Category: Peterborough

David Sanders – costly errors and accountability at Peterborough City Council

09:23 Wednesday 25th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Today marks the end. It’s a momentous day, the end of Peterborough City Council’s solar dreams. Let’s call it that. The plan to use Grade I farming land to build a big green energy park, or a series of them. At today’s Cabinet meeting, which is underway right now, the Council will confirm they’re dropping plans for the third and final site on America Farm, the last strand of this three-pronged dream. It means all three plans are now dead in the water. But the whole venture has cost the taxpayer, you and me and everybody else, over £3 million. And not a penny’s coming back from it. The original proposal from the Council claimed the project could make millions of pounds, but the project was constantly hindered by objections from locals, reductions in the tariff from the Government, and the fact the land is right next to Flag Fen, so it needed to be excavated. Councillor David Sanders is the councillor for Thorney and Eye, and he’s with us this morning. David, morning. David morning.
DAVID SANDERS: Good morning. Can you hear me OK?
PAUL STAINTON: Yes I’ve got you now. I’ve got you now.
DAVID SANDERS: OK.
PAUL STAINTON: Now this was at one time billed as the Leader Marco Cereste’s vanity project by Stewart Jackson MP and others. There were accusations farmers weren’t listened to. I was still doing Breakfast at the time when it was first mooted. I had a lady in here crying, who’d lived on a farm for many many years, saying they’d not been consulted. Was this just a bad idea from the start? Was it a good idea that was badly managed? Or was it just a punt?
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Council admits that a costly solar energy scheme has failed

07:07 Wednesday 25th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The final chapter in Peterborough’s controversial solar farm saga is set to be written today after three years and a cost of over £3 million to the taxpayer. The proposed scheme for America Farm will join those for Newborough Farm and Morris Fen in the City Council’s history books, after being judged financially unviable. later on the Council is expected to accept proposals to drop plans for thousands of solar panels at America Farm. Sara Varey has been looking back on the solar saga.
SARA VAREY: The opening line as delivered by Council Leader Marco Cereste in October 2012 promised an annual income of £7.5 million for the next twenty five years, to be achieved through the Government’s generous feed-in tariff scheme, that offers cashbacks for generating green energy. Three Council owned plots were identified, America Farm, Morris Fen and Newborough Farm. The tenant farmers clamoured their families’ futures were in jeopardy. John Harris voiced his feelings during the debate here on Radio Cambridgeshire in December 2013.
JOHN HARRIS: It’s just absolutely devastating for the countryside and obviously for myself and my family. We’ve not had a good night’s sleep since this plan came to fruition.
SARA VAREY: Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson took on the role of clairvoyant.
STEWART JACKSON: Based on the predictions in this business plan, if the funding regime for subsidies changed drastically, that will leave Peterborough City Council taxpayers on the hook very significantly for this project.
SARA VAREY: And so it has come to pass. The Government’s enthusiasm for subsidising renewable energy has waned. In October 2014 Morris Fen and Newborough were written out of the script as financially unsustainable, and the show is now over for America Farm too. But the audience is still waiting for the punchline. How much has it all cost? Newborough resident Alex Terry says it’s time for the big reveal.
ALEX TERRY: You should release the financial data. You’re earning money to save the people of Peterborough you say. So prove it. (APPLAUSE)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Local resident of Newborough there Alex Terry finishing that report from Sara Varey. We did ask Peterborough City Council to come on this morning for a chat. They’ve sent us this statement instead. It reads: “The decision to withdraw plans for the two largest sites followed a Government announcement that it was withdrawing support from large-scale solar projects. America Farm was the scheme’s smallest site. Cabinet will this morning consider a recommendation to cease this project. This is because DECC the Department of Energy and Climate Change is set to significantly reduce the level of feed-in tariff payments to ground-mounted solar by around 80% in the New Year.” Well Dale McKean will talk to us. He was the Conservative councillor for the Eye and Thorney ward when plans were first put forward for these schemes three years ago, and he also sat on the Rural Scrutiny Committee at Peterborough City Council. Morning Dale.
DALE MCKEAN: Good morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Now did you realise .. did you realise when these schemes were mooted three years ago that these feed-in tariffs might drop off? Did you consider that as a possibility?
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Council may delay debt repayment to avoid cuts

17:42 Tuesday 17th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: It’s particularly challenging for councils this year, because of a big cut in the amount of money they get from central government. And it is the time of year when our councils reveal how they’re going to balance their books in next year’s budget. Today it was the turn of Peterborough council, Peterborough City Council, who need to save £19.5 million next year. Our political reporter Hannah Olsson has been looking over the proposals and joins me now. Hannah, this is just phase one of these proposals.
HANNAH OLSSON: Yes good evening Chris. Today the Council announced its first round of plans, which total just over £12 million in savings. We’ll hear about the rest in the new year, after they’ve found out exactly how much they’ll be getting from central government. I use the word savings rather than cuts, because Peterborough City Council believes it can achieve this first round of savings without any reduction in services. This is of course in stark contrast to Cambridgeshire County Council, who told us a couple of weeks ago they would have to make significant cuts to their services in order to balance the books.
CHRIS MANN: So where are they finding £12 million from?
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Stewart Jackson on HMRC restructuring

17:09 Thursday 12th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Over 400 jobs are to go at the tax offices in Cambridge and Peterborough, as part of a restructuring for HMRC. The tax authority is planning to close 137 offices across the UK and replace them with 13 regional centres. In a moment we’ll get reaction from the union which represents HMRC workers in this region (see note), but first of all let’s bring in the Conservative MP for Peterborough, Stewart Jackson. Hello to you Stewart.
STEWART JACKSON: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Another jobs blow. Your reaction to this, which of course coming from your own government.
STEWART JACKSON: Well naturally I’m very sympathetic and sorry for the staff who are going to lose their jobs, or at least lose the location of their jobs. I know that some will take voluntary redundancy, and some will choose to commute to London. But it is a blow, particularly before Christmas, and not good for the city, because these are very good high quality white collar jobs, and I’m very disappointed. And I do think that we need to work together, the regeneration agency, the Jobcentre, the City Council and local MPs, to work with Ministers to make sure that the number of compulsory redundancies is an absolute minimum.
CHRIS MANN: It’s going to happen over four years, a big shake-up of the tax system. Does it need that?
STEWART JACKSON: Well I do think it needs a bigger focus on customer-fronted services. The complaints I consistently get are about the lack of responsiveness and customer care from HMRC. It has improved over the years, but it needs to do better, particularly for businesses and individual taxpayers. I think there’s still a problem. Having said that, I want to see the detail, because I’m not entirely convinced that if you’re running a business in Peterborough, that you really ought to be dealing with a regional centre in east London. And I want to see the details. But in the first instance, my job is to try and make sure that this process is handled sensitively and that there are jobs for people that want to continue to work for HMRC.
CHRIS MANN: Yes because the Government spoke about empowering people in the regions, and moving power away from the centre. And yet the tax is at the centre of all of our society isn’t it, and this is being moved to East Stratford of all places. That would be the centre for the whole Eastern Region. Seems odd.
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Syrian airstrike approval unlikely

08:28 Tuesday 3rd November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: There are signs that David Cameron could abandon plans to hold a vote in Parliament on whether to authorise British sir strikes in Syria. Downing Street is insisting no decisions have yet been taken. I’m joined by our Political Correspondent Paul Rowley. Is it going to happen Paul? Is there going to be a vote?
PAUL ROWLEY: I doubt it Dotty, and I’ve doubted it for some time, having spoken to MPs from all parties. Frankly David Cameron doesn’t have the numbers. Despite winning the election, the Conservatives have a slender majority in the Commons of just a dozen, and on my reckoning there are between 20 and 30 Tories who won ‘t support the Prime Minister on this. And with Labour now being led by Jeremy Corbyn who remains a prominent anti-war campaigner, and with the party having been scarred by military action in both Iraq and Afghanistan when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, crudely there isn’t the appetite to take part in what could well be a risky bloody long drawn out conflict.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And is there any chance of that situation changing?
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Ansar Ali on diversity and community cohesion

09:23 Wednesday 7th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Theresa May causing a bit of a stir yesterday, saying that high migration had made a cohesive society impossible in this country. She made that speech at the Conservative Party conference yesterday. Is she right? Net migration into the UK currently stands at a record high of course. 330,000 in the year to March came here. Some will say the increase in population puts a strain on services, causes fractures in society. Others that immigration has helped improve our economy and given us a wider cultural understanding. So we’re asking this morning do we all rub along together very nicely? Is Theresa May wrong, and do her comments inflame the situation? Are her comments more damaging to society than any one of us? Let’s speak to Ansar Ali. He’s a member of the Muslim community in Peterborough of course. Ansar, good morning.
ANSAR ALI: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Is she making things worse?
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Labour’s first conference under Corbyn

07:41 Monday 28th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Labour’s annual conference is underway in Brighton. It’s something the moon was clearly aware of, because it turned red for the occasion. It is of course the first conference of the party under its new Leader Jeremy Corbyn. The fellow left winger John McDonnell makes his first speech as Shadow Chancellor this lunchtime, but the party has avoided a clash over nuclear weapons, with an expected debate on Trident not now going ahead. I’m joined from Brighton now by our political correspondent Paul Rowley, who has been to more party conferences than you’ve had hot dinners. Morning Paul.
PAUL ROWLEY: Good morning. Before you were born Dotty I have to tell you. It’s my thirty sixth year of covering party conferences. I was very young though when I started.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So how significant is this one?
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Urban agriculture for Peterborough

07:55 Thursday 24th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A new type of map has been designed for Peterborough to show you unusual areas where you could grow your own food. This project was part of the Harvest Festival which took place this weekend, saw thousands of people eating local produce in the city for free. My producer Kerry Devine went along to meet Mikey Tomkins, who’s designed the ‘edible city map‘.
MIKEY TOMKINS: I’ve worked from Stanley Rec over to the station, and over the river down to the Green Backyard, and along I think what used to be the old railway station at the Embankment here, which is now derelict where B&Q used to be.
KERRY DEVINE: OK. Let’s have a look at this map then. So you’ve actually drawn out a map. It looks very colourful, lots of pinks and greens. So I take it that the blue is the industry?
MIKEY TOMKINS: The blue are all the rooftop spaces for Peterborough. And I think what Peterborough could do, I think if any entrepreneurs are listening to this, there’s some very big rooftop spaces above Queensgate, top storey of car parks, the Market car parks. And coming down to towards the river there’s lots and lots and lots of open rooftop spaces. And what we found over the last few years say in North America is entrepreneurs renting out rooftop spaces and putting up big greenhouses, and producing food right above restaurants and shops and supermarkets.
KERRY DEVINE: Do you think Peterborough is missing a trick here?
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