

Last year, more than 600 people attended a community day to campaign against the housing plan, calling for the garden to be saved.

The draft local plan said to meet demand Peterborough needs more than 20,000 homes to be built between now and 2043, as well as 196 hectares (484 acres) of land for jobs.

If approved by cabinet, the final version of the local plan will be subject to a six-week public consultation before being submitted to the government.

Numan Ali Iqbal, the city council's cabinet member for growth and regeneration, said local plans formed "the heart" of future planning decisions and "thanked" residents for taking part in the consultations.

Shabina Qayyum, the leader of Peterborough City Council, said: "After extensive listening to local residents, parish councils and holding of workshops, we have asked officers to work on focusing on the city centre, where we are looking to increase the number of homes to help revitalise what the heart of the city is, so we are no longer looking to include as many homes within our more rural areas."

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