New trains to more places from Cambridge and Peterborough

07:20 Friday 10th April 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: I mentioned that we were going to be talking about some very exciting trains, second generation trains. They’re going to be able to carry more passengers. They’re going to be able to travel whatever the weather. And they are on course to hit Cambridgeshire’s railways next year. The trains for Great Northern and Thameslink groups also have improved access for people with disabilities, and will eventually run non-stop services between stations in Cambridgeshire and Brighton, going right across the capital. Roger Perkins is the Head of Communications at Govia Thameslink Railway. So Roger, tell us about these new second generation trains. What’s different about them?
ROGER PERKINS: Good morning, and thanks for having me on. Actually before I go any further I’d just like to say the trains have been put through some amazing testing in a chamber where they’ve been frozen right down, and shown that they still operate. They can work in all conditions. They’re fully climate controlled. They’re much better than the trains we have in service at the moment on Great Northern.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So this should mean no more delays due to snow.
ROGER PERKINS: Well the reason I wanted to pick that up is that clearly trains are still affected by what they’re running on, the track. And if you’ve got track packed up with snow or you’ve got a tree across the line, or a points that won’t allow you to switch from one side to another, or ice, that’s still going to affect the train, because obviously the train needs tracks and power supplies.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So where are we going to get the second generation tracks Roger?
ROGER PERKINS: Well let me tell you about the second generation trains. They’re going to start arriving on the Cambridge route into London next year. Now what’s really exciting is that these trains have been designed to actually run through a new tunnel that’s being built just outside Kings Cross. And it links on to the Bedford to Brighton Thameslink line. And that means from 2018, when London Bridge has been rebuilt and they’ve removed this bottleneck, we’ll be able to take the train that will start to run to Kings Cross to begin with, these new trains will run straight through this tunnel, and go through Faringdon where people will be able to pick up CrossRail to get to Heathrow, and then down to Gatwick, and then on to Brighton as well. And what we’re looking at is 3,000 extra seats from Cambridge into London by 2018.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So what kind of journey time might you be looking at from say Cambridge to Gatwick?
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Cambridge guided busway weekend repairs as faults emerge

08:08 Wednesday 8th April 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Our top story here in Cambridgeshire this morning involves the busway between Histon and Orchard Park. It’s going to be closed this weekend for repairs after busway operators spoke to the Council. Next weekend the section from Addenbrookes’s Hospital to Trumpington will be shut for maintenance. It comes of course six months after a technical report found £31 million worth of defects that would lead to a deterioration in ride quality. At the time the County Council voted to hold the contractor Bam Nuttall responsible. Bob Menzies joins me now, the Service Director for Strategy and Development at Cambridgeshire County Council, and known as Mister guided bus I expect to many people. Bob, what exactly is this work going to fix?
BOB MENZIES: It’s going to fix a number of things. We’ve been monitoring the busway very closely. As a number of people commented there, the ride quality has deteriorated since it opened, and the joints are moving. And that caused a number of different things. And so we will be fixing where the beams have dropped. Your reporter there was talking about an inch drop. There’s actually a rubber pad should be sitting under the beam there, and we find they move out over a period of time. So we monitor that, and when they do move out we go back in and fix them. We’ve fixed a number already. We’ve fixed about twenty already, generally doing it overnight so it doesn’t disrupt the passengers. But what we’ve got through Histon, we’ve got a number of them there. We’ve got some other problems as well. Your reporter talks there about what we call spalling, where the end of the concrete .. because the beams then knock together, it knocks the end of the concrete off. It’s not a structural problem. It’s more of a .. it is a ride quality issue. If it gets too far into the concrete then it will start affecting where the guide wheels run. So we’re fixing that as well, and that takes a little longer. So we’ve taken the decision that actually on the section through Histon we’ll close that for a whole weekend. And then we can work from Saturday morning through to Sunday evening and get it all done and get it back open again. We can divert the buses round, but we do need to shut the maintenance track as well. So if there’s one message I can give people it’s don’t try and cycle down the maintenance track when it’s closed, because there will be machines there. There’ll be men working there. It won’t be safe. And when we’ve done this in the past, we have actually closed this before, people have tried to get through. It’s not safe to do it and it’s not wise to do it.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So you’ve already seen quite a lot of problems, even before carrying out these repairs this weekend. Did you expect to have to do this kind of work, less than four years into the life of the busway?
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Minor party candidates welcome the big debate

09:21 Thursday 2nd April 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

JEREMY SALLIS: This morning we’re asking has the day of two party politics vanished for ever? Is this the election where it really is all to play for, even for every party taking part? Well tonight we’ll see all seven main party leaders from across the UK take part in a live two hour televised debate. It will also be the only time that David Cameron and Ed Miliband go face to face before we go, before you go, to the polls in May. Well joining them on the stage will be party leaders from the Scottish National Party, from UKIP, from Plaid Cymru, from the Green Party and also the Liberal Democrats. Well BBC Assistant Political Editor Norman Smith went as far as predicting tonight’s contest will be a ‘visible symbolic demonstration of the death of two party politics’. .. If you’re thinking will it make any difference to the vote, last time in 2010 similar television debates saw the polls surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg of course. So could tonight’s event have a similar effect on one if not more of the seven candidates taking part? Joining me this morning to discuss this is Darren Bisby-Boyd, who’s the Green Party candidate for Peterborough. A very good morning to you Darren.
DARREN BISBY-BOYD: Good morning.
JEREMY SALLIS: WE also have Mary Herdman, who is the UKIP candidate for Peterborough. Morning to you Mary.
MARY HERDMAN: Good morning.
JEREMY SALLIS: And Sebastian Kindersley, who is the Liberal Democrat candidate for South Cambridgeshire. Morning to you Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN KINDERSLEY: Good morning. How are you?
JEREMY SALLIS: Very good thank you. I think tonight’s debate will be strictly orchestrated, with everyone having their chance to say. I don’t mind as long as you behave yourselves all the microphones being open, so you can pitch in and have your say. But as long as you behave yourselves. First of all, Darren, is this the end of two party politics? There’s a veritable smörgåsbord now for people to choose from.
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Wisbech rail line one step closer

17:41 Wednesday 1st April 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

SAM EDWARDS: It’s been announced that £10.5 million of funding has been unlocked for the Wisbech rail scheme. It was news announced today by the Conservative candidate for North East Cambridgeshire Stephen Barclay, who of course has been the MP for the constituency for the past five years. Wisbech would be reconnected to the national network by restoring the line between the Fenland town and March, in turn linking it with Cambridge, Peterborough and Ely, as well as many other places across the United Kingdom. Chris Burton is the vice-chairman of Railfuture East Anglia.
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Cambs candidates on voting for economic prosperity

09:22 Wednesday 1st April 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL HAWKINS: Are we better off now than we were five years ago? Have things started to head in the right direction for you? This morning, you may have seen it in the Daily Telegraph, hundreds of business leaders in the UK have written an open letter praising the current Conservative-led government for their economic strategy over the last five years. The letter claims the Conservative strategies have in their words ‘supported investment and job creation.’ Some of those who have signed the letter include Dragon’s Den star Duncan Ballantyne along with top bosses from BP Oil, TopShop and Carphone warehouse. Meanwhile, Labour Leader Ed Miliband is expected to launch a tougher stance on zero hours contracts today if he were to be successful in May. Workers on the contracts will be able to demand a regular contract after twelve weeks under Labour’s new proposals. But with all this talk about big business and working contracts, do we really feel any better off? Would you say you were in a better or a worse place five years on from our latest change in government? And with so many different battlegrounds being created in this election already, are you starting to feel overlooked? Let’s speak to Heidi Allen. She’s running for the Conservatives in South Cambridgeshire. Good morning to you Heidi.
HEIDI ALLEN: Good morning.
PAUL HAWKINS: And Ken Rustidge. Good morning to you Ken.
KEN RUSTIDGE: Yes good morning.
PAUL HAWINS: Ken is the Labour candidate for the North East of our county. Let’s start with you Heidi then. This economic recovery, this letter from big business, but are people feeling it? Continue reading “Cambs candidates on voting for economic prosperity”

Shailesh Vara on secret voting and the bid to oust Bercow

17:21 Thursday 26th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The last day of Parliament before the General Election has ended in tears, literally. The Government has botched an attempt to undermine John Bercow as the Commons Speaker, leaving him looking on the verge of crying, and dozens of MPs giving him a standing ovation. One of those who voted with the Government was North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara, who spoke with me afterwards.
(TAPE)
SHAILESH VARA: I voted in favour of having a secret vote, and I take the view that the vote is sacrosanct. And also, on important decisions, people should be able to have the secret ballot. It’s what we do normally when we have vote systems and I’m sorry that we had all the fuss that we’ve had today. But a decision has been taken and there it is. But ..
CHRIS MANN: It was all just a mechanic to try and get rid of John Bercow wasn’t it?
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Tim Wotherspoon on Northstowe Phase II

07:07 Thursday 26th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: It is one of the largest planned new developments in the country. It could become the biggest new town in the country since Milton Keynes. But there’s still a question mark over the future of Northstowe in Cambridgeshire. Councillors met yesterday, but the meeting at South Cambridgeshire District Council was adjourned after more than five hours. Up to 10,000 homes could be built on land between Oakington and Longstanton, just north of the A14. To give you an idea of the size of this planned development, that would be more homes than there are currently in Ely. In a moment we’ll be talking to the councillor in charge of strategic planning at South Cambridgeshire District Council, but first Emma Howgego has been looking back at the history of Northstowe so far.
EMMA HOWGEGO: It was 17 years ago in 1998 that the town of Northstowe was first proposed on the site of Oakington Barracks, which closed down in the mid-1990s. The Government acquired the land and initially turned it into an immigration reception centre, which closed down in 2010. Since then plans to build 10,000 homes and the associated infrastructure have been discussed, debated and adjusted. So where are we now with Northstowe? Well outline planning permission for the north end of the town known as Phase I which includes 1500 homes has already been approved. Clearing work on the site is already underway, and construction work on the infrastructure is due to start on site in the next few weeks. According to the Northstowe website, the first homes will be ready to move into next year. The first primary school opens in September 2016. But that means there are still 8,500 homes that haven’t been given planning permission. That’s where Phase II comes in. This is the big part of the new town, the shops, the town centre, the secondary school and the guided busway extension, along with 3,500 homes. But there is one issue. This stage is reliant on the A14 upgrade going ahead, as Cllr Tim Wotherspoon explained to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire last week.
(TAPE)
TIM WOTHERSPOON: What we’re specifying in the report and you’ll see is the bit between Swavesey and Girton, which is obviously the bit on which Northstowe depends, particularly the new Bar Hill junction. That has to be finished before there are any occupations in Phase II.
(LIVE)
EMMA HOWGEGO: And that is the key point here. Over the years the A14 has been consulted on, approved, then scrapped by the Government, then re-proposed with a toll, the toll was abolished, and it is now at the stage of being consulted on again. And with a General Election just six weeks away, who knows what will happen if a new government comes into power.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Emma Howgego reporting there. Well with me now is Tim Wotherspoon, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet member for Strategic Planning. What happened at this meeting yesterday Tim? Why no decision?
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Cambridge election campaign a closely fought contest

08:16 Thursday 26th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Talking about politics with Paul Rowley there reminds me. I’ve been getting so many leaflets through my door.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes. Me too.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So many political leaflets. Where I live, I live in Cambridge, and I think the most prolific party for political leaflets through my letterbox has been the Labour Party.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Oh really? Mine’s been the Conservatives.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well I think it all depends on who the real race is between …
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes.
DOTTY MCLEOD: .. wherever you are. And in Cambridge a lot of people predicting that it’s going to be a big battle between the LibDems and the Labour Party. So it would make sense to be seeing a lot of red and a lot of yellow through the letterbox. The Labour Party at one point last week, at least one leaflet a day.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Oh! And did you read their leaflets?
DOTTY MCLEOD: Absolutely not.
CLAIRE GREGORY: (LAUGHS).
DOTTY MCLEOD: Absolutely not. And that makes me sound terrible because I know I ought to read them. But if I want objective information on a party’s campaign, and on a party’s manifesto, I’m not going to read their own leaflet. Do you know what I mean?
CLAIRE GREGORY: Plus you are in the rather lovely position where you’ll probably meet a lot of the candidates in the next few weeks. (LAUGHS)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Quite possible. Yes. We had Rupert Read in the studio this morning. Represents the Green Party. I thought about this the other day. Does the practice of leafletting put the Green Party in quite a difficult position?
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes. Actually that’s a good point, because presumably they don’t, because obviously leaflets are not great environmentally.
DOTTY MCLEOD: It would harm the environment.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Perhaps they do e-leaflets instead
DOTTY MCLEOD: But it must be detrimental to them. Interesting. Have you been getting loads of stuff through the letterbox? Is it just me? I came back from holiday and it was like getting through a tsunami, trying to get from the door through to the living room. So let me know. Who has been leafletting you the most, and tell me where you live in Cambridgeshire as well, so that we can try and work out what that means.

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