Peterborough City Council (PCC) are set to discuss the possibility of acquiring London Road stadium - home of Peterborough United Football Club (PUFC) - as part of efforts to regenerate the city's South Bank area.

A special meeting of the full council will convene on 21 December to decide whether to press ahead with the £8m acquisition of the ground and surrounding land from current landowner Peterborough United Holdings Limited (PUHL). PUHL has agreed to offload its freehold interest in the site to the council, which will also be asked to approve plans to lease the remainder of the land to PUFC in order to allow the Coca-Cola Championship club to continue using the stadium as its home ground.

PCC leader Marco Cereste said: "Peterborough currently does not make the most of riverside areas and the acquisition of this land would allow us to make real strides forward in creating a new riverside quarter which could potentially include leisure, educational, business, residential development and community facilities to benefit all our residents. "Other towns and cities with lower league football clubs - such as Reading, Coventry, Colchester and Preston - have seen real benefits to their economies through the creation of new community stadium facilities and by purchasing this land Peterborough has the opportunity to kick start the city's regeneration."