Month: June 2012

Councillors Bicker Over Committee Places

07:08 Tuesday 19th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: A meeting has been held to discuss how the health services which will be inherited by Peterborough City Council next year will be dealt with in the future. The Council will run some of the services currently being operated by NHS Peterborough, when the Trust is abolished next year. Well Nick Sandford is Leader of the LibDems. He was at yesterday’s meeting. We need to start by simplifying this and clarifying it. What services will the City Council be running when it comes over to them next year?
NICK SANDFORD: Good morning Paul. What’s happening is there’s going to be a split really. The Primary Care Trust is being abolished from April 2013. The commissioning services that the Primary Care Trust used to fulfil will go to these new GP consortia, whereas the actual public health responsibilities, that’s the development of a public health strategy, control of drugs, that sort of thing, that will go over to Peterborough City Council. And that aspect of it is something I very much support.
PAUL STAINTON: What are you unhappy about then? Continue reading “Councillors Bicker Over Committee Places”

Labour Man for Police Commissioner

17:18 Monday 18th June 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Labour has unveiled its list of candidates for elections to appoint new police commissioners in England and Wales. Here in Cambridgeshire it’s Ed Murphy, a Peterborough City councillor and former Chair of the Joint Cambridgeshire District and County Crime Reduction Panel. Elections in 41 forces’ areas will take place in November, when the current police authorities will be scrapped. The new commissioners will have the power to hire and fire chief constables, hold them to account, and set the forces’ budgets. The Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says any of their candidates who are selected will first try to reverse some of the cuts in police numbers. .. Ed, good evening to you.
ED MURPHY: Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: So you want to be the face of policing in Cambridgeshire. Continue reading “Labour Man for Police Commissioner”

Peterborough – Accessible and Affordable

08:08 Monday 18th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: This city has been described as one of the best destinations to live outside of London. For years now people from the Big Smoke have been coming here of course. Many remember the Peterborough Effect, and those great adverts from the Peterborough Development Corporation and Roy Kinnear dressed as a Roman centurion. Well now it seems that more people can be set to make the trip from London to settle here. Earlier Catherine Penman from Carter Jonas explained why our fair city was such a good place for Londoners to come to. (TAPE)
CATHERINE PENMAN: I think Peterborough is an extremely convenient commuter location. Short journey times, the second shortest of all of the various towns and cities that we included in our survey. And also, most importantly I think, house prices are relatively affordable, compared to most other commuter towns around the UK. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: We also spoke to Tina Bramhill, from the 40 Years On project in Peterborough, and she told us what the city was like before the Peterborough Development Corporation campaign in the ’70s. (TAPE)
TINA BRAMHILL: It was really considered a small market town, even though we were a city. It expanded massively. It went from around 80,000 to nearly 140,000 people. But they did expand other things alongside that. They brought in sports facilities, more schools. They had to do everything alongside that to support everybody coming in. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well how would we cope, if more people came to live in our fair city at the moment, if we had some sort of influx? Rowen Squibb is from Growborough, an independent group trying to attract private business to Peterborough, and Steve Bowyer is the Head of Economic Development of course at Opportunity Peterborough. Morning gents. Rowen, first of all, can we cope? Have we got the facilities? Have we got the houses? Have we got the infrastructure? Continue reading “Peterborough – Accessible and Affordable”

Cambs County Pensions Invested in Tobacco

17:23 Friday 15th June 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The BBC has learned that over £25 million has been invested by Cambridgeshire County Council in tobacco firms. And the region’s councils together invested more than £167 million. We learned the figures from a Freedom of Information request made by the BBC, which revealed Cambridgeshire is the fourth highest in the East. The revelation comes as those very same councils are to take on a lead role in NHS anti-smoking campaigns next year. With me now is Tariq Sadiq, Leader of the Opposition Labour Group on the County Council. Tariq, good evening to you.
TARIQ SADIQ: Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: ..Tell us what your reaction is to the news of the size of this investment, not just by Cambridgeshire County Council, but all the county councils in the East. Continue reading “Cambs County Pensions Invested in Tobacco”

Pressure Mounts for 20MPH

07:19 Thursday 14th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Campaigners in Peterborough want more of the city to be turned into 20mph zones. According to the Twenty’s Plenty campaign, traffic flows more freely at 20mph than at 30. At the moment there are around fourteen 20mph zones in Peterborough, like Hampton, and nine 20mph stretches of road, most of which are near schools. Cambridge already has a number of 20mph areas, and there is talk of the whole city having a speed limit of 20mph. Earlier I spoke to Tim Ward, the councillor in charge of planning and sustainability for Cambridge City Council, and started by asking him how many zones there are in the city. (TAPE)
TIM WARD: In Cambridge we do have a number of small 20mph zones, which mostly came about because of campaigns by people living in the areas. We’ve got a lot more people wanting 20mph zones, and we’ve decided that it’s rather expensive to go about putting in lots of little zones in response to individual campaigns, so we’re looking at seeing how much of the city’s residential areas we want to do over the next couple of years as a single large project. Continue reading “Pressure Mounts for 20MPH”

Peterborough District Hospital Land Sale Preferred Bidder Found

08:07 Wednesday 13th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: It’s taken eighteen months, but finally a bidder has been found for the former Peterborough District Hospital site. Since the new hospital opened, the old site in Thorpe Road has been empty, but now the London-based Lands Improvement Holdings are currently in negotiations with the Trust. Last month we heard how the new hospital was left with a budget shortfall of over £54 million, and was struggling to find money to continue operating. Earlier, Peterborough’s MP Stewart Jackson welcomed the news. (TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: I’m delighted, belatedly, that this project seems to be going ahead, given that, as you quite rightly say, the old Peterborough District Hospital has been empty, and the site vacated, since November 2010. You’d think with that kind of debt hanging round their necks they would have wanted to realise their capital asset as soon as possible. (LIVE)
ANDY GALL: He went on to say that Peterborough is in urgent need of housing, but residents want the right mixture of housing, and the infrastructure to support the project. (TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: Well they want a mixture of prestigious high-end homes, and they also want more modest shared-equity housing. They don’t want lots of social rented flats near the station. They want the transport infrastructure looked at. (LIVE)
ANDY GALL: Nigel Hards is the Chairman of the Hospital Trust, and we can speak to him now. Good morning Nigel.
NIGEL HARDS: Morning Andy.
ANDY GALL: Why such a delay in getting to this point? Continue reading “Peterborough District Hospital Land Sale Preferred Bidder Found”

Peterborough Children’s Services – The Interim Report

07:07 Tuesday 12th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: It was revealed at a scrutiny committee meeting last night the full extent of the problems faced by Peterborough Children’s Services. Nearly 100 complaints were made last year, and 677 referrals were not dealt with within the ten days target time, between April 2011 and 2012. The latest report on Peterborough’s troubled Children’s Services Department was discussed by councillors last night. The report also highlighted that Children’s Services was in much better shape now, and had improved dramatically. Malcolm Newsam is the Head of Children’s Services at Peterborough City Council, and he told me that they are happy with the progress being made. Continue reading “Peterborough Children’s Services – The Interim Report”

Crossing the Line – Government Targets Urban Blight

07:55 Monday 11th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: People who turn their gardens into rubbish dumps could be given on the spot fines of £100. It’s a Government proposal which would apply to privately owned homes in the city as well as social housing. Our reporter Samantha Appleby is in one part of Peterborough which suffers with some scruffy gardens.
SAM APPLEBY: I’m standing outside a house in the centre of Peterborough this morning, and it’s quite a sight to behold. Continue reading “Crossing the Line – Government Targets Urban Blight”