Month: May 2012

Leveson – Hunt Takes the Stand

08:34 Thursday 31st May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: It could be make or break for the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt today. He’s giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry into press standards, amid calls for his removal over the handling of that planned takeover of BSkyB. Let’s speak to Paul Rowley, our political correspondent. Morning Paul
PAUL ROWLEY: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Ooh, this is the day we’ve been waiting for, isn’t it? Continue reading “Leveson – Hunt Takes the Stand”

Horse Welfare in the Racing Industry

09:08 Tuesday 29th May 2012
Mid-Morning Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: An animal rights group has announced that one of the country’s leading jockeys has experienced twenty of his horses die during or after a race over the past five years. Animal Aid researched the figures, refuelling the debate over whether horse racing is cruel, and of course with Newmarket the HQ of flat racing, Huntingdon racecourse as well, the jump venue on our doorstep, horses falling is something that occurs fairly regularly in our county. They call it “the grim toll” on the racecourse, and they say that A.P.McCoy has had 3987 rides in the last five years, and that there have been twenty fatalities of horses during that period that he has ridden, one every 199 rides. But he is not the worst in terms of statistics. That is Ruby Walsh, another very famous rider, of course, who has had just over 1000 rides that they surveyed, with nine fatalities, and that is one every 116 rides. Well earlier I spoke to the man who compiled the figures, Dene Stanshall from Animal Aid. Continue reading “Horse Welfare in the Racing Industry”

Posh Ground Upgrade Stalled as Council Dithers

07:07 Monday 28th May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Let’s start at London Road, and see if we can find out when the ground improvements are going to be sorted out. The Moyes End Stand of course, as we well know, was to be demolished. It should have already started. It should have already been gone. But it isn’t. So what’s going on? Let’s speak to Paul Froggitt. He’s a board member for the Posh Supporters’ Trust. Morning Paul.
PAUL FROGGITT: Good morning to you Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: What’s going on?
PAUL FROGGITT: I wish I knew. And I hope, maybe by the end of today, you might be able to find out. All different stories, the story keeps changing and changing about when the work’s going to start. And nothing seems to be decided. I was a bit surprised by the comment that I just heard, which I didn’t know anything about before, that the Council have said that they’re negotiating with the Club. I don’t really see why negotiations with the Club are necessary. They’ve got to assess a tender and award a tender to the successful contractor.
PAUL STAINTON: Let’s just go back then. This was supposed to have happened already a couple of times, wasn’t it? The stand was supposed to have already been knocked down. Continue reading “Posh Ground Upgrade Stalled as Council Dithers”

Weekly Edition and App. for the Peterborough Telegraph

07:21 Friday 25th May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: It was first published in 1961 at the Advertiser’s offices in Cumbergate, and it’s no more. The Peterborough Evening Telegraph weekly from tomorrow. It’s the last ever daily paper tomorrow. The changes mean readers will be able to subscribe to daily news via the internet, as well as get their weekly bumper edition on a Thursday. Well Roger Parry is the former Chairman of the Johnston Press, which owns the ET. He says, with the service going weekly and on-line, it’s meant people have lost their jobs. (TAPE)
ROGER PARRY: Very significant job cuts, unfortunately, both in terms of journalists and obviously in terms of advertising sales people and printers. Those jobs are probably never coming back, simply because the advertising that used to be there for the daily paper is never coming back. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Exciting times ahead for the new paper and the on-line version. Mark Edwards is the Editor of the ET. He’s with us now. Morning Mark.
MARK EDWARDS: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: As I said, exciting times ahead, but sad day as well, not just for the loss of the ET, but also some people are losing their jobs today. Continue reading “Weekly Edition and App. for the Peterborough Telegraph”

Your Job – To Take The Blame When Things Go Wrong

07:20 Wednesday 23rd May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: A new department has been created by Peterborough City Council to liaise with the organisation responsible for the services that we’ve outsourced. I know it’s confusing, but we’ll sort it out in a minute. Four new positions have been advertised, but they could cost you about 140 grand a year. Do we need another layer of bureaucracy? Or is it necessary for all the city’s services to run like a well-oiled machine, that we need to emply people to put the oil on? Let’s get the opinion of Liberal Democrat councillor Darren Fower. .. So, as I understand it, we’re creating a department for services that we don’t run anymore.
DARREN FOWER: That’s basically it, isn’t it? I think this is a massive indicator to show that the decision by this administration in regards to flogging off the important services to the private organisations isn’t working out. And this is going to be a massive kick in the teeth to the hundreds of council workers who’ve lost their jobs in recent years, and also to some of those who’ve been transferred to these organisations who I understand are having a bit of a torrid time.
PAUL STAINTON: I’m pleased to say that with me in the studio is councillor Matthew Dalton, the Cabinet Member for Communications. .. We’re creating a department to look after things that we don’t run any more. You can understand why some people might be a bit taken aback by that.
MATTHEW DALTON: Well I can understand why Darren thinks that this is an easy hit on the administration. It sound something nice, you can come on the radio ..
PAUL STAINTON: No. I’m confused. Me too. Continue reading “Your Job – To Take The Blame When Things Go Wrong”

Flogging a Dead Horse – The Collapse of City Centre Shopping

PAUL STAINTON: It doesn’t help I suppose that there’s a lot of empty shops in Queensgate at the moment. How far has footfall gone down do you think?

CHRISTINA WRIGHT SHOPKEEPER: I think it’s gone down by about a third. Although the trouble is they give you figures which suggest different. Because how they measure the footfall is, as you know, there are several entrances to Queensgate. Thay have infra-red sensors on the doors, and they measure it by mobile phone signals and all different manner of measurements that they use. Unfortunately, Queensgate, like many shopping centres in city centres is used as a commute. So people will go from one end of the shopping centre , use it as a cut through to get to the other side, to get to where they want to be. So they’ll get counted going in and out of an exit twice, when in fact they haven’t actually dwelled. So it’s the dwell time I think that needs to be worked on by these centres, in terms of keeping people at the centre for longer.
PAUL STAINTON: When you spoke to Queensgate about the level of empty shops as well, which obviously puts people off, what did they say to you then? Are they just waiting for Primark to open?
CHRISTINA WRIGHT SHOPKEEPER: Yes. That’s the main thing. We’re waiting for Primark to open. That’s going to be a big attraction. Stick with it, and all the rest of it. Well listen, if you want to subsidise my business by about £500 a week then I’ll stick with it. But if you can’t do that I can’t. .. Two things happened. Last September, when the kids went back to school from school holidays, it’s almost like someone switched the lights off in retail. Because noticeably, across the whole country, not just Peterborough, every shopping centre just went dead. It’s not really recovered from that. .. Even Starbucks, they’re closing 80 Starbucks stores up and down the country. If a coffee chain cuts costs and closes shops then you know that there’s an issue.

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Peterborough Council Management Numbers Rise as Worker Numbers Fall

Here’s the text: “Peterborough is growing fast. The vibrant city centre is bustling with shops and restaurants and the city is surrounded by green open spaces and sites of archaeological interest. With thousands of new homes being built, the plans for the future are exciting and dynamic. Peterborough City Council’s new Strategic Client Service is the council’s front line for dealing with companies responsible for delivering key services to our communities. Services such as refuse collection, culture and leisure and back office functions such as IT, finance and HR. We’re looking for four exceptional people who are not daunted by change and pace; who are happy liaising with local service managers and senior directors at a national level. You will also look after pivotal projects such as Waste 2020 and Superfast Broadband. Working together with partners such as Serco, Vivacity and Enterprise – these are local roles working with national companies.”
Advertised here.

Peterborough Council has outsourced almost all of its functions without reducing the number of head honchos running the departments. Now it seems they need another four people at £50K each to do business with the companies they sold off the functions to.

They are obsessed with aggrandisement, puffing up like turkey cocks.

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Growth Cities Network

If, like many of us you don’t read the Financial Times behind its paywall, you will have missed an item entitled UK Cities Seek Powers to Boost Growth.

This tells us that group of smaller towns and cities seek additional powers and money from central government to “help the economic performance of the entire country.”

 

Continue reading “Growth Cities Network”