Tag: Peterborough City Council

Fletton Quays proposals ‘bland and indifferent’

07:08 Tuesday 8th December 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Plans for the Fletton Quays development in Peterborough lack vision and should be deferred until better plans are made. Those are the views of the Peterborough Civic Society, ahead of the decision on whether outline planning permission will be given to 280 homes, 14,000 square metres of office space and a hotel on the huge riverside plot. Peterborough City Council’s planning committee will assess the latest proposals this afternoon. This has been rumbling on for years, and the South Bank is still bare and still really a bit of an eye-sore. Back in July our reporter Will Fyfe went down to the site for a look round.
WILL FYFE: For sometime now Peterborough has been considered one of the fastest growing cities in the UK. But if you step just 500 yards outside of the busy city centre over onto the other side of the River Nene you’ll be confronted with something more like this, no cars, no people and certainly no shops. I’m stood on the South Bank of Peterborough. In theory it’s 20 acres of prime riverfront land, but in reality it’s nothing more than a derelict car park. Just over the water in front of me you can see the outline of the iconic Peterborough Cathedral. The site used to be home to a Matalan and a B&Q about ten years ago, but they decided to move across to the other side of town. And it’s very obvious standing here that in that time nature has risen up and taken back the site. There’s literally buddleia bushes about nine, ten feet high where cars should be parked in the car park. And alongside a lot of the vegetation here there’s also a darker side, graffiti, beer cans or drug paraphernalia. For all the shortcomings however, pretty soon we could see quite a big change on this side of the river. £120 million has been put on the table by investors who want to see this land become the site of more homes, offices and leisure facilities, even including a 160 bed hotel. So what would people think to such a drastic change? I caught up with June and her son, who have been walking their dog down by the site for the past decade.
JUNE: The only thing is it’s been left derelict, and it’s such a shame, because we just think, when we go to York or Lincoln and you’ve got that river and you’ve got some life on there, it’s pleasant, and it draws in the people. So there’s fors and againsts. Maybe if they did do something nice it would attract people to be on the river. It will just go to derelict rack and ruin, and I’m not being funny, and then you’ll get squatters maybe. Like I say it would be nice. It depends what was over there.
SON: They could do up maybe the trees as well and make it look a bit more better, the river front, because everything’s just overgrowing.
WILL FYFE: So describe it for us now. We’re literally stood on the opposite side.
JUNE: Just over-run with overhanging trees and bushes, innit.
WILL FYFE: If the idea makes it through planning then we could very soon see this stretch of waterfront turned from rubble in to riches.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Will Fyfe reporting there back in July. So in terms of who is responsible for these plans which have been put forward for this development, Peterborough City Council is in a joint partnership with a developer called Lucent. Together they form the Peterborough Investment Partnership. Lucent provides the funding. The City Council provides the land. They’re working together to come up with a vision for this area. However, David Turnock from the Peterborough Civic Society thinks there’s not really enough vision going on. Morning David.
DAVID TURNOCK: Good morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: What’s the problem then with these plans?
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David Sanders – costly errors and accountability at Peterborough City Council

09:23 Wednesday 25th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Today marks the end. It’s a momentous day, the end of Peterborough City Council’s solar dreams. Let’s call it that. The plan to use Grade I farming land to build a big green energy park, or a series of them. At today’s Cabinet meeting, which is underway right now, the Council will confirm they’re dropping plans for the third and final site on America Farm, the last strand of this three-pronged dream. It means all three plans are now dead in the water. But the whole venture has cost the taxpayer, you and me and everybody else, over £3 million. And not a penny’s coming back from it. The original proposal from the Council claimed the project could make millions of pounds, but the project was constantly hindered by objections from locals, reductions in the tariff from the Government, and the fact the land is right next to Flag Fen, so it needed to be excavated. Councillor David Sanders is the councillor for Thorney and Eye, and he’s with us this morning. David, morning. David morning.
DAVID SANDERS: Good morning. Can you hear me OK?
PAUL STAINTON: Yes I’ve got you now. I’ve got you now.
DAVID SANDERS: OK.
PAUL STAINTON: Now this was at one time billed as the Leader Marco Cereste’s vanity project by Stewart Jackson MP and others. There were accusations farmers weren’t listened to. I was still doing Breakfast at the time when it was first mooted. I had a lady in here crying, who’d lived on a farm for many many years, saying they’d not been consulted. Was this just a bad idea from the start? Was it a good idea that was badly managed? Or was it just a punt?
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Council admits that a costly solar energy scheme has failed

07:07 Wednesday 25th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The final chapter in Peterborough’s controversial solar farm saga is set to be written today after three years and a cost of over £3 million to the taxpayer. The proposed scheme for America Farm will join those for Newborough Farm and Morris Fen in the City Council’s history books, after being judged financially unviable. later on the Council is expected to accept proposals to drop plans for thousands of solar panels at America Farm. Sara Varey has been looking back on the solar saga.
SARA VAREY: The opening line as delivered by Council Leader Marco Cereste in October 2012 promised an annual income of £7.5 million for the next twenty five years, to be achieved through the Government’s generous feed-in tariff scheme, that offers cashbacks for generating green energy. Three Council owned plots were identified, America Farm, Morris Fen and Newborough Farm. The tenant farmers clamoured their families’ futures were in jeopardy. John Harris voiced his feelings during the debate here on Radio Cambridgeshire in December 2013.
JOHN HARRIS: It’s just absolutely devastating for the countryside and obviously for myself and my family. We’ve not had a good night’s sleep since this plan came to fruition.
SARA VAREY: Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson took on the role of clairvoyant.
STEWART JACKSON: Based on the predictions in this business plan, if the funding regime for subsidies changed drastically, that will leave Peterborough City Council taxpayers on the hook very significantly for this project.
SARA VAREY: And so it has come to pass. The Government’s enthusiasm for subsidising renewable energy has waned. In October 2014 Morris Fen and Newborough were written out of the script as financially unsustainable, and the show is now over for America Farm too. But the audience is still waiting for the punchline. How much has it all cost? Newborough resident Alex Terry says it’s time for the big reveal.
ALEX TERRY: You should release the financial data. You’re earning money to save the people of Peterborough you say. So prove it. (APPLAUSE)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Local resident of Newborough there Alex Terry finishing that report from Sara Varey. We did ask Peterborough City Council to come on this morning for a chat. They’ve sent us this statement instead. It reads: “The decision to withdraw plans for the two largest sites followed a Government announcement that it was withdrawing support from large-scale solar projects. America Farm was the scheme’s smallest site. Cabinet will this morning consider a recommendation to cease this project. This is because DECC the Department of Energy and Climate Change is set to significantly reduce the level of feed-in tariff payments to ground-mounted solar by around 80% in the New Year.” Well Dale McKean will talk to us. He was the Conservative councillor for the Eye and Thorney ward when plans were first put forward for these schemes three years ago, and he also sat on the Rural Scrutiny Committee at Peterborough City Council. Morning Dale.
DALE MCKEAN: Good morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Now did you realise .. did you realise when these schemes were mooted three years ago that these feed-in tariffs might drop off? Did you consider that as a possibility?
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MP attacks decision to shelve landlord licensing scheme

10:38 Friday 18th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Now more on housing, and in particular in Peterborough. The Conservative MP for the city has launched a scathing attack on the city’s Conservative-led council, after it performed a dramatic U-turn this week. The Council had announced plans to introduce a licence that would see landlords charged a fee in areas like Gladstone, Millfield, New England and Eastfield. The idea of the licence was to crack down on anti-social behaviour and unscrupulous landlords. Many thought that was a good idea. Critics though said it’s a bit racist, saying the Council was targeting an area which predominantly is home to Asian landlords. Well at a meeting earlier this week, the Council decided to delay the introduction of the scheme, which has annoyed our next guest. Stewart Jackson MP for Peterborough is with me now. Stewart, good morning.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: So there were criticisms that it was targeting perhaps Asian landlords in those areas. And the Council are saying look, we’ve had a look at this. The scheme is two years old. We’re going to have a consultation and perhaps bring out something bigger and better later down the line.
STEWART JACKSON: Well this is about fairness, and the fact is that it’s quite despicable, particular for Labour councillors, to play the race card. The fact is that unscrupulous landlords happen to be to some extent Asian or Pakistani heritage. It’s not aimed at Pakistani heritage people who are also landlords. And there is a distinction there. The fact is it’s a fairness issue. Why should landlords who have a vested financial interest have their own committee, their own working group, be able to turn up to influence and harangue councillors, have their own pet councillors frankly who put their view across, when vulnerable families, decent people in rented accommodation, people who’ve lived in central Peterborough for years, they don’t have a say directly to the decision makers? And I think this decision by Peterborough City Council, it’s either two things. It’s either borderline civic corruption, in other words undue coercion and pressure.
PAUL STAINTON: Because there’s a lot of councillors who own houses in the city.
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MP defends affordable homes waiver for prime development site

09:34 Wednesday 9th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: There was uproar in Peterborough yesterday after permission was given for a developer to backtrack on plans for the old Peterborough District Hospital site. You know, the thing that’s been derelict for, well, since the old Queen died. Lands Improvement Holdings had been set to pay £1.2 million to Peterborough City Council and build more than 50 affordable homes on the site. But the company claim they now can’t afford it, and at a meeting last night pleaded with councillors to reduce the amount of money to less than £1 million, AND to scrap any plans to build any affordable housing. Yes, the state this county is in, people need all these homes. They’re not going to build any affordable housing. Is that right? How do we solve this county’s housing crisis if we don’t build affordable homes? MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson, let’s get his view on it. Stewart, good morning.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Is this right?
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Council careless with personal information

07:40 Tuesday 11th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A Freeedom of Information request by the privacy group Big Brother Watch has revealed there were more than 4,000 data breaches by councils between 2011 and 2014. Around 400 of those breaches involved data being lost or stolen. Peterborough City Council recorded the fourth highest number of data breaches for a local authority with 160 incidents. Cambridgeshire County Council recorded 34. Dan Nesbitt is Research Director at Big Brother Watch. So Dan, what have you been counting up? What counts as a data breach?
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Public health budget cuts – failing council seeks protection

10:34 Tuesday 4th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHARLIE THOMPSON: Producer Ben is in the studios holding a piece of paper. That can mean only one thing.
BENOIT STEVENSON: It certainly can. We have a statement to read out. And this is in regard to the public health story we’ve been discussing. So this is proposals from the Conservative Government. They would like to slash the public health budgets for local authorities across the board, across the UK, by 6.2%. It’s just a proposal at the moment. They’re asking councils to contribute their thoughts to this proposal. In total, we’ve worked out that that will mean £2.2 million less is going to be spent in Cambridgeshire. That’s across Cambridgeshire County Council (and) Peterborough City Council. So we’ve made contact with Peterborough City Council who as well from I think the Department of Health or Public Health England had given a report saying that it was struggling in certain indicators. Fifteen out of thirty two indicators they were below the English average. And a statement from Peterborough City Council today, .. Continue reading “Public health budget cuts – failing council seeks protection”

Councils deny plans to merge

07:21 Monday 27th July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A joint team of planners shared between Fenland District Council and Peterborough City Council could save nearly £800,000 over the next three years. The shared service will be in place by January next year, after a consultation with affected staff. Simon Machin joins me. He’s Corporate Director of Growth and Regeneration at Peterborough City Council. Morning Simon.
SIMON MACHIN: Morning Chris. ..
CHRIS MANN: Now you’ve got together with Fenland. Tell us all about it.
SIMON MACHIN: That’s right. We’ve been working with Fenland District Council for probably about four years now. We help them put in place their new Local Plan. And increasingly the two councils have realised that there’s greater efficiencies to be made by working together. Both councils have got a very ambitious growth agenda, and a planning service is critical to delivering that.
CHRIS MANN: So you’ve just woken up to the fact that if you work together you could save some money.
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