Alice Kershaw - Heritage Regeneration Officer for Opportunity Peterborough

Peterborough has a wide ranging variety of heritage, from cultural to built, comprising large stately homes and halls, evidence of medieval land boundaries, scheduled monuments, personality houses, museums, archaeology sites, bronze age settlements, Napoleonic prisoner of war camps, and railways. They make up a broad and valuable resource available to the people who live in the city and the surrounding area.

My post was created by Opportunity Peterborough, with funding from CLG, Peterborough City Council and English Heritage for two years to ensure that heritage plays its full role in the regeneration and growth of Peterborough, and perceptions of the city. It is a unique post; similar roles have existed in two other cities before, but not led by their urban regeneration companies.

My line manager is Steve Bowyer from Opportunity Peterborough. Opportunity Peterborough was established in 2005 to drive forward the regeneration and growth of Peterbrough. Among its objectives are to create a vibrant and attractive city centre - but that should be at the heart of a bigger and better Peterborough, and I will be looking forward to working with groups across both the rural and urban area. I was particularly interested in this role due to the potential of Peterborough to recognise and use the city’s heritage as a valuable part of its future.

It is important that heritage is seen as part of regeneration and not in opposition to it: it is not an either/ or situation or a compromise, but one in which there are a lot of benefits in combining the economic regeneration of the city with the existing heritage assets. Regeneration can be led by the existing fabric of the city, to create a sense of place and a city identity which is connected firmly to its past. Heritage needs to underpin and inform regeneration in order to create pride in the city.

Alice Kershaw