Cambridge University Eco Racing Darwin To Adelaide

17:51 Wednesday 18th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: A group of Cambridge students are racing a solar powered car three thousand kilometres across the Australian outback. They expect the race from Darwin to Adelaide will take about a week. They’re competing against thirty seven other teams from around the world. Their project aims to pioneer new energy efficient transport for the future. Team leader Keno Mario-Ghae joined me earlier, from Darwin, with an update. (TAPE)
KENO MARIO-GHAE: We’ve got our car, and it’s literally just arrived at our workshop in Darwin. And we’re preparing our car for the World Solar Challenge a bit over two weeks away. Literally just preparing the car to go to do some testing, and then the race itself. The race is quite a huge challenge. It’s a three thousand kilometre solar powered marathon across the outback of Australia. That’s just under two thousand miles. And the challenge is, can you do it powered only by the sun. It starts in Darwin in the North of Australia, and it’s straight back to Adelaide in the South. And it’s who gets there first wins.
CHRIS MANN: Solar powered, the car is, and it’s helpful presumably that Darwin is roasting hot at the moment.
KENO MARIO-GHAE: Yes. Darwin is roasting hot. It is literally thirty one degrees in the shade, and there’s not a single cloud in the sky. So it’s perfect conditions for solar car racing. Our solar powered car is ready to roll.
CHRIS MANN: Tell us actually how it works. What’s the mechanics of it? Continue reading “Cambridge University Eco Racing Darwin To Adelaide”

Norman Lamb – Minister On A Mission

17:23 Tuesday 17th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Liberal Democrats at their annual conference have voted for tougher powers to crack down on poor quality care homes. Delegates in Glasgow say the watchdog The Care Quality Commission should be cracking down on care home owners if standards aren’t good enough. They’re also demanding better training and pay for care workers who visit people at home, and more time to do their jobs. The Care Minister is Norman Lamb, the MP for North Norfolk, and he joined me earlier.
(TAPE)
NORMAN LAMB: We’re acutely aware that there are too many examples of care falling down. I had an elderly constituent recently, a lady who talked to me about different care workers turning up every day, male care workers who she’s never seen before coming to shower her. Now this is an assault on your dignity. That’s not acceptable to me. She also talked about care workers turning up with just one day of training, people giving her the wrong medication, and on one evening no-one turning up at all, so she was left stranded in her chair through the night. Now we have to confront these unacceptable standards of care.
CHRIS MANN: Who’s to blame for this? And how do you fix it? Continue reading “Norman Lamb – Minister On A Mission”

Oral History Project – United States Air Force In The East Of England

08:26 Monday 16th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: It was nicknamed the “friendly invasion”, the time when American airmen, kitted out with flying googles and leather caps and an air of glamour, landed at air bases in Britain and flew missions over Nazi Germany during World War 2. They flew out of Bassingbourn of course, Kimbolton, Steeple Morden, Bottisham and many many more airfields across Cambridgeshire. Now a heritage project is being given more than half a million pounds, to gather people’s memories of those old bases, and the stories they hold. Nick Patrick is the project leader of the 8th In The East project. Nick, morning.
NICK PATRICK: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Now Cambridgeshire of course is literally carpeted in old airfields. Why is this called the 8th In The East project? Continue reading “Oral History Project – United States Air Force In The East Of England”

Labour Lord Hunt On Monitor’s Rescue Plan For Peterborough City Hospital

08:18 Friday 13th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: More efficiency savings and better use of all the Hospital’s resources will help dig Peterborough City Hospital out of the financial soup. That’s according to officials from the health service regulator Monitor, who laid out their plan to sort out the Hospital’s money worries yesterday. David Bennett is the CEO of Monitor. He says they have faith in the measures they’re about to put in place. (TAPE)
DAVID BENNETT: We are the ones who are going to have to explain to the Department of Health why it is they’re going to have to continue to provide for maybe thirty years a continuing subsidy. So it’s essential that we can reassure ourselves and the Department everything has been done that can reasonably be done to minimise the amount of that subsidy. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well the Trust running the Hospital currently suffers from a yearly deficit of course of nearly £40 million. The difficulties started with the infamous signing of the Private Finance Initiative to get the money to actually build the Hospital, money that needs to be paid back of course, over this incredible thirty one years. Now under the terms of the recovery plan, parts of the Hospital may have to be leased out to private providers, to help plug the financial gap. Lord Hunt is Labour’s Deputy Leader at the Lords, and their Spokesman on the NHS. Morning.
LORD HUNT: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: How much do you think Labour’s PFI policy had to do with the troubles that we’re in in Peterborough now? Continue reading “Labour Lord Hunt On Monitor’s Rescue Plan For Peterborough City Hospital”

Nick Clegg Pragmatic On Electoral Support Kingmaker In Waiting

07:40 Friday 13th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The Liberal Democrat Conference this weekend in Glasgow, and one of their peers has suggested they should ditch Nick Clegg before the 2015 General Election, warning that the contest could be disastrous for the Party unless it cuts its ties with the Conservatives months before going to the polls. Lord Oakeshott said Mr Clegg’s personal poll ratings were very poor, and the Party would have to think about whether it would do better under another leader. And there are all sorts of headlines in the newspapers this morning. In the Sun, “Clegg’s Gone to The Dogs”. Only 21% think LibDems are trustworthy, down from 24%. The LibDems according to the latest poll in 4th place behind UKIP. Overall support for the Liberals five points behind UKIP now to 8%. And Lord Oakeshott’s remarks as well, saying perhaps we should think about ditching the Party Leader. Well I’m pleased to say the LibDem Party Conference, as I mentioned, beginning in Glasgow, and I’m joined by the Leader Nick Clegg this morning, and Deputy Prime Minister. Morning Nick.
NICK CLEGG: Morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Are you the man to lead the LibDems to the next election?
Continue reading “Nick Clegg Pragmatic On Electoral Support Kingmaker In Waiting”

Green Condemnation Of NHS Contracts With Private Health Care Consortia

17:15 Friday 13th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: The Leader of the Green Party has launched a fierce attack on the private health companies bidding to run elderly care services in Cambridgeshire. Four firms, Capita, Serco, United Health and Virgin Healthcare have been shortlisted for the £800 million contract. Natalie Bennett told the Green’s Annual Conference in Brighton the Party opposed what she calls corporate bloodsuckers and jewel thieves, making profits from the NHS. (TAPE)
Continue reading “Green Condemnation Of NHS Contracts With Private Health Care Consortia”

An Industry Response To Gove’s Call For Transparency In The Care Of Looked After Children

17:08 Friday 13th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: We start the programme with a question. Just what is going on inside our care homes, and are the children safe from harm? I ask the questions because of the extraordinary accusation from the man in charge of the nation’s education that he faced a wall of silence when he tried to get information about care homes. The Education Secretary Michael Gove has attacked official regulations, which he says prevent the authorities from stepping in to protect vulnerable children in care homes from abuse. Mr Gove says data protection laws have left the police and the government departments unable to help children at risk, exposing them to the threat of paedophile gangs. Here’s the BBC’s Michael Buchanan. (TAPE)
MICHAEL BUCHANAN: Michael Gove will publish comprehensive data on the location, ownership and quality of England’s seventeen hundred children’s care homes. The figures seen by the Daily Telegraph show that the majority of homes are in high crime areas, and that nearly 30% of them fail to meet the Government’s minimum quality standard. Writing in the paper, Mr Gove also says that almost half of children are sent to homes outside their local area. He’s vowed to bring transparency and accountability to the system, and put an end to what he calls an out of sight, out of mind culture. (LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: Well the Independent Children’s Care Homes Association represents almost 80% of homes in this country. It’s Chief Executive is Jonathan Stanley, who’s based here in Cambridgeshire. I put Mr Gove’s concerns to him earlier.
Continue reading “An Industry Response To Gove’s Call For Transparency In The Care Of Looked After Children”

Cambridgeshire Rail Links Improvement Campaigns

08:08 Friday 13th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: We can’t afford not to invest in more rail links for Cambridgeshire. That’s the line from the head of a campaign group that’s pressing the authorities to get moving with plans for a new line between Cambridge and Bedford. That line could run parallel with the A428, and it will stop at places like St Neots and Alconbury, if it ever gets built. Peter Wakefield is from East Anglia Rail Futures. He says with growing populations and a growing economy, we need more infrastructure too. (TAPE)
PETER WAKEFIELD: Something’s got to be done. As our population of new townships is developed etcetera, the road simply will not be able to cope. We’re paying £1.5 billion for fifteen miles of new A14, which I suggest is a lot more expensive per mile than the infamous High Speed 2. If we can afford that kind of money we can afford smaller schemes, like a new railway between Bedford and Cambridge, or Wisbech and March. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well that line Peter mentioned just at the end is the much fought over Bramley Line between Wisbech and March of course. Earlier this year 4,000 people signed a petition in favour of it being reopened. So should we even be thinking of a line from Cambridge to Bedford before we sort out some transport for the Fens, poorly served Fens it has to be said. .. Patrick O’Sullivan is a consultant for the East West Rail Consortium. Patrick, morning.
PATRICK O’SULLIVAN: Morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Is that line going to happen, do you think?
Continue reading “Cambridgeshire Rail Links Improvement Campaigns”