Nene Park Trust has now submitted plans to Peterborough City Council for a new sports pavilion and Multi Use Games Area on the Woodlands sports pitches in Castor.
The sports pavilion will provide dedicated changing facilities, a large community space for indoor exercise activity or meetings and a kitchen which can be used by local sports teams and the local community. This will be the first building for Nene Park Trust outside Ferry Meadows, with the ambition of improving the health and well-being of more people across the city.
The plans also include a year-round Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) on site which will offer users a place for sport and recreation in all weathers throughout the year.
The Trust has worked with local architects BBA and landscape architects Sheils Flynn to produce a scheme that will sit sensitively in the surrounding landscape, meet the needs of current users, enable a more diverse range of sports participation on site and provide the community with a welcoming and accessible space for meetings, classes and events.
The sports pitches are currently used by Thorpe Wood Rangers Football Club and Bretton and Bharat Cricket Clubs. The new proposed facilities will improve the experience for these clubs and many other users across the city and local community. Castor and Ailsworth Tennis Club are planning to join Woodlands and they have well developed plans to enhance the tennis sporting offer on the site, including five artificial grass courts with environmentally-friendly floodlighting, two pickleball courts and two padel tennis courts. The courts will be open to all.
Tony Buckingham, secretary of Bretton Cricket Club says: “When the proposed state-of-the-art clubhouse is built, Woodlands will once again become the flagship that all sports centres will look up to by providing sports and leisure facilities that will be second to none, in a safe and picturesque environment.”
Jonathan Bigham from Cricket East says, “These facilities are so vital for the Peterborough sporting community in helping to bring people together and to help develop and enhance the excellent current provision that is currently offered at Woodlands.”
Andrew MacDermott, Deputy CEO of Nene Park Trust states that “Nene Park Trust is delighted to be one step closer to realising the vision at Woodland for local sporting clubs and communities. Securing the site in 2017 we were able to protect this valued green space to ensure long term sustainable activity on the site in line with our charitable objectives. The new building and Multi-Use Games Area will provide facilities for a diverse range of activity and sport enabling the Woodlands site to be fit for purpose today and in the future”.
More information on these plans along with further images and FAQs can be found at www.nenepark.org.uk/woodlands-sports-facilities
