Secret Deal Fears on Hospital Site

07:07 Thursday 2nd June 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

SUZIE ROBERTS: The Trust who runs Peterborough’s hospital has announced plans to cut around 300 jobs. The news came at a budget meeting yesterday, as Peterborough and Stamford Hospital Trust look to address a possible £38 million overspend this year. Well speaking on yesterday’s Drivetime programme, John Randall, Medical Director at Peterborough City Hospital explained how the Trust had come into difficulties. (TAPE)
JOHN RANDALL: It’s come about for a variety of reasons really. Our income has remained relatively static, if not gone down. Our costs have actually increased, and we’ve increased the numbers of staff over the last two or three years. We’re also having some services commissioned less from our purchasers, and also the additional costs of moving in to our new PFI hospital. (LIVE)
SUZIE ROBERTS: So now the The Trust could be forced to arrange a loan or extension of its overdraft to help address the issue. That could then be paid off using funds raised by the sale of the old PDH site. Well here to explain the situation and give us his thoughts is the MP for Peterborough, Stewart Jackson. Morning to you Stewart. This is a very tricky situation, isn’t it. We’ll get to the proposed solution in a minute, but first of all, your reaction to the news of job losses, 300 job losses. Continue reading “Secret Deal Fears on Hospital Site”

Peterborough Library Hours Cut

07:20 Wednesday 1st June 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

SUZI ROBERTS: New opening hours, as we’ve been hearing in the news, have come into effect at Peterborough’s libraries, or they will come into effect later on. Every library in the city will see their hours cut, except Central Library. Well Vivacity hopes the changes will save them £171,000 a year. So Heather Walton is Head of Libraries at Vivacity, and she joins me now. Heather, let me just get this right. Central Library hours aren’t affected, but the big libraries at Orton, Bretton and Werrington are being reduced in terms of their hours. How will their times be reduced from today?
HEATHER WALTON: Their hours will be reduced from forty four and a half hours opening per week down to thirty seven opening hours per week. The Central Library hours remain the same, because they get over half a million visits every year, and make up nearly half of all the visits to all the libraries across the city. Continue reading “Peterborough Library Hours Cut”

Free Kicks Foundation – On the Road Again

17:20 Friday 27th May 2011
Drivetime BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY BURROWS: The League One play-off final is just a couple of days away, and we first talked to this group of Posh fans last night. They’ve decided to kill some time with a walk round the football grounds of London. It was organised long before the final was switched to Old Trafford, but they’re doing it anyway. Let’s see how they’r getting on. It’s all in aid of the Free Kicks Foundation. The founder of the charity is the Posh fan Steve Thorpe. He’s on the line. Hello to you Steve.
STEVE THORPE: Hi Andy.
ANDY BURROWS: So where are you? What can you see? Continue reading “Free Kicks Foundation – On the Road Again”

The Amtec Contract

This is the original Key Decision where control of the Council was handed over to consultants. It’s the one mentioned by Barnackle Bill on this post.

It’s reproduced here for ease of access, and because the original archive version has major formatting issues which make it mostly unreadable. The original can be found at the following web address:
http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/democracy/decisions/executive_decisions_archive.aspx?apk=1873

It is to be hoped that there can be a constructive discussion about this decision, right here on this page, around exactly what has been agreed, what the effect has been, and whether actual benefits have accrued.  One can but hope.
Continue reading “The Amtec Contract”

Tk-Maxx Jobs – The Final Figure

Tk_Maxx opens today on Bridge Street, at 9pm Thursday 26th May 2011, after being given £750,000 by Peterborough City Council to encourage them to come to Peterborough.
Here are some job forecasts for the store, together with the final figure for jobs created..
Continue reading “Tk-Maxx Jobs – The Final Figure”

Daniel Karlin and Barb Jungr on Bob Dylan at 70 – Nightwaves

22:00 24th May 2011
Nightwaves BBC Radio 3

(MUSIC: DYLAN: BEYOND HERE LIES NOTHIN’)

ANNE MCELVOY:Bob Dylan at three score years and ten. The singer who defined the social changes of the 1960s celebrates his birthday this week, with a spate of new biographies, all trying to unravel the abiding appeal of Dylan’s 50 year career, and his secretive personal life.
As a young man, Dylan bestrode the American music scene, with his mixture of folk and blues-rooted music and poetic lyrics, delivered in that inimitable reedy voice. Like his famous lyric, Dylan has remained a rolling stone, frequently changing his style with, as he defiantly sang, no direction home. That certainly proved true in the last two decades. His Never Ending Tour commenced in June 1988, and Dylan has played roughly 100 dates a year since. Now he’s been rediscovered by the singer Barb Jungr, who’s versions of his classics have won critical plaudits. She joined me earlier from her own slightly shorter tour in Lincoln, and so did Daniel Karlin, Professor of English Literature at Bristol University, who’s an expert on Dylan’s lyrics. I started by asking Daniel what appeal a popular music lyricist held for an English literature expert. Continue reading “Daniel Karlin and Barb Jungr on Bob Dylan at 70 – Nightwaves”

Transformation with V4 Services and Verto in Peterborough

Many will remember that the subject of consultants has been rumbling on here, ever since Cllr Mike Fletcher asked some difficult questions back in January 2010 and later. If this means nothing to you, and you’d like to find out more, here is as good a place as any to start.

If you’d rather have a quick summary, here it is. Peterborough City Council have spent many millions per year on consultants, in order to achieve claimed savings of many more millions. Others dispute the benefits. What follows is one person’s interpretation of the situation.
Continue reading “Transformation with V4 Services and Verto in Peterborough”