Cambridge city centre access – Council seeks to trim disabled parking provision to make room for bike racks

09:09 Thursday 10th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: As I mentioned, we’re talking about disabled parking bays this morning. Are there enough in the County? Or maybe there are too many. Are we getting the balance right? In Cambridge the City Council is considering turning some blue badge bays into cycle parking. Councillors discussed it at a meeting this week, but deferred approving the plans so there could be more time for consideration. Well Labour City councillor Gerri Bird was at the meeting, and opposed the move. Gerri, good morning to you.
GERRI BIRD: Good morning Andie.
ANDIE HARPER: So what was up for discussion precisely Gerri?
Continue reading “Cambridge city centre access – Council seeks to trim disabled parking provision to make room for bike racks”

Alasdair Smith Competition Commission dismisses concerns on Cambridge Picturehouse

17:22 Tuesday 8th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: The fight to save the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge is hotting up. Its supporters are now planning a public meeting. It follows a decision by the Comptitions Commission that the owners of the Picturehouse brand, Cineworld, must sell the cinema in Cambridge. Well joining us from London I have Alasdair Smith, who is Deputy Chair of the Commission, and a Chairman of this enquiry. Hello Alasdair.
ALASDAIR SMITH: Hello.
CHRIS MANN: Thank you for joining us Alasdair, live from your offices. And in the studio with me is Mark Liversidge, who started a petition against the sale. Hello Mark.
MARK LIVERSIDGE: Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: Let’s just bring people up to speed on this Alasdair. Why do you say that this cinema must be sold?
Continue reading “Alasdair Smith Competition Commission dismisses concerns on Cambridge Picturehouse”

Stagecoach willing to manage Cambridge Park And Ride sites

08:08 Tuesday 8th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: We’ll start at the Park and Ride, on the day that councillors in Cambridgeshire discuss proposals to bring in the £1 parking charge. We’re asking, what should we do with the Park and Ride sites? Should it be sold to a private company? The County Council says it costs them over £1 million a year to run the sites, and they need to save money because of spending cuts. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire has been told by workers at the Council that staff are worried about losing their jobs. Currently eight people work at the site. Two years ago there were fifteen. The waiting areas and help desks are often closed. Well earlier in the show, opposition LibDem councillor Susan van de Ven said the Council had rushed their decision making process.
(TAPE)
SUSAN VAN DE VEN: The charging policy is a knee-jerk reaction and the short term solution to something. The Council has continually told us that congestion builds up. That has a huge cost to business, and we need to keep people moving, and Park and Ride figures as the lynch-pin in a multi-modal transport way of getting around.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Cllr van de Ven went on to say that officials need to look at other ways of raising money.
(TAPE)
SUSAN VAN DE VEN: Rural South Cambridgeshire is going to be affected greatly by a parking charge, and many of these people don’t have basic services in their villages, such as post offices and shops. And we know that there’s a large elderly population that depend on getting around by bus. So why not introduce some of those village services to Park and Ride.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: So should the Council sell the sites, privatise them, make some cash and leave it to a private company to run them? Well I’m joined in the studio by Cllr Mac McGuire, who’s the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Highways and Community Infrastructure. Morning.
MAC MCGUIRE: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: And Andy Campbell’s with us as well, the Managing Director of Stagecoach, who currently run the bus services from the five Park and Ride sites. So Andy, can you do a better job at running these sites, do you think?
Continue reading “Stagecoach willing to manage Cambridge Park And Ride sites”

Cambridge City councillors divided over Parker’s Piece art installation

17:22 Monday 7th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Now a question that’s being posed to councils up and down the country right now: how can you justify spending on the arts, and other arguably non-urgent projects, at a time of austerity measures?
Cambridge City Council tomorrow will discuss new proposals for the Football Rules public art project for Parkers Piece. They want four shortlisted artists to be paid one thousand five hundred pounds each to submit ideas. So, is that really money well spent when costs are so critically being examined, services being cut, and jobs are under threat? Well joining me now from the ruling LibDems is Andrea Reiner, Executive Councillor for Public Places. Andrea Hello.
ANDREA REINER: Hello.
CHRIS MANN: And from the opposition Labour Group, Cllr George Owers. Hi George.
GEORGE OWERS: Hi.
CHRIS MANN: So Andrea, just tell us. What is this money going to be spent on, and can you justify it at a time like this?
Continue reading “Cambridge City councillors divided over Parker’s Piece art installation”

Alan Melton Toughing It Out At Fenland DC

08:18 Monday 7th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The Leader of Fenland District Council Alan Melton survived a crucial confidence vote on Friday from within his own party. Councillor Melton had been criticised by some of his Conservative colleagues, with some of them suggesting he’d lost control of the party and the Council. After two hours of tough interrogations, Mr Melton successfully defended himself, and he remains as Leader. And he’s here this morning. Morning.
ALAN MELTON: Good morning. I’m just reminiscing about owning a scooter in the 1950s. (a propos earlier item)
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. You were almost reminiscing about Leader of the Council, weren’t you?
ALAN MELTON: Absolutely. Possibly, yes.
PAUL STAINTON: What have you been doing so wrong? Why have you been upsetting people? What have you been doing?
Continue reading “Alan Melton Toughing It Out At Fenland DC”

A14 Sensors Data Collection And The Internet Of Things

07:12 Friday 4th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Now the A14 will become the first road in Britain to host a new type of wireless technology. A mile long stretch of the road from Felixstowe to Cambridge will be fitted with sensors which will be able to send information directly to drivers. it’s called white space technology, and a Cambridgeshire company called Neul has been picked to work alongside the Department of Transport in trialling it. Tracy Hopkins is from Neul. Morning.
TRACY HOPKINS: Good morning Paul. And good morning to your listeners.
PAUL STAINTON: This is not wi-fi as we would know it, is it? It’s slightly different isn’t it?
TRACY HOPKINS: It’s not wi-fi at all.
PAUL STAINTON: Right.
TRACY HOPKINS: It’s .. white space if you like is the gaps in the spectrum where the analogue television used to live. So it’s totally new and totally different.
PAUL STAINTON: What does it do?
Continue reading “A14 Sensors Data Collection And The Internet Of Things”

TPA Swipe At Council Chiefs

07:07 Friday 4th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Let’s start though with cuts to council budgets, which will impact on all of us, and in particular on front line services going forward. That’s the warning anyway from a union spokesman for Cambridgeshire. Officials from the GMB Union meet today to decide their response to further budget cuts local authorities are going to have to make over the next few years, as their central government grants are reduced yet again. Here’s Richard O’Leary, the GMB’s Regional Officer for Public Services in Cambridgeshire. Earlier he said there are no more efficiencies savings that can be made .
(TAPE)
RICHARD O’LEARY: Since 2010 the cuts in local government have been absolutely savage. By 2015 there’ll be over 500 jobs lost at the current figures in Cambridgeshire. And a billion pound budget will virtually have been cut in half. There literally is no more cuts to make, and the biggest effect in these cuts as well as on local residents are on the staff.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: As I mentioned, Cambridgeshire County Council has to save £159 million over the next five years. They’ve already made 500 people redundant in the last three and a half years, and the Leader of the Council Martin Curtis has warned that hundreds more jobs might have to go. And he says it’s not really his or the authority’s fault.
(TAPE)
MARTIN CURTIS: We have done everything Government asked of us. We’re the fastest growing county in the country. As successive governments have said that they want councils to invest in growth, we’ve done that, and what we feel is we’re being punished. The level of cuts we’ve got to make in the next couple of years, we’re one of the worst affected county councils. And what we’re saying is actually Government need to revisit this. They actually need to revisit the whole scope of funding cuts to councils in general, and think about whether they can find those savings elsewhere.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: So last week it was firefighters. earlier this week it was teachers. Could it be council staff who are the next group of public sector workers to go on strike? Well Richard O’Leary from the GMB didn’t rule it out.
(TAPE)
RICHARD O’LEARY: It’s difficult to say. We hope not. Strikes are always a last resort. I was talking to somebody yesterday and made the point that I think there’s only actually been four days of industrial action in public services in the last 25 years. That’s the purpose of our meeting in London today, to gauge the views of our local government reps, to see what can be done to work with local authorities. But also obviously our primary role is to protect members’ terms and conditions, and services to the public.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Joining me now is Eleanor McGrath from the Taxpayers Alliance. They think councils could still make savings. Eleanor, where?
Continue reading “TPA Swipe At Council Chiefs”

Carolin Göhler From Cambridge Past Present And Future On Development In Cambridge

08:07 Thursday 3rd October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The former leader of Cambridgeshire County Council says Cambridge’s economic success will grind to a halt unless the planning system changes to allow growth and development. It comes a day after City planners rejected a hotel’s application to expand, after a campaign run by residents keen to protect an historic town house next door, not a listed town house, just historic. Nick Clarke, who lost his seat on the County Council in the May elections says a balance between encouraging growth and protecting heritage has to be struck, but that at the moment, the system just isn’t working.
(TAPE)
NICK CLARKE: Nobody wants inappropriate development. But the city needs hotels. The city needs a new rail station, which is going to go ahead. But I’m also aware that the same discussion will take place about the rail station soon. The City Council would like gold plating on it. It’s not for that. It’s about a rail station at the moment. That’s what’s desperately needed. We saw it with Marshalls, and we’ll see it again elsewhere. And you’re right. There’s something about holding a city in aspic, and you can’t do that.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well at the moment there are campaigns ongoing against the expansion of another city centre hotel. There’s also fierce criticism of the building of a Premier Inn and a Travelodge on Coldham’s Lane. Well Shara Ross from the Cambridge Hoteliers’ Association says people don’t realise that it’s all having a negative effect on the city’s future.
(TAPE)
SHARA ROSS: It’s about nimbyism. It’s about people just suddenly taking it upon themselves to protect a property that they’ve never held in any high regard before. And all of a sudden it becomes important to them. And they don’t think of the larger picture, and the growth of the city. And also not only the growth, but the sustainability of the city.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: But it’s not just the development of hotels that is meeting with opposition. Campaigners are also having a go at several planned housing developments. We asked people in Cambridge which is more important, growth or heritage.
(TAPE) (VOXPOP)
PUBLIC ONE: I think expanding’s difficult. It’s already a crowded city, and expanding ten, twenty per cent is (such) a huge amount of expansion, that it seems like it will be hard for the city to manage that many more people.
PUBLIC TWO: I think we have to move with the times, and not be too nimbyist about it, but having said that, there are certain things which should be preserved. I’m thinking particularly of Grantchester Meadows. There was talk in the past of building on that, which I think that would be sacrilege.
PUBLIC THREE: Probably not too much more. With kids, I go to lots of groups. There’s lots of things on for small children, which is an amazing thing about Cambridge. I like to be able to get places really easily, on foot, by bike, so that would be lost if it got much bigger.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well let’s speak to Carolin Göhler. She’s the Chief Executive of Cambridge Past Present and Future, a charity that champions the protection of green open spaces and sustainable development in the city of Cambridge. Morning.
CAROLINE GÖHLER: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Are you holding back the future of Cambridge?
Continue reading “Carolin Göhler From Cambridge Past Present And Future On Development In Cambridge”