Five stories you might have missed in Peterborough

A mosque unveiled its plans for a new community centre in Peterborough and the city's Norman cathedral held its first sleep out to support homeless people.

Here are five stories you might have missed from Peterborough this week.

A mosque that has been seeking to buy a council-owned site has unveiled its plan to build a community centre on the land.

Peterborough City Council wants to sell the New England Complex as part of plans to reduce its debts.

The Masjid Khadijah mosque identified itself as the successful bidder. The site houses a Hindu temple, which has secured a High Court injunction to temporarily halt the site's sale after its bid was unsuccessful.

Peterborough could "make its own city of culture" after it failed to make the longlist for UK City of Culture 2029, a theatre director said.

Arts and culture groups in Peterborough said that while the city would not receive the £10m prize, putting forward a bid has "built momentum, ambition and confidence".

Louise Chantal, the director of The Cresset Theatre, said: "Just going through the process was very positive and good things will come of it."

More than 50 people braced the cold and slept in the nave of Peterborough Cathedral for the Light Project Peterborough charity.

The event raised more than £25,000 for the charity, which offers support to rough sleepers at its day centre in the city called The Garden House.

A litter picking "addict" warned that strict recycling centre rules could be worsening fly-tipping in the city after he was told by staff at Fengate Household Recycling Centre that depositing his old car seats was against the rules, despite the tip accepting chairs.

"If I was the sort of person who didn't care about the environment, I could easily have left it fly-tipped," Mark Fishpool said.

Peterborough City Council said non-household waste could not be accepted at the site.

A charity has been looking for volunteers with Eastern European and South Asian backgrounds to raise awareness of kidney disease in their communities.

Kidney Research UK said more than 18,000 people were estimated to be living with the illness in Peterborough.

The charity wanted to recruit more "peer educators", who would receive training to enable them to help people understand the risks and take steps to protect their kidneys.

Peterborough City Council said it "accepts responsibility for the concerns raised" after a secure children's care home it runs was deemed inadequate by Ofsted. The regulator said Clare Lodge failed to protect a child from serious risk of harm.

Meanwhile, councillors heard that Peterborough was within "touching distance" of the national average for school results across primary and secondary education due to improvements. But an expanding population could mean more children were needing places at schools in the city than were available.

The council promised to fix broken lights at a skatepark in Hampton Hargate that have not been working since August by the end of the month. Its leader, Shabina Qayyum, also issued a plea for people to use their local libraries after confirming under-threat facilities would no longer close.

Peterborough United interrupted a five-match winless streak after beating Rotherham 5-0 in League One. Young striker David Kamara scored twice from the penalty spot with Kyrell Lisbie, Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Archie Collins also on target.

Peterborough Sports are unbeaten in their last two games having won against Alfreton and drawn with Marine. The Turbines are still in the National League North relegation zone, two points from safety.

Peterborough United Women beat Stourbridge 8-0 to return to the top of the Division One Midlands. Jake Poole's side are now two points clear of Boldmere St Michaels with a game in hand. The two sides face each other this weekend.

Cameron Hough set a new National League goalscoring record as Phantoms beat rivals MK Lightening 8-3. The Canadian scored his 62th goal of the season at the end of the second period to break Kieran Brown's record. He added another goal in the third period.

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