The Peterborough Development Corporation was established in
February 1968, as a national government initiative. It was overseen
by the Minister of Housing and Local Government but sought close
collaboration with Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council and
Peterborough City Council. This is illustrated in the appointment
of the first seven members which included Colonel Brassey and Mr
Collinson who served on the County Council and Mr Laxton and Mr
Swift on the City Council. Mr Collinson was also a member of the
Old Fletton Urban District Council.
The Corporation's task was to provide homes, work and the full
range of urban facilities and services for an extra 70,000 people,
drawn mainly from the Greater London area.
To accommodate this large expansion, an area of 15,940 acres was
designated in July 1967. The designated area included almost all of
the City of Peterborough, about half of Old Fletton Urban District
Council, large parts of Peterborough Rural District Council and
Norman Cross, and a very small part of Thorney Rural District
Council.
The Corporation's achievements in Peterborough can be summarised
as:
- investing in shopping facilities including building the
Queensgate Shopping Centre
- investing in new recreational facilities including an 800
hectare park stretching over 10km along the Nene Valley; two public
golf courses; an ice rink; indoor tennis and badminton; and a
multi-purpose sports centres
- investing in the arts
- creating the largest continuous pedestrian precinct in Britain
and an urban motorway system
- encouraging 1000 new business enterprises to come to
Peterborough and investing in business support services and
facilitating the building of 114,054 square metres of office space
on corporation land
- supporting industry by facilitating the building of 506,530
square metres of industrial floor space on corporation land
- building 10,332 new houses
- investing in landscaping by planting two million trees and
eight million shrubs
- undertaking to promote and market Peterborough as an attractive
place to live, work and invest in
The Development Corporation officially wound up in September
1988. However, by this time, the Peterborough Development Agency
had already been established as its successor to work towards
Peterborough's future prosperity. All remaining assets and
liabilities of the Corporation were transferred to the Commission
for the New Towns.
Peterborough Central Library holds a range of published material
relating to the Development Corporation within the Local Studies
Collection including annual reports, plans, and financial
statements. See the 'List of non book stock in Local Studies
Collection' for details. This list is available for consultation in
the Local Studies and Archive Room.
Peterborough Central Library also holds a series of ex
Peterborough Development Corporation files transferred to the City
Council's planning department in 1988.
The original records from the Corporation (1968-1988) have
recently been transferred to the Peterborough Archives Service from
Huntingdon Record Office. The records include:
- minutes of the board 1968-1988
- annual reports
- photographs and street maps of particular developments
- publicity material
- annual accounts
- public enquiry papers
- deeds to property 1719-1989
- administrative files
- microfilms of architects' and engineers' plans
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