The final cost for maintenance on the Cathedral Square fountains has yet to be established. Reporter Lynnette Moore goes out in Cathedral Square to find out what people think of them. Broadcast at 07:35 on Thursday 24th June 2010 in the Peterborough Breakfast Show hosted by Paul Stainton on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
PAUL: Yesterday we had a chat to Gavin Elsey from Peterborough City Council. He’s the Council’s Cabinet Member for Regional and Business Management. You may remember I asked him why the cost of maintaining the fountains had risen to thirty thousand pounds, and more than double the first estimate. This is what he said. Remember? (TAPE)
GAVIN: The honest answer to that Paul is that I don’t know. I can find out for you, and I’m happy to come back on your show to discuss that.(LIVE)
PAUL: That’s right. The Cabinet Member for Regional and Business Management didn’t know why the cost had doubled, but he did say he’d come back on when he knew. We rang him yesterday. Can’t come on today. But we’re not giving up. We will find out why the cost of maintaining the fountains has doubled, and on Monday, hopefully, Gavin will have an answer for us. We’ll wait and see. Councillor Elsey also said this in praise of the fountains. (TAPE)
GAVIN: Not only are people enjoying the fountains for what they are but they’re also bringing back a sense of community into Cathedral Square, because people are sitting and congregating and having their lunch. (LIVE)
PAUL: In view of that we sent our reporter Lynette, work experience girl, out into Cathedral Square, and she wandered up to them and before asking them how much they thought the fountains cost to maintain, she asked them … what are you going on about? (TAPE) (OB)
P1: I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else.
P2: Soothing isn’t it.
P3: I think the kids enjoy them, so I think it’s worth it at the end of the day.
P4: I think they’re quite good myself.
P5: I personally would like to see it when it’s all finished, a little bit more decoration like flowers and things, because I think it looks a bit on the bare side.
P6: It brings a bit of excitemnent to town as well.
P7: We were talking about .. I don’t know what you call them …
P8: ..those two bits of fenced off, why those two bits are fenced off. I just wondered what had gone wrong, already.
P9: Good playground for children, and watch the children like this one, running on a nice hot day, keeping cool, really enjoying themselves. Peterborough has done itself proud.
LYNETTE: And in light of the news of how much the fountains are costing per year to run, how much do you think they should be costing? Or how much would you guess they might cost per year?
P1: A thousand? More? Two, three, four thousand?
P2: To maintain? Fifty thousand.
P3: They’re worth far more than they cost for the sheer enjoyment they provide.
P4: It is a lot of money to keep some fountains. I mean, obviously I don’t know the structure and what goes on to make it happen.
P5: Probably forty thousand a year at least. What I would like to know is is the water recycled?
P6: The kids enjoy them, so I think it’s worth it at the end of the day.
P7: It is a lot of money, a lot of money that could obviously go into other things like education. (STUDIO) (LIVE)
PAUL: Various opinions then in Cathedral Square, Lynette our reporter out there asking the questions. One particular question, is the water recycled? I think most of it is, but when it gets too low they turn on the tap, and they just put tap water in. That’s according to our information.
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