Category: Peterborough

Peterborough City Centre – Halting The Retail Decline

07:20 Thursday 23rd January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Peterborough’s MP Stewart Jackson is stepping up his campaign to stop any more bookmakers opening up in the city centre. It’s not just the bookies he wants to block. Pawnbrokers and payday loan shops are also on the list. Mr Jackson’s campaign comes after we revealed in August that there were nearly 100 betting shops in the county, and one bookmaker had five outlets in the centre of Peterborough alone. And in fact, if you go down Broadway, most people nickname it bookie alley. Well Stewart Jackson is on the line now. Stewart, morning.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: This is something you’ve been campaigning about for a good few months now. Are you getting anywhere?
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A National Health Service Out To Tender

08:27 Wednesday 15th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: New figures obtained by the BBC show that since April last year more than 70% of all contracts for NHS services in England have been awarded to private companies. Reforms to the health service mean that any qualified provider can compete to provide clinical NHS services. Campaigners say though, care is being transferred away from the NHS into the hands of commercially driven providers. .. Since April last year, more than £5 billion worth of contracts have been advertised. They include diagnostic services like scans and blood tests, mental health and GP services. Paul Evans is the Director of the pressure group The NHS Support Federation. He says the big question is whether all this is actually better for the patient.
(TAPE)
PAUL EVANS: We’ve already seen from those contracts where GP out-of-hours contracts have been organised by private providers, that they haven’t put enough staff in place. And that’s caused tragic consequences for some patients.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well this is particularly relevant in Cambridgeshire of course. Five organisations have thrown their hats into the ring for a billion pound contract to run health care for the elderly in the county, the largest outsourcing contract in NHS history, and we await with bated breath to see who wins that.

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Peterborough Learning Disability Day Service Staff Withdrawal Decision During Consultation On Closure

08:21 Thursday 9th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The Bigger Breakfast Show has been told of concern by users that the Learning Disability Day Service at the Gloucester Centre in Peterborough is set to close. It’s funded by Peterborough City Council, which is currently consulting about changes to day services for 18-65 year olds with learning or physical disabilities, but the service is run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, which has already decided to withdraw its staff at the end of March. Well Lorna Payne is Director of Service Integration at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust. Lorna, morning.
LORNA PAYNE: Good morning Paul. Thanks for having me on this morning.
PAUL STAINTON: That’s fine. Why are you withdrawing your staff when we don’t know definitely if it’s closed or not?
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Stewart Jackson On ID Cards And Electoral Fraud

17:22 Wednesday 8th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Peterborough has been named one of the worst places in the UK for electoral fraud. The city has had a checkered history, with a former Mayor amongst those jailed for vote-rigging. So the solution is all voters should be required to show proof of identity, when they turn up at a polling station, before they can cast their vote. That’s according to the Electoral Commission, who’ve just carried out a report. Tom Hawthorn is the author. I spoke to him earlier.
(TAPE)
TOM HAWTHORN: We’ve carried out this report because every year voters tell us that they’re concerned about electoral fraud. I should just reassure your listeners that we don’t have evidence that electoral fraud is widespread across the UK. But we have identified a particular vulnerability that we do think needs to be addressed. So we’re recommending that voters in future should have to show some form of identification when they vote at a polling station.
CHRIS MANN: Now what are you basing this on?
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David Campbell Bannerman On Immigration Controls

11:38 Thursday 2nd January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: Our question that we’ve been posing to you this morning is, is it racist to have misgivings, if no more than that, about the possible influx of Romanian and Bulgarian workers into this country, now that restrictions have been lifted. In some quarters, people’s criticism has been described as racism. Let’s talk shall we to David Campbell Bannerman, formerly a member of UKIP, but now the Conservative MEP for the Eastern Region. He’s on a train, but hopefully we’ll be able to have a conversation with him. David, good morning to you. Good morning David.
DAVID CAMPBELL BANNERMAN: Hi Andie. Happy New Year.
ANDIE HARPER: Yes. Happy New Year to you David. Now do you think it’s fair to describe people who do have some objections, some misgivings about this possible influx of Bulgarians and Romanians, is it fair to call them racist?
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Stewart Jackson – PMQ – Peterborough’s University Technical College

12:15 Wednesday 18th December 2013
BBC Two
Daily Politics

MR SPEAKER: Mr Stewart Jackson.
HOUSE: Hear hear.
STEWART JACKSON: Unemployment in the Peterborough constituency stands at 5.5%, the lowest since the financial crisis, and there are 1,180 fewer JSA claimants than a year ago. However there are too many young people who are jobless and lacking work skills. So will the Prime Minister give an early Christmas present to Peterborough people, by giving his personal support for our bid for a University Technical College to be decided in the New Year?
DAVID CAMERON: I know that my Right Honorable Friend the Education Secretary will look closely at the proposal for a University Technical College. They are working well. I think it’s a very good innovation in our education system. But the news on youth unemployment is better, 19,000 down this quarter, and the claimant count as well falling. But there’s a lot more work to do, and I think we should particularly look at the Work Experience Programmes, which seem to have one of the best records at reducing youth unemployment, and see what we can do to encourage companies and businesses to get involved in this Work Experience Programme.

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Peterborough Solar And Wind Option Backed By Council Committee

06:50 Tuesday 17th December 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Peterborough City Council’s Scrutiny Committee has voted to ask the Cabinet in Peterborough to halt plans for the very contentious solar energy park on farmland North of the City. It happened at a meeting last night at the Town Hall, where the Committee discussed a detailed report into the park, which is to be sited on land in the Newborough and Thorney area. It was Cllr Dale McKean who asked the Committee to look again at the issue. Dale’s here this morning. Dale, morning.
DALE MCKEAN: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Now, very contentious. We had the big debate about the whole thing last week, which was very heated, very spiky. Was it spiky last night? Was it heated last night?
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The Newborough And Thorney Solar Debate

19:00 on Friday 13th December 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: So tonight (Thursday 12th December 2013) we bring everybody together that’s got something relevant to say about one of the biggest issues that I’ve ever known in Peterborough, in the 25 years I’ve lived in and around the city, the grand Newborough and Thorney solar debate. We also bring together two people who have played out a bit of a debate in public as well. The MP for Peterborough, Stewart Jackson, and the Leader of the Council, Marco Cereste. The key facts: the debate is about 900 acres of farmland North of Peterborough (East), described as good quality land, most of it around Newborough Thorney and Eye, fields that are used to farm crops to feed what is an ever-growing, as well known, population. But cover it in solar panels is the plan, and some wind turbine,. and you have, according to the Leader of the City Council, an income that will protect front line services. It will mean the people of Peterborough will have more, pay less, at a time when the Government has put the squeeze on local councils. Well tonight we’ll look at the wider issues, around the financial challenges of the Council, around the potential black hole in five years time in their finances, and how do we balance farm land, green energy, sustainability and the future of our children. We begin though with the two men who have been it’s fair to say I think right at the heart of the debate. We’ll start with Leader of the Council Marco Cereste. Marco, good evening. And just explain your position if you would.
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