As a trustee of the Green Backyard, which is located at the top of Oundle Road, just next to Apex House, I was appalled to see that the site is currently earmarked for development for 48 houses.
The Green Backyard, is a treasured community green space in Peterborough city centre that embodies the very spirit of sustainability, wellbeing, and community resilience.
The Green Backyard is home to a rich network of grassroots organisations, including Project Abundance’s educational market garden, Where The Wild Ones Learn Forest School, Refill Revolution, Men’s Shed, Udgam, and the Community Bike Workshop. These projects contribute to key environmental and social goals: reducing waste, supporting mental health, teaching vital life skills, improving wellbeing, and creating a stronger, more connected community.
This is not just a green space — it’s a living example of what a sustainable, inclusive, and forward-thinking city looks like. The Green Backyard complements and strengthens the Council’s ambitions around climate action, public health, and community empowerment.
One of the lessons learnt from the 2019 Covid pandemic was the value we need to place on our green open spaces, especially in urban areas of high density housing, there are already a great deal of housing in the area: Apex House, Springview Apartments, Fletton Quays and Cubitt Way to name a few.
There are also plans to develop 100 homes at Pleasure Meadows Car Park, and 67 on the former Cherry Tree pub site. The Green Backyard isn’t just a green open space it is a community area with events and activities for people to get involved with, think of it more as a community centre without walls.
So now the plea, please visit the Green Backyard website at www.thegreenbackyard.com/protect-the-green-backyard/ and help us to protect the Green Backyard. This page will also give you links to the whole of the draft local plan, interactive map of the sites being considered and a link to the page where you will be able to have your say on the Local Plan.