The Light Fantastic

08:20 Tuesday 29th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Peterborough is set to become one of the first Gigabit Cities in the country. That’s the promise of the City Council as they prepare to enter into a new agreement with private company CityFibre. They are set to invest £30 million in the project. We’ll get reaction from the City Council in a moment, but first we’re joined on the line by Mark Collins from CityFibre. Mark, morning.
MARK COLLINS: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Gigabit city. Superfast, superfast, it’s all very confusing. What exactly are you offering, and what will we get?
MARK COLLINS: What we deliver Paul is gigabit speeds, that’s a thousand megabits per second, 100 times faster than the UK average, 40 times faster than so-called superfast broadband. We will be delivering that into all of the businesses and all the homes of Peterborough over the next two to five years as we roll that infrastructure out for the benefit of all in the society there.
PAUL STAINTON: Coming down existing networks, yes?
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Soham Solar One Step Closer

17:25 Tuesday 29th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Plans for a solar farm near Soham are one step closer after a meeting today. It happened at Cambridgeshire County Council Cabinet meeting. That meeting again! Ian Bates is the Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, and joins me now. Hello Ian.
IAN BATES: Evening Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Just tell us about this proposal please.
IAN BATES: Well it’s a proposal to bring forward an investment for the County Council on County farmland. And essentially a business plan would have to be put together, and planning would come next year, more towards the Spring of next year, when we would seek planning permission. But essentially what this is is about investment, where we would benefit and put the money back into front line services. So it’s an investment which would benefit the County Council, benefit the taxpayer, and therefore help us towards delivering services on the front line Chris.
CHRIS MANN: You say it would benefit. Don’t you mean it might benefit? Nothing is guaranteed is it?
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Peterborough Solar Farm Setback But A Glimmer Of Hope For North Westgate

07:49 Friday 25th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[D]OTTY MCLEOD: Council plans to build a solar farm on tenants’ farmland in Peterborough have been thrown into doubt, after archeologists discovered a number of artefacts believed to be from the Roman and Saxon eras. The findings were made earlier this week, but have been kept under wraps by the City Council officials. The archeological digs are being undertaken after experts from English Heritage and Cambridge University warned that the three sites being earmarked for the energy project could be riddled with remains. Peterborough City Council archeologists are now conducting tests to find out how old the finds are. Joining me now is Dr Francis Pryor, the man who discovered Flag Fen. Francis, does this surprise you at all?
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Russell Brand With Jeremy Paxman On Newsnight

22:48 Wednesday 23rd October 2013
Newsnight BBC2

[J]EREMY PAXMAN: Now guess who wrote this. “When people talk about politics within the existing Westminster framework, I feel a dull thud in my stomach, and my eyes involuntarily glaze, like when I’m conversing and the subject changes from me and moves on to another topic.” The combination of distaste for mainstream politics and overweening vanity identifies it immediately as the work of Russell Brand, comedian, actor and now it seems, political theorist. For is there no limit to the man’s talents? He’s now guest editor of the venerable left-wing magazine The New Statesman. He wants a revolution he says. Russell Brand, who are you to edit a political magazine?
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German Claims Of NSA Spying A Cause For Concern Ahead Of EU Summit

08:23 Thursday 24th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[D]OTTY MCLEOD: The German Government says it suspects US intelligence agencies may have been spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone calls. It’s absolutely extraordinary. Mrs Merkel spoke to President Obama and asked for an immediate and comprehensive explanation. The language of Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman was strong, saying there needed to be “immediate clarification”, and talking of “a breach of trust”. A White House spokesman Jay Carney told supporters that Mr Obama had assured Mrs Merkel that the US wasn’t listening to her phone calls.
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LibDem MP Supports Progressive Council Tax Reforms

08:21 Wednesday 23rd October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[D]OTTY MCLEOD: Cambridge’s MP is calling for an overhaul of the system of council tax. Julian Huppert says he wants to move from a system that was botched together to one that includes more income and wealth taxation. But how feasible is it to change from a tax system that’s based on property values to something that takes into account how much people earn? Julian joins me now. So Julian, first of all I think we just need to explain how council tax works at the moment. Everyone has to pay it of course, and the amount that you pay depends on what local authority you live in, but also how much your house is worth. That’s right, isn’t it?
JULIAN HUPPERT: That’s roughly right, but only roughly. It’s based on different bands of valuation. But it’s actually based on how much your house was worth in the early 1990s, and that’s why, if you ever look at your bill, you’ll see that it lists your house as being worth £60,000 or something like that maybe, which doesn’t fit very well with what you may have paid for it more recently. So it’s very problematic. It’s also not progressive, because the very very largest house pays only three times more than the very tiniest flat in the whole country.
DOTTY MCLEOD: In terms of the valuations being outdated, surely it doesn’t matter in a system where everything is relative,
surely. It’s not really to do with how much your house is worth, it’s how much it’s worth compared to others in the area. So it doesn’t matter that these are outdated valuations.
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Green Deal Unable To Deliver Energy Efficiency

17:47 Tuesday 22nd October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: A leading Cambridge academic has called for the Government’s Green Deal to be scrapped. Dr Aled Jones, who’s (from) the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University has delivered a speech in the City today. He says the only way to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions is to increase energy efficiency, (and) to bring in legislation. Aled is with me now. Hello.
ALED JONES: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: So explain that for us please.
ALED JONES: Well basically arguing that the Green Deal which is basically a finance package with high interest rates and up front costs isn’t achieving the goal of getting us, householders, consumers to do exactly that, to insulate. So we need to have a radical rethink about the policy, and put in place probably mandatory standards and other things that will encourage us and actually make us do it, while also putting in place other carrots, and helping us to do it.
CHRIS MANN: So what’s wrong with the Green Deal so to speak?
ALED JONES: The main reason people don’t insulate their houses is hassle-factor, so it’s just too difficult for us to do it; we don’t like clearing our lofts; we don’t like moving plants off walls to get solid wall insulation on the outside. And what the Green Deal finance does is offer you a loan. So people are already averse to taking out loans, and it doesn’t really go to the heart of the problem, which is making it an easier process.
CHRIS MANN: Most people can’t afford solar panels on their roof.
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Illuminated Pathway Trialled In Cambridge

16:53 Monday 21st October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS BERROW: The world’s first UV powered pathway has been installed on a historic walkway at Christ’s Pieces in Cambridge. The path, which glows in the dark, is the first of its kind in the entire world. Some people are even calling it the starpath, because it looks like the night sky. Is this the future of night lighting? And have you seen it? You can call us now if you’ve seen it. .. Well I’m joined by the man behind it all. It’s Hamish Scott of Pro-teq Surfacing. Hello Hamish.
HAMISH SCOTT: Hello.
CHRIS BERROW: Good afternoon. So can you just explain how this luminous path works, in really simple terms?
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