The new landlord of the Crown Pub in Millfield, Brian Gascoyne, appears as part of the People’s Panel on the Peterborough Breakfast Show to talk about how the Comprehensive Spending Review might affect the local economy. Here he talks about changes seen to the local area and what further reductions in spending might mean.
08:20 Thursday 21sat October 2010
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
PAUL STAINTON: Brian, as a self-employed local businessman, this is going to have a massive impact on pubs and things like that, that you own, and yet the Government are saying that we can afford to lose all these public sector jobs because the private sector will pick up the slack. Can you see that?
BRIAN GASCOYNE: No. I think if you want to look at the lack of public services you’ve just got to look at Millfield. That’s it really. Millfield, New England, ..
PS: For people that don’t live there, what do you mean by that?
BS: You’ve got a massive, massive problem in the whole of the area, which has been left to run down. When you don’t clean up the streets you get graffiti, all sorts of places being run down. Peterborough, Millfield today, Longthorpe tomorrow.
PS: You’re saying that if these cuts do go through, which they probably will, this will be the response really? This will be how Peterborough will be, spreading around the city.
BS: And no good sending them to prison because they’ll come back there. We’re going to end up with an increase in crime. We’re going to end up, all these services that are being cut back on we’re going to have to rely on. And if we can pay the private sector for it, then why can’t we have it cheaper and keep it as this? We’ve got to have cuts, but they don’t have to be so deep and so quick. They need to be taken over a lot longer period ..
PS: What is it like on the streets of Millfield at the moment Brian? Is it, after dark, you’ve got to be careful where you go? And you mentioned it will get worse. Will it?
BG: Yes. I can answer in one syllable. It is getting worse. We can go on about Millfield and New England all day.
PS: Well it’s not just there. There are other parts of Peterborough we all know about that we wouldn’t walk after eight, nine o’clock at night.
BG: I’m afraid that even though I’ve walked in many streets, and many places and many cities, Millfield is now not a place I want to walk. And I think it’s going to get worse.
PS: Well if there’s less police officers around ..
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